[tybrad]

Yes, I am appalled by those stats- are these numbers different than they were in the 70's, or just more examined now? If they are no different, what's the fuss about- the realization and publication that we are a society rife with dummies? We proceeded through three decades since; there are still trailer-types, there are still techies, still professionals, still leaders, still followers, still servers, still fixers. What does it all mean?

But are all curricula in all districts across the country aligned to these standards? Are there teachers strongarmed into teaching out of their content areas? I am still going to maintain that factual recitation is not relevant in a pre- or teen's life if they are not academically slanted. In the end, education is a white man's game as far as many inner city kids are concerned when they are just trying to survive, fend off a family member for one reason or another, or just trying to stay alive. They will not care about the connection between the Yalta Conference and Acts of Congress. They will not care about poetry, and so on. So what do we do? As I mentioned already, non academic offerings, for one. I am just sick and tired of this "everyone can do anything" attitude nowadays and it sets up students to feel more failure if they are not meeting the standard of success that is set upon them. Minimum standards? OK... what will they be? Who will ascribe them? Parental guidance is one thing, parental pressure to have their Level 4 special ed. student in an inclusion class without thinking about all of the peripheral assistance needed is another entirely. This wheel is broken and nobody has a clue as to what to do.

Some of the initiatives that you wrote about do come from teacher training at university but by far the most I've encountered are from the monthly faculty meetings where every other one has a staff development component that introduces or makes data analysis of the latest inane idea in either teaching or data reporting into the server or for public consumption. I'm not opposed to new, reasonable implementation if something else is removed- too much of a pile-on with no more pay or say.

The cynical side of me says that they are ideas and commercial programs sold to the County and pressed upon the on-site administrators as the best tool EVER, and we certainly don't want to be seen as not "modern". I've seen it too many times... the last stupid, redundant, time waster around here was labeled AIM (I don't even remember what the acronym stood for) and was put upon the upper administration in the County and implementation was tried, but failed on teacher rebuff. Funny thing is that it was authored by a current employee in the County. Can you lip-sync and dance to "conflict of interest", "shenanigans", and "inside job"? Smooth and successful education won't work when this sort of horseshit is going on.

Too many adult motivations that do not serve in education for education's sake! But I don't know of any alternatives other than to possibly make retired teachers never left the classroom right up to retirement as the decision makers. I do have some proposals though that won't make a damn bit of difference because as an in-the-trenches educator, I CAN'T know what's best- that is loud and clear. I am puzzled as to why teachers are hired at all if we are not to be trusted, as a group. Isn't AI available yet to do this job?

1. Teacher employment status based on merit, not tenure. In our County, poor teachers can be released from particular schools, but remain in the employ of the County so the problem just gets moved around.

2. Remove tenure- it is needed at research universities where it was instituted, but not in K-12.

3. Make financial incentives for achievement "above and beyond"... whatever that is determined to be.

4. Do away with scheduled observations and move to pop classroom observations- 3 or 4/yr in different class periods to get a sensible cross section of what the instructor is doing, and how effectively and consistently they are doing it. Do it on the classtime merits alone and without preconceived notions on what "should occur"- if I have an observation that does not end with a "proper" summarization, I will hear about it in the post-obs. conference. It is not appropriate for every class context, but admins have their checklists that don't look at the lesson as a unique thing with unique personalities and unique dynamics. Consequently, those scheduled lessons are polished for the sole purpose of getting everything checked-off. I thought planned inspections in corporate and retail were stupid when I was in it, and they are stupid in education as well.

5. Have some sort of auditing system in place that removes personality, evaluator motivations, and is supportive, not retributive. I don't know what else to say here... i am not minded that way.

These are off the top of my head and I am under no illusion that there is an easy fix. Hell, I do not even believe that there will EVER be a fix for it and all of this mucking around just sours everyone inside and outside the institution. There must be more options for students, not fewer, and offload the social stuff for the agencies trained for that sort of thing. NEVER will happen in my lifetime- there are too many tendrils from bureaucrats, commercial interests, lawyers, and Gov't agencies to unravel and remove.

Our discussion here has forced me to sharpen my thinking about some things, and re-evaluate what I thought I knew and I am grateful for that, Flac!

Tyler