The several states and territories are hereby entitled to reimbursement for the same proportion of the salaries and benefits of qualified classroom teachers for those professional engaged in basic instruction, the federal government will contribute that same share of these employment costs as the teachers’ students are eligible for the free school lunch program.
The states and territories will be reimbursed based on approved plans and estimates of the numbers and costs with the U.S. Secretary of Education, who may approve definitions of basic instruction, classroom teachers, teacher qualifications, salary programs, and any incentive pay upon which the secretary may authorize quarterly advances and adjustments.
The states may include teachers from charter schools, schools being run by a contractor and non-public schools within an improved plan only in so far as these serve the eligible
population. About $15,000 for a million teachers - some with a small amount some at 100 % = 15 billion - not much more than title I and within range - even if twice that - If the feds pay teachers resources are free for other critical needs.
Then we can move toward a realistic salary - working conditions - qualifications - promotion and specialization system - professionals are the critical in education - then with this base things can really be improved.
The American Public and both parties say that education is their top priority but school reform has become so complex that no one understands what is going on - or is the story reported. Incremental is natural but has a PR problem when there is the complete lack of focus.
The bills them-self are endless - there needs to be a clear focus - something beyond testing because tests do not create solutions only let us know what we already know - a lot of children are not up to grade level.
The only meaningful answer is competition - charter schools if not vouchers - the charter provisions in the current bill are grants and information to state education agencies - or the fox gets the grants for the chickens or http://www.wiredbrain.net/public-policy.htm for a restructured with the feds taking a major responsibility for instruction. ( State and local build building, transportation, overhead and administration ) All this sound and fury will not do much - but then something is better than nothing.
Elementary and Secondary Education Act or S.1 H.R.1
No Child Left Behind Act of 2001S.303
Three R's Act Better Education for Students and Teachers Act
Better Education for Students and Teachers Act
Alaska Native Educational Equity, Support, and Assistance Act
Native Hawaiian Education Act
Access to High Standards Act
Rural Education Achievement Program
Education Flexibility Partnership Act of 2001
Pro-Children Act of 2001
Bilingual Education Act
Teacher Mobility Act
Dropout Prevention Act
21st Century Community Learning Centers Act
Helping Children Succeed by Fully Funding the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (Introduced in the Senate)[S.466.IS]
Public School Repair and Renovation Act of 2001 (Introduced in the Senate)[S.471.IS]
Educational
Excellence for All Learners Act of 2001 (Introduced in the Senate)[S.7.IS]
Under a tentative agreement between Democrats and the White House, the Senate bill would require mandatory student testing, help children learn to read by the third grade and give states more leeway in spending federal education funds -- signature issues for Bush during the presidential campaign.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010426/pl/congress_education_dc_11.html
http://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/ssact/title04/0423.htm Using language similar to that for social services in the SS Act.. From the sums appropriated ( or by entitlement as it used to be ) and the allotment under this subpart, subject to the conditions set forth in this section, the Secretary ( DOE ) shall from time to time pay to each State that has a plan developed in accordance with regulations an amount equal to 75 per centime of the total sum expended under the plan in meeting the costs of State, district, county, or other local basic educational instructional services.
The federal government will pay 75 % of teachers salaries and benefits ( involved in direct instruction = about 2.5 million teachers @ $ 30,000 = 75 billion ) and left to the states and local school boards, all the other costs - administration, football, transportation, construction, utilities, then: We could become a modern civilized society with a world class school system, social justice, economic growth, and political democracy.
There could be substantial tax relief on property taxes - standards set for teacher certification - much better salaries for some low paid teachers and salary grades for high performing teachers tied to the GS federal
scales:http://www.seemyad.com/gov/salary.htm
The big problems in American Public education are:
There is no career stream for classroom teachers - pay is only based on seniority and there is not much difference if you stay in instruction from start to finish.
Basic Education as a federal responsibility:
The national interest and general welfare require a large federal role in public compulsory education. This was not as true in the last centuries but is clearly one of the most important if not the most important federal function. "A 2000 PricewaterhouseCoopers report found that intellectual assets now account for 78 percent of the total value of American S&P 500 companies."
"According to a 2000 OECD [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development] report, since 1985, the expansion of knowledge-based industries has outpaced gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the developed countries. Knowledge-based industries now account for more than half of OECD-wide GDP." Welcome, to the Knowledge Age.BUT since we are a federal system and have a long history of local school boards we can not just start from scratch.Each state with consultations with local school system should come up with a plan to provide basic education - reading ( the nation reads ) writing ( the nation writes ) algebra and other math ( the nation reasons and calculates ) students knows geography, history, government, humanities, the sciences and the scientific methods - all standards and evaluations set by the states.
Then there is a calculation of what the direct provision of these educational services cost.
Then the application for expected expenditures for the next quarter of 75 % of the costs as a entitlement - with adjustments for over and under payments from the last payment.
The states should report how much would be used for property tax relief - how much for salaries ( and if there would be a state wide pay scales with steps - grades like the GS system ).
These costs should not include support, administration, transportation, athletics, construction, maintenance, bureaucracy, etc.
Because these costs remain state and local responsibility and are too much a can of worms.
The national estimated cost per student for instruction could be fairly clear at about $ 2,500 for elementary and $ 4,500 for secondary ( half the total cost ) x 50 million students ( 1 million x $ 1000 = 1 billion ) so 50 million x $ 3,500 = $ 175 Billion x 75 % = $ 132 billion.
There has been a vast growth in administrative overhead from 15 % in the 1960's to 50 % today so increases in resources are absorbed by overhead. In the last decade there has been a vast underhanded growth in ESE ( special education ) from 5 % of population to 25 % and a jungle of paperwork without functional outcomes.
