tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25541994.post1798368325371625717..comments2024-03-26T14:44:37.985-04:00Comments on D-Ed Reckoning: Report Issued, Promptly IgnoredKDeRosahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06853211164976890091noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25541994.post-35327268060019358172006-12-18T18:12:00.000-05:002006-12-18T18:12:00.000-05:00Actually the teacher pay thing isn't such a bad id...Actually the teacher pay thing isn't such a bad idea.<br /><br />Full disclosure: I am planning on becoming a teacher after I retire from the Air Force.<br /><br />If you support it, I promise to never ever assign a silly "art project", cut down on useless homework, and to submit to a results based pay scale.<br /><br />Seriously, this thing is as dead as the plan to convert the U.S. to the metric system.TurbineGuyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09781298806992944235noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25541994.post-4260637400246397702006-12-15T16:45:00.000-05:002006-12-15T16:45:00.000-05:00Parental opinion about the education system doesn’...Parental opinion about the education system doesn’t necessary correlate with the report’s recommendations, which is really, very intriguing. Believe it or not, most parents think their child will have the skills to succeed -- even if many business leaders believe they're wrong. When it comes to math and science, American parents are actually less concerned than they were a decade ago. And when it comes to teachers, while the report recommends raising wages, our research shows that they are dissatisfied other issues. Feel free to go to http://www.publicagenda.org/headlines/headlines_blog.cfm for more.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25541994.post-84743975433458209762006-12-15T15:28:00.000-05:002006-12-15T15:28:00.000-05:00Today, we can fire administrators for poor perform...<i>Today, we can fire administrators for poor performance, so what's the diff?</i><br /><br />I assume you mean the educational performance of the district or the part of the district the administrator is responsible for. <br /><br />From what I've been able to observe the firing of a school superintendent has much more in common with the use of a sacrificial lamb then it does with the pursuit of educational excellence. If performance were an important consideration there'd be measurable and attainable metrics to gauge the competence of the superintendent. I've never heard of any school district, big or little, tying the superintendent's tenure to some negotiated improvement in the schools.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17738940152572688845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25541994.post-81246207998867698132006-12-15T15:22:00.000-05:002006-12-15T15:22:00.000-05:00This thing seems to be DOA on so many levels. They...This thing seems to be DOA on so many levels. They want to substitute the current belief system underpinning education with their own belief system - neither side seems interested in putting proof on the table, and it's hard to make a case for change without it. And politically they'll never build the momentum to fundamentally restructure this $500 billion system. <br /><br />That may be why they released it the way they did - 10 days before Christmas, nothing online beyond an executive summary, and - get this - actually charging people to read the complete report. If they wanted to build a groundswell, this was not the way to kick it off.Brett Pawlowskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12975091738110736912noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25541994.post-70401125027280736922006-12-15T09:11:00.000-05:002006-12-15T09:11:00.000-05:00"Districts, they said, should relinquish control t..."Districts, they said, should relinquish control to the most highly qualified contractors, who would be rewarded for successfully running schools -- or fired if student performance languishes."<br /><br />Who gets to decide success or failure? I bet they're not talking about the parents. School choice is no guarantee of success. I've seen some very strange charter schools, but that's because the our state strictly controls the "charter". You can't set up a charter school that sets high expectations. The monopoly will not allow the good kids to leave.<br /><br />The big question is whether you can force anything more that minor changes on a monopoly. I don't think so. Full parental choice is no guarantee, but it's the only way.<br /><br />I'll have a better idea of these forces when (because of parental input) my son's private school selects a new math curriculum to replace Everyday Math. It looks good - either Saxon or Sadlier-Oxford. The school is finally looking at cause and effect - why do parents send their kids to the school.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com