The labeling of students make standards even harder - ESE students are not counted or counted differently - so if someone doesn't learn they are learning disabled and labeled - given more resources - and excluded from the testing of school outcomes.
There has been for decades weak support for standards - support in general but backing off when the tire hits the road and students actually FLUNK and are held back! Standards means that teachers have to teach content - multiplication tables, spelling, parts of speech, geography, algebra - not always fun and often hard - and student have to do their homework.Teachers can be tied to the GS 4 to GS 12 depending on performance - and the DOD ( Military base schools ) teacher pay scales as a base with districts able to do
addons.
Tax reform is a political winner.
The politicians clear out their inventory and can sell the same tax breaks over again.
There is more room for rate and capital gains reductions if special benefits are removed. Tax simplification improves the economy in many important ways - the key to growth is productivity - what is more unproductive than wasted time and effort of filling out forms and keeping useless accounts or making decisions based on tax law rather than real returns on investments ROI -
Real tax reform and real educational reform:
For the money that is being considered as a tax cut - the federal government could give block grants to the states to replace property taxes that go to public schools. This would give real tax relief by removing most of the cost of public schools from the property tax rolls. No one would suggest public education should be supported by property taxes. It is so because it is so - and the cruel inequalities is because the money follows property values not educational needs.
The states pay about 50/50% of education - with a federal grant to pay the other 50 % ( adjusted for the capacity of the states to pay - rich states get 40 % while poor states get 60 % - such as in the Medicaid and other programs ) then we could have a rational and effective school system. Rational accounting could insure that money goes to actual instruction and efforts wasted on meaningless paperwork ( often required by federal regulations ) could be reduced from over 20 % to less than 5 %.
Of about $ 250 billion is 30 % waste = 75 billion, could be $ 125 federal and $ 125 state with local schools paying for construction and other instructional activities. Now less than 60 % goes to direct instruction - private schools cost 40 % less because they don’t have the central bureaucracies, government imposed overheads, paperwork, administration, and ESE, LSE, and 1001 other special requirements.
The Tax Reform Act of 1986 cleared out some of the special tax breaks bought by political money.
There could be another
The Tax Reform Act of 2001, to sunset most of the goodies added to the over loaded tax code.
The method has to be like the base closing process - a commission of tax lawyers, accountants, professors - to suggest a package of reforms which are voted up or down as a package. Last time 25 billion per year was found in saving that could be used to reduce tax rates - there maybe 5 % ( $75 billion ) or more now. Economic growth and international competition should focus the mind, VAT is a form of support for exports because the social costs are not added to exports that do not pay VAT while they do pay income and corporate taxes. Slemrod estimates that total administrative and compliance costs for the personal and corporation income taxes are about $75 billion, or 10 percent of revenue collected and wasted in the process of accounting and paying. A VAT is another issue. http://www.wiredbrain.net/salestax.htm tax reform
http://www.wiredbrain.net/nexum.htm post PC devices
http://www.wiredbrain.net/broadband.htm wireless and beyond
The answer :
Pflaum testimony on Educational Reform:First, I support whatever you can pass - the more money the better - the simpler and fewer the programs the better, the less federal rules and more block grants the better, the more targeted on the poor the better, the more for teachers of science and math the better, the more for construction money and bond financing reform is useful, financing, simplification and standards for American with Disabilities Act would be very helpful - charter schools - teacher education, technology, but let’s get real about testing:
The reality out in the real schools is that many - in some schools a majority of students do not attend the same school, or same classroom, or same teacher for the school year.
The programs seem to imagine fairly stable neighborhoods, families, and schools. Instability is common in many neighborhoods, rural communities ( migrant labor ) and the turmoil of unstable families is reflected in erratic attendance at school. How do you test is such a school ? Who is responsible for what ?
The various groups in Washington, executive and legislature, means no ONE is in charge. This range of interests exists in 50 States - legislatures and DOE - Dept. Of Education - also with no ONE in charge.
Then there are thousands of school boards, and superintendents - and 100,000’s of schools, with principals - but no ONE in charge.
Then millions of classrooms - with teaches - we hope some ONE in charge ? Maybe or maybe not - BUT the teacher is surrounded with rules, curriculum guidance, and now tests, tests, and more tests !
There is a terrible set of procedures for ESE ( special education ) involving language, ( non English speakers ) physical, psychological, emotional, behavioral - etc. Etc. Reading disabled, learning disabled, with more and more forms and less and less help. Are these students tested - and how, are they included or not ? Up to 20 % of school population are now SPECIAL - ( including talented ) - I am sorry the real world is such a mess - the federal government is part of the problem. FIRST - do a real audit of school costs and resources. Ask the GAO to audit a random sample of schools. Start with the classroom - there is the teachers salary and a few dollars for materials. ( $ 45,000 with benefits / 24 = about 2,000 per student )
Then where does the other about $ 3,000 go - start with heat, construction costs, ( $ 50,000 per classroom / 30 years = $5000 carry and maintain cost per year / 24 = $200 not much ) - Busing - school lunch ( could be provided by contract a lot cheaper ) - academic support - ( libraries and guidance ) school administration, and central office overhead. Private schools run at half the costs because they don’t carry this huge administrative overhead and pay teachers less but gives them better working conditions because there are less paper work, rules and forms which drive everyone crazy.
The fact is that there is a huge overhead that does not contribute to direct instruction or performance on TESTS ! Since less than half the money goes to teaching students how can schools be evaluated on the basis of tests ?
The BLUE Ribbon schools, and many accreditation procedures don’t count performance on tests at all - surprise ?So how can you test students and credit or blame teachers when the whole system is such a mess. Charter schools are supposed to be free from the "system" but rarely are in fact free. SO what is needed ? See http://www.wiredbrain.net/answer.htmSmall, Smart, stable schools - school based management ( for real ) where the higher authorities deal with schools directly - ( such as in England )
The title I, and disabilities money, and the state
National Productivity Policy:
What can we do to make us better off ? If we could spend a quarter of
the Republican proposed tax cut, or the amount a questionable missile defense
program would cost, or about $ 250 billion over ten years in human development
then there could be a positive impact on human resources and the economy.
The USA currently imports 200,000 skilled workers because there are not
enough of our own citizens with skills in math and science therefore computer
applications.
There are international advantages to this labor market -
but a better educated population clearly has many advantages to a civilized
democratic society besides the economic ones.
The best policy from the public sector are investments in general knowledge
that private markets can not provide. Business have limits on what they
can profitably invest in basic research and human resources with education
and training. By the public sector providing a high skilled work force
the whole economy works better - we are all better off.
How would $ 25 billion additional annual dollars be invested in improving
human resources ?
The best process would be an independent agency or foundation
which distributes the money based on objective research on costs and benefits.
Money to bonuses for science teachers of up to 100 % of base salaries,
math and science high schools, supports for higher education and research,
adult and continuing education, evaluation and assessment of programs and
methods. Currently only 1.5 % of 1.5 Trillion federal budget = 22.5 Billion
in Federal Education Programs ( including college supports but not defense
dept programs ) which is about x .08 % of national expenditures 180 billion
in public schools. Doubling federal contribution to 3 % of the budget or
50 billion could have some real impacts - including substitutes and tax
benefits to private education and training. ( See below )
A few hundred federal model schools funded at about $10,000 per student
- A billion ( $1000 x 1000 ) gets 100,000 students in National Schools
of excellence - at 500 students per school ( Small is better ) = 200 schools
or a little more than 1 per SMSA - ( 1 million person City ) 10 billion
get a million students and 2000 schools - as national models and would
remove some burden from public schools.
Public Schools spend 40 % on overhead or 50 % if you count student services
as not classroom instruction ( non-instructional non-classroom costs such
as lunches, transport administration - Private schools spend only 12 %
in overhead - half the public overhead is due to federal requirements largely
special education which ends up costing more in overhead than the federal
funding provides in support - a net net loss.
A billion in vouchers of $5,000 for poor students in failing schools
gets 200,000 students in better schools - 10 billion gets 2 million - 100
billion covers everyone who could use it and replaces public with private
schools in most places - at 50 % of the cost because of the lower overhead
! Great property tax relief - if there was a complete transfer from local
school systems to national chain schools of $ 200 billion - everyone except
the teachers union and the educational bureaucracy would be better off.
Include the 10 billion for national - state model schools as benchmarks
to measure school performance -
Roughly 60% goes to instruction, mainly for teachers' salaries. ( 5 % for materials )
Roughly 10% goes to administration, at the district office and school
site.
Roughly 10% goes to facilities maintenance and operation, including
utilities but not construction.
Roughly 10% goes to transportation and food service.
Roughly 10% goes to student services such as school nurses, attendance
officers, counselors, and special education such as speech therapists
on SCHOOL PER PUPIL EXPENDITURE (1995-1996 unadjusted dollars): $6,459
High School was adequate for industrial jobs - the schools were better
in whom graduated and jobs were less educational demanding. High School
produced good enough secretaries, bank clerks, police, service representatives
as well as industrial workers.
The labor pool was big enough so qualifications could be raised and
lowered according to supply and demand - higher qualifications were not
necessarily needed but a simple administrative way of sorting candidates.
Educational reform was not an important issue - integration was, the
major report was the Coleman study on social and racial balance.
The national
assessment of educational progress was under attack as elitist and shuffled
off to the association of state school superintendents.
College was mainly a social gateway - a way the middle class maintained
their status, and organizations maintained their social exclusiveness with
only some importance to economic consequences.
Now the lack of understanding why are schools don’t improve ( despite
some changes up and down in test scores ) - is central to the debate -
after decades of Why Johnny Can’t Read, does know his times tables, fractions,
decimals, phonics, A Nation at Risk, and the answer is not complex but
very political.
The answer is to have clear enforced standards with real consequences
for teachers, principals, superintendents, local politicians, real estate
values, and students and their parents. Students don’t pass, parents have
to pay attention and help, teachers get fired or retrained, principals
get removed, school boards get defeated, superintendents lose their jobs,
home prices decline, and things change.
Then better smaller competitive schools will get more support vs. big
confused and poorly managed schools.
A landslide:
The central theme in 21st century politics how public services are delivered.
The scope of services is important but delivery systems is critical.
The decline of the EURO and slow growth in Europe is due in large measure
to the drag on the economy of poorly run public services and excessive
drain on saving and investment due to taxes, deficits, and entitlements.
As the population ages the issue becomes even more severe as it reaches
critical mass. In a generation 85 % of public spending and 20 % of all
income will go to support the income and health of the retired if there
is no change.
The only way, the third way, the new way is to introduce competition
and free markets into the public sector.
It is NOT the old conservative, less government more freedom ( mainly
for the successful and rich by letting the old starve and die " are there
not poor houses enough" said Mr. Scrooge ) but focused on the individual
as the producer of all wealth and enterprise - without much concern for
the environment, the common organic whole, social justice, racial harmony,
liberation, the rights of property over equity and justice ( torts and
restitution ) and the winner takes all philosophy -
or the tax and spend ( tax the rich and spend on the less rich so there
is little return on work and investment and a large dependent welfare class
which bankrupts the society so we could end up like the Russians without
the spirit of enterprise ) the anti-business beliefs of the old liberal
- socialist ideologies without a strategy of growth and prosperity. Wealth
can not be created by the state or state enterprises.
The issue is the right, rational, practical public sector - pro business
- pro growth - limited and rational - not anti-government or pro-government
but the necessary public services well delivered. In this way George W.
is closer to Tony Blair than Gore, and Lieberman and the Progressive Policy
Institute is closer to Republican than the stated program of the democrats.
Of course, what they say and what they do has a very tenuous connection
but...
If the issues are joined - social security and Medicare, education partly
privatized and privately run but publicly supported even if the democrats
resist in public - they will change and find a compromise. It is new and
somewhat dangerous grounds - entitlement and educational reform - and people
are not willing to be pioneers. I remember a paper on intranets, and corporate
information systems. Clearly the high cost and limited private networks
with dedicated leased lines, was going to be replaced and/or supplemented
by internet systems with wider access and linkages to clients, suppliers,
et al.
The systems managers with knowledge in Novell and other limited
systems were unhappy about learning and applying a new technology.
New systems are a headache and breakdown and cause a systems manager
all kinds of grief. One said " pioneers get arrows in their backs ". True
- maybe you can wait until the bugs are all worked out. All the i’s dotted
and the t’s crossed or maybe you will be left behind ? It is a very difficult
question and the most important business issue facing everyfirm from the
smallest to the largest. Big firms used to be able to wait - and then buy
up what worked without going through the pain of trying many options and
finding the solutions for themselves. No new system works painlessly -
but no pain no gain !
Public sector services become a blend of private and public - health,
education, training and labor , welfare, postal and then military readiness,
police, domestic security, fire, national parks and land, agricultural,
international relations and NGO, non-profits, private global enterprises
and government all and all will change - services will be networks of privatized
and subsidized public services, vouchers, contracted agencies, leased facilities,
capitalized public goods, each analysis for benefit /costs - rationalized
- made above politics into practical modern delivery systems run in a business
like manner. Individuals and firms will inspect more closely what they
pay and what they get - the question is who will be the pioneer - and who
will be dragged in kicking and screaming into the new age of public services.
Gore knows it, Bush knows it, Blair knows it, the discussion at international
forms, business schools, think tanks, graduate schools, intellectual journals,
all squeeze around the edges of the new thinking - networks - partnerships
- post-competition - post nationalism, mergers of public and private -
leagues working on common goals - ecological and biological models rather
than mechanical clock like or machinery models. But who will step forward
in the political arena and tell the truth - old system don’t work and change
is not easy, painless where everyone wins and no one loses. But to refuse
to change is far worse - a downward spiral of higher costs, lower productivity,
higher taxes and worse services.
School vouchers, private saving and retirement ( substituted for low
income ) competitive health service with clear cost / benefit calculations
( no free lunch - a disconnect between costs and service where neither
doctors or patients are constrained by costs because the bill is paid by
St. Elsewhere, a third party ) . Schools spend half their resources on
non-classroom activities. While in 1965 85 % went to instruction now it
is less than 50 % in the public sector and 85 % in the non-public schools.
The difference is special education which has grown from 5 % to near 25
%, useless paper work and reporting almost as much as in health care (
20 % of the total cost is spent in getting and keeping hundreds of special
grants and programs and accounting inspections. This huge expense is equal
to and similar to the eno rmous cost of billing procedures in medicine
) and is the worse of both the private and public worlds.
The old public
accounting systems that try to prevent fraud but can’t explain what you
get for your money and private activity without moral purposes.
Intellectual Capital:
If you found a bright child and invested $ 250,000 or more in education
for up to 20 years - K-12, college and graduate school - you would increase
their income by a good deal more than the cost of the investment including
compounded interest over the years.
The net return would be higher than
equal cost and return streams invested in the markets or real estate. Human
capital and the new technology, innovation and business practices created
by smarter people does more to explains the growth in economies than net
investment in capital goods ( investment less deprecation ) and growth
of the labor force. While knowledge deprecates it can be renewed by continual
learning if the person has learned good study habits. If you could reclaim
even a 10 % tax on the returns of the investment it would be quite worthwhile
as the some Governments, Jesuits, Seven Day Adventist and Mormons have
learned. Money spend on education ( that works ) really is an investment
not a welfare benefit or subsidy.
In America the majority of the public money spent on education is not
effective - as a large part of the health case costs it is lost in administrative
overhead, doing the same job badly over and over, a very high error rate
and failure.
There is no simple relationship between costs and benefits.
So educational investments need to be careful made like any other expenditure.
Private expenditures are often better focused - over a third of all
educational expenditures are commercial and industrial training, fee for
service schools, in house programs and private schools. Truck driver schools
pay off, as do some of the quick technology programs.
The Microsoft, Oracle
and other certification systems have become very significant. Educational
Vouchers for displaced workers ( because of trade agreements ) have some
success as do the 100’s of special labor and training programs. It is possible
that education could be paid by subsidies mixed with private funds and
loans. Families and individuals would waste and be cheated out of money
by ineffective but high pressure sales of commercial schools but most likely
there be less waste and abuse than in the current system.
The British Government has become quite aware of the real net returns
to investments in education and the stabilizing effects of more equality
of education opportunity working at the foundation of the old class system.
Japan’s great strides towards merit rather than social position is one
of the reasons for their stability as a society. In the USA class distinction
are maintained by the educational system with the use of virtual private
school systems in upper class suburbs and the role of prestige colleges.
Agricultural and industrial workers, migrants, and minorities distinguish
themselves on how they take to schooling when it becomes available.
The
Jews Japanese, Korean and several oriental groups have levels of educational
attainment greater than majority Anglo populations. Certain extended tribes
such as overseas Chinese in Singapore and Indonesia, business tribes from
India, Armenians, Lebanese, have done well a migrants because of their
social cultural systems. Human Capital both in attitudes and in knowledge
pays off. Changing the anti-intellectual attitudes of parts of the "working
class", fundamentalist, racial and cultural minorities who feel for good
reason "the system" is against them - such as Native Americans and parts
of the black community - can change when the rewards become both real and
clear. Difficult as it may seem it is the best hope for renewal and progress.
Having more control of the investment should help a lot.
Drifting toward educational policy:
The most important issues for the third wave, the new politics, are
educational and national health. With a very prudent economic policy and
a lot of good luck due to new technology helping to increase productivity
and growth means the state can pay for increased investment in human and
physical resources as they are in Britain. America is drifting toward a
realistic educational and health policy by fits and starts. It would seem
useful to have some coherent framework. Nothing is more important for the
public welfare. Two subterranean issues are "special" education ( labeling
) and career path programs.
The standards movement have not been able to
deal with alternative learning and different paths to opportunity for different
people. One size does not fit all.
The drift in educational policy is toward national standards ( set individually
by the states but being very similar ) requiring performance at each grade
level for each subject. This clearly makes sense at the elementary level.
The unresolved issue which lurks just below the surface is disabilities
labeling without clear national standards. What is subsisted grows, what
is taxed declines. Disabilities are subsisted and remove low performers
from the general population.
The percentage of labeled as Special Education
( Including talented ) has increased from 1 in 20 ( 5 % ) to 1 in 6 ( 16
% ) and in some schools 1 in 5 or 20 %.
The national policy should be to
limit federal support to a 10 % limit of state enrollment ( with 2 % set
aside for talented )and 80 % funding. How do "learning" disabled or challenged
students fit into the standards requirements. Classroom instability in
many communities also change the statistical models where a third of the
class turns over during the year. Adding together part-year students and
special students can come to half of a lot of elementary schools in troubled
districts.
The use of graduation standards from high school is clearly a good idea.
Diplomas should stand for some quantified learning.
The underground issue
is the third to one half of students who can not, do not want to, or are
handicapped. Other countries do not attempt universal academic secondary
education.
What about vocational, career, apprenticeship, and other non-academic
programs. Non-college streams have always been second class programs with
a strong cultural prejudice against commercial alternatives.
The drift
is toward different high school degrees - academic and "general" with community
collages picking up some more of the career programs. Where are the construction
skill, health aides, bank clerks, repair people, landscaping, agriculture,
automobile and 1001 other crafts and occupations coming from, commercial
and community colleges ?
The "school to work" and industrial councils are
weakly trying to plug this gap. Successful commercial programs must be
closely tied to industry or quickly become obsolete.
The issue of what
is an on-the-job responsibility of individual firms or industries and what
is general education can not be solved without the closest cooperation.
The now massive programs by high technical companies such as Oracle, Microsoft,
Cisco, etc. need to be integrated into the educational establishment.
These
are very good jobs.
In health care the creep toward an expanded FICA - a privatized and
subsisted set of privately provided but publicly supported social insurance.
Computer technology allows for a complex set of accounts with supported
private retirement schemes, supported health insurance, disability, and
income supports.
The great issues involves the balance between welfare
and insurance.
The original social security was not good welfare policy
( benefits were not means tested ) or good insurance policy based on actual
risk and benefits. It was a compromise that got the support of a political
majority. Now the new and old packages of social benefits need to be part
of an incomes policy - more means tested and supports coming by not only
tax credits ( useful for those who pay taxes ) and low income tax supports
- direct payment to low income workers, and direct income support through
social security, disability ( SSI ) and other payment plans.
The difference:
The major difference between public education in the states and the
rest of the nations of the world - especially those dozen or more countries
that rank higher in science and math - is they have external performance
standards and we don’t. Most nations follow the German or Continental (French)
model of national standards and examination leading to the lycée,
gymnasium or A levels as necessary for university entrance.
They are selective,
competitive, and traditional - of course they are better than a open, everyone
graduates, confused and discouraged system.
The USA does not have exacting performance standards because is the
USA is unique in its’ policy of universal comprehensive secondary education
and almost open college admissions ( if you count the community colleges
). Almost anyone can get a high school diploma and go to some kind of post
secondary education no matter how unprepared and they do in unusual numbers.
Alternative work related apprenticeships or technical or commercial education
is much weaker here than elsewhere.
The third difference, which connects the first two, is the existence
of thousands of local elected school boards.
Therefore educational reform in the states has to be done backwards
and up side down. First some performance standards.
There are now standard
tests of basic skills being required for promotion and graduation in several
states.
The test locate schools and individuals who have not been taught
or have not learned the necessary material for the next level.
Then there
is pressure to develop alternatives as well as upgrade the main stream.
Alternative education and disability labeling is the fastest growing
part of public education. Since some students can’t read they are "reading
disabled" or won’t behave they "have attention deficits" or other disorder.
In Florida a significant part of students have not been in the same school
for the year, have been labeled as "special" ( ESE ) and are counted apart
from average students. Part time ( low attendance), and student who are
there only part of the year - theses students and ESE, language problems,
is often the majority in low performance schools and the group averages
represent an actual minority of students.
Secondary school select out with "honors" and advanced placement or
talented programs those students who need SATs at or above the average
in order to go to colleges above the average. In order to achieve minimum
performance standards they have to give up the comprehensive, universal,
and equal in favor or the selective, both up and down. It is just a fact
of life. What we need is good alternatives - vocational and technical alternatives.
As performance standards become enforced then curriculum, teacher qualifications,
merit pay and diffraction ( teachers who know math and science, master
teachers and mentors ) become important. You can not run a quality school
with coaches as administrators, pay based on seniority, weak departments,
poor curriculum articulation, lack of control and discipline, political
interference, union rules, poor structures, labs, pay, equipment, libraries
and media centers, etc.
The Emperor is running around in his underwear
and we all know it.
The issue of education is at the top of the national concerns.
The
New Labour and hopefully the new Democrats (DLC) push "investments" in
education as the method of working on social progress and equity.
The problem
of "quality" education is one of standards.
The difference between US and
the rest of the industrial world is the lack of standards.
The quality
of education can be measured and enforced but it is not easy. Http://www.wiredbrain.net/answer.htm
In "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" Robert M. Pirsig http://www.aoe.vt.edu/~ciochett/lit/zen.html
starts with a common sense experience. He prefers to do it himself or let
a competent mechanic take care of these things so that they are done right.
"It's not the motorcycle maintenance, not the faucet. It's all of technology
they can't take. And then all sorts of things started tumbling into place
and I knew that was it !" "I just think that their flight from and hatred
of technology is self-defeating.
The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite
as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a
cycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain or in the petals
of a flower. To think otherwise is to demean the Buddha...which is to demean
oneself. That is what I want to talk about in this Chautauqua."
Why are some teachers or mechanics so bad while other are good
or excellent. Some workers slop parts together, strip bolts, and make a
mess of it. Others seem to have a sense of what is wrong, have a feeling
for a well running machine, and a sensitive touch in tuning. Mac works
better than Window/Intel but the crashing windows get 90 % of the market.
Can markets really select quality technologies ? What choices do they have
?
In a college lecture a famous Science Fiction writer was asked by
a non Sci-Fi fan ( most likely came with their friends ) wasn’t most Sci-Fi
low quality pulp fiction. He responded with a common sense rule - most
efforts lack quality - most regular fiction, most painters ( artist ),
most educational institutions and actors most of the time are not high
quality. Real quality is rare. Common sense about quality only goes so
far.
George Soros http://www.soros.org/ picks up the theme of an "open
society" and its’ enemy.
The friend of quality is competition, the enemy of quality market domination
or social control.
The Platonic concept of quality in Zen and Motorcycle Maintenance depends
on a transcendental relationship with an abstract reality. Free markets
are not abstract but only common sense but common sense is often out of
touch with reality.
How do we get quality in education, health care, computer systems,
communications, government and politics, private and public organizations
and national and community life ? Capitalism produces competition ( some
of the time ) but not quality of life.
What is missing ? Standards - when you get your motorcycle fixed
you have to be able to know a well running machine from a mediocre one,
quality education from mediocre, and this sense of quality has to be wide
spread. Without clear objective standards appreciated by mass publics,
how can the market work if there are no standards such as in commercial
television, news, elections, and in so many other areas except winning
and profits ? Consumer information is critical to the working of the free
market. Advertising does not do consumer education very well, just think
of the history of cigarettes.
The Internet suggests a better way of quality choices - in elections,
in consumer products, in financial services, even in health and education.
The first way was laisser faire ? Conservative thought from Burke and
Hamilton to Reagan. Less government is better government and equality is
the enemy of freedom. An idea of the rich.
The second way was a passion for equality and social planning. Government
benefits were a payment for social stability and progress. Tradition liberal
thought was about how government should solve problems. An idea of the
poor.
The third way is about the new economy and growth. Good jobs are
the best benefit and individual wealth the best security.
The third way depends on practical fiscal and monetary policy and
education and training to develop the skills and attitudes necessary for
a rapidly changing global economy.
The issue is that public schools, colleges and most of us are not
ready.
The Democrats have decided that a new benefit ( drugs for Medicare
) will win the election. Republicans are stuck with tax cuts. Neither they
are the third parties have faced the issue.
Through real educational opportunity the passion for equality ( of
opportunity not results ) and the passion for less government and more
freedom of choice can be a reality in peoples lives. BUT no one is prepared,
no one knows how to do it, and resources are wasted in anti-terrorism,
missile defense, and 1000’s of lower priory but more historic issues.
The shift from agricultural workers to the assembly line was traumatic
but a lot easier.
The shift from manufacture to services has gone fairly
smoothly.
The shift to global trade has not caused a panic. But the shift
from low skilled and routine jobs to intellectual capital is much more
difficult.
The shift from low skilled and routine schools and colleges
to intellectual and creative life time learning centers and abilities is
even harder. It is a process not a product. A process of constant improvement
and change.
As parents we are challenged by industrial age education. As a society
we really have to pay attention and go outside the dots.
In contrast to small schools in which most teachers and students know
each other and will recognize a problem when it arises, adult control and
supervision and students' senses of belonging and responsibility are not
developed as readily in large schools. For this reason, it is often argued
that larger schools tend to have more discipline problems, lower percentages
of students who actually participate in school clubs and activities, and
more student feelings of estrangement and alienation.
Does anyone know how to teach the children of working class families
so they have a more equal chance with students from professional, technical,
or intellectual households ?
The answer is NO ( but they could see below
) - additional testing and objective standards will only prove the size
of the learning gap and do little to close it. Educational research must
have been very disorganized to know so little after so long. We do need
a orderly process of research, development and field testing.
There is
no issue resolved - whole word vs. Phonics, etc. And the Americans with
Disabilities Act has added to the chaos with vague standards that tend
to pass the buck and blame the student - if they can’t read they have a
reading disorder rather than the outcome of a bad school and poor education.
About 85 % of the difference in school outcomes is from family SES
( social economic status) and other factors the schools can’t control or
change rather than any of the in school factors teachers and administration
can control. A Deming said, fix the system not the blame. Workers are often
held responsible for systems failures they can’t control. Give poor materials,
inadequate structures, and poor management they can’t be held responsible
for shoddy production.
The demand that schools teach most students to a
higher level is just like demanding workers to produce better products
under hopeless conditions. It is only going to drive everyone crazy because
the schools do not know how to do what now is demanded of them, they don’t
have the materials or tools and leadership to succeed. Not with salaries
50 % of what they need to be to recruit the people they really need in
some fields, ( teachers should not be paid regardless of supply and demand
) class sizes twice or more bigger than they have to be in order to have
a fighting chance with difficult students, not in schools that are old
and neglected - let's get real ?
I support competition - I hate monopolies - but being real is real
expensive. Education has a high cost benefit ratio that can justify the
price if and only if it works. Money now is wasted doing the same bad job
over and over again. Poor quality is expensive. Error is expensive because
the next class is busy trying to rework faults and fix problems that should
not have been shoved forward and the next group can’t really go on to the
next level because it’s a constant process of correcting or set right past
mistakes.
The best answer has been in some social democratic and communist
countries ( because labor wanted their children to have a chance ) and
the Jesuits search for talent - and in parts of the Far East where traditional
respect for authority and strong national school systems have raised peasants
and workers into the educational elite. In our experience the small ungraded
school, one room school, which had 250,000 small schools before the coming
of the paved roads and school bus, did a fair job toward social equality
-
My question is does anyone really know how to run open public schools
( comprehensive schools ) so that students from working class backgrounds
- non technical and anti-intellectual backgrounds become more equal to
children from professional, technical, intellectual families ?
The answer
is almost NO - I think the small ungraded school - one room school house
( 250,000 of them in the 1920's before the school bus and paved roads )
has the best record.
SMALL SCHOOLS, EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS Teachers in one-room schoolhouses almost never lectured.
These teachers
knew that there wasn't much they could say simultaneously to a roomful
of kids of different ages and stages of learning. So teachers moved from
one group of two or three students to another. Because they couldn't spend
much time with any group, they usually assigned some work to each, making
sure that the group had a pretty good idea of how to proceed. Periodically
the teacher would return to each group to make sure the work was being
done correctly and to offer more help where it was needed. And teachers
frequently asked students who'd mastered a particular task to help those
who were still struggling to learn it. Teaching = tutoring
What one-room teachers did out of necessity -- avoid teacher talk
and get kids to learn on their own or in small groups -- is actually a
superior way of getting them to learn (Shanker in Fiske, 1991, p. 90).
Research strongly indicates retention impacts negatively onchildren's self-esteem
and further achievement (Shepard & Smith,1990 & Katz, 1988 in Webb,
1992; Goodlad & Anderson, 1987). Elimination of nonpromotion is indicated
through much literature. Along this vein, Goodlad and Anderson suggest
need to also eliminate social promotion (Goodlad & Anderson, 1987).
Questions of whether to promote or not to promote individual students can
be removed through an idea of continuous progress. Each student proceeds
through material which is often the same; the difference is time. Nongradedness
lends itself to this concept. Lack of readiness in kindergarten follows
the child through later school years. Frustration because of lack of readiness
to master expectations of adults results in low self-esteem. Fetzer and
Ponder see the system of designating a child's class according to birth
date alone as "antiquated" (Fetzer & Ponder,1988, p. 192). A recent
report published by the National Association of Elementary School Principals
identified 163 indicators of school quality.
Suggestions include: maximum class size of 20, or fewer in the primary
grades; grouping by needs, not by age and grade only. School effectiveness
is enhanced by the idea that all students can learn (Raze, 1985).
The idea
also enhances student self-esteem. Grouping Debate over grouping according
to ability and achievement measures has continued since 1920. Sputnik (1957)
heightened interest in identifying and encouraging children of high aptitude
to enter scientific fields. Ability grouping often results in tracking
where both students and teachers in low classes easily can become discouraged.
Hall and Findley (1971) suggest one defect of this system is the small
percentage of teachers whoprefer to teach the low achieving groups. Goodlad
(1984) views tracking as a repulsive practice that often begins in primary
school. Evidence shows "higher-achieving students do not do better when
together, and lower-achieving students do much worse when together. Tracking
clearly discriminates and clearly perpetuates inequities among students
.. ." (Glickman, 1991, p. 5). Recommended alternatives are groups of various
sizes formed for special purposes and dissolved when the specified purpose
has been accomplished. Goodlad reminds us of how much we learn by teaching
others. Cooperative learning, peer tutoring, and student leadership are
just some advantages of students helping each other. Leadership can change
and rotate according to need.
These practices are inherent tothe structure
of one-room and other small schools .
In an opinion paper on reorganizing American education, Leona Tyler
sees inadequate attention to individual differences; anexcess of compulsion.
Age grouping "is perhaps the worst possible strategy for maximizing the
learning of individuals"(Tyler, 1985, p. 1). "A Proposal for Reorganizing
American Public Education" cautions against focusing on averages of standardized
test scores rather than on the spread of scores. This author criticizes
reporters for lack of realization of a naturally occurring situation.
They
continue to be shocked at the finding that half of any group tested is
below the average of the group. Human beings differ inherently in how much
they learn and how rapidly they learn it. Yet we go on categorizing them
by age and treating them all alike. What sense does it make to assign the
same tasks to all members of an age group and expect them all to succeed
equally well? (Tyler, 1985, p. 2).
I think is terrible that the UNION uses very questionable data to
attack school choice. Where are their professional standards? Lies, and
big lies with numbers that don't support their political position.
"
The whole focus of our efforts is student achievement - children
need to get a year's worth of knowledge in a year's time," Jeb Bush
said at a luncheon sponsored by the Manhattan Institute, a conservative
think-tank. "It's
really that simple."
Where can I find a guide for safe schools?
(ALTAVISTA)
Real people, real schools: We have 15,000 school boards and committees.
They oversee 60,000 schools
for 55 million students. About a fourth of students are in different schools
or districts by the end of each year there has been a 25 % turnover. In
some places it’s much higher, some lower.
There is a general expectation
of what students should learn - what kids from the 5th grade should be
able to do - arithmetic multiplication tables, reading, and more vaguely
geography, science, history, spelling.
These standards have declined since
1947, so more than half do not know what they are expected to know or do.
They are passed on to the next grade with the hope they can catch up.
The reality is that if a teacher gives bad grades for poor performance
there is trouble. If they give good grades for little effort and poor performance
there are no complaints or external pressure to get the performance up
to standard. Everyone passes. By high schools more than half the students
are behind, many below 6th grade levels of math and reading. Since they
can’t read history, literature is rather a mute point. By the end of secondary
education about 1/3 are gone having learning almost nothing at the cost
of $50,000, about 1/3 have some skills, and about 1/3 are almost ready
for post secondary education.
The secret is
that it would not be popular. School boards, superintendents, principles,
teachers MUST be popular. As soon as anyone really try to enforce standards
there are those who will complain. Someone will FAIL - get bad grades,
will be held back !
There is no way that is popular.
The student maybe
a minority, maybe handicapped, failure is the teachers fault, it’s the
systems fault, its prejudice, NEVER the lack of effort on the part of the
student and the parents. Elected school boards can never enforce standards
of dress, conduct, performance, on the part of unionized teachers who make
up a critical electoral constituency, or parents which make up most of
the rest of the voters. Local standards will never pass the popularity
contest.
State and national politicians are less dependent on popularity of
specific school teachers and parents. Voters will support the abstract
idea of good schools, and employer groups are desperate with the poor quality
of youth entering the labor market. So some states have tried to impose
external standards. NOW if you empress external standards on a system with
quality faults, you just drive everyone crazy. Maybe some schools can pass
the buck when John fails by talking about external standards - but there
will be a lot of bitching.
As everyone should know the only answer is open enrollment. If you
fail go someplace else which accepts less. If you exceed standards you
get rewards and more opportunities. Like the real world ? If you don’t
get a year, or 50 % of a years progress for a year of school you are less
effective than someone who can. Competition gets your attention. It can
bring pressure to hold to standards - of attendance, dress, conduct, homework,
behavior, learning - like the real world.
Making the complex simple and the simple complicated:
Psychology and social psychology have hundreds if not
thousands of "theories'. This means they don't know what's going on. Any
time you have many ideas and theories it means the facts have not imposed
themselves on imagination.
The subject is subject to theological debates,
ad hoc arguments, the lack of functional laws or hard evidence.
The fundamentals are that we are a troop animal. Animal
behavior is stable and changes so slowly that our character, human
nature has not changed much in the 70,000 years of organized social
existence of our sub-species or breed of homo sapiens, the Cro-Magnon.
The individual depends on the troop, the lone person or wolf doesn't survive
or reproduce. So much for the romance of Ayn Rand and the glorification
of the hero. Social needs creates in people a vital commitment to the group
and the extreme forces of socialization. We are what we are expected to
be by others, as good Japanese, Navaho, or gang member. We go along to
get along.
Our minds do led us into fanciful desires and creates
fanaticism which requires redoubling effort when reasons have been forgotten.
The unreasoned passion for glory and power worked in creating slaves, peasants
and masters. As science and technology replace raw courage and strength,
small muscles and finesse empower women, and brains over brawn, the slaves
have new opportunities and political power.
The democracy of very productive
and therefore financially profitable peasants, workers and ginks has less
room for people noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially
one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life with grand gestures and
grand illusions.
The application of social ergonomics is to make people
more conformable and functional in groups, institutions such as schools,
business, social clubs and neighborhoods. A chair is designed to work with
the body, instruments with hand eye coordination, rooms with furniture
and functions, why not social systems with human nature as people. Architects
noticed that big monumental spaces or rooms were empty, unused, people
didn't feel conformable in their designs .
They began to design with nature
taking our character and desires into account, the addition of the human
scale. BIG Schools are monuments to bad planning and blind bureaucracies.
They are ahuman and very uncomfortable as the worse factories or industrial
office.
It's corny, of course it's trite. We are a civilization
founded by heroes but run by the mundane. Post modern liberal democratic
free market societies are temporal, secular, corny. This was pointed out
by Alexis Charles Henri Clérel de Tocqueville, as a society, dependent
on association and group membership with great pressures for conformance
to the mass will.
The individual in America was independent as a dependent
on the market.
Taking a big High School and
breaking it up into smaller units where teachers have long term contact
with 50 rather than short term contact with 150 students creates a functional
human community .
Close your eyes and visualize a group of people working
or playing together. Imagine a productive social group such as a sports
team, a work group, a team of volunteers, a military unit, a dance group
or theater playhouse or any group of people working together even a family
unit.
Spend a moment and watch what is going on.
What is the size of the group ?
How much direction or leadership is there ?
How do people coordinate their activities ?
Do all or most seem to know what they are doing ?
Do they know what others are doing ?
Do they appear to share goals ?
Did anyone see a classroom or any educational activity
?
Why not - ?
Breaking a big school into small human scale schools
is not expensive or difficult !
The library and sports teams can be campus wide such
as they are at Cambridge and Oxford Universities.
These ancient institutions
are made up of small collages that are completely independent but share
the university lecturer, the library and the rowing teams. Since sports
are the most important reason for big schools no change is required in
athletic, band or other programs that need size.
Big schools were sold in the 1950 as being modern and
being able to offer a wider curriculum and specialized classes. This rarely
happens - how many schools have third year foreign language or physics
? BUT communications technology and the rise of the community college has
made size irrelevant. Special classes can be offered "campus or district
wide" or taken at the community college. Florida High School - an on-line
service offers Latin and other subject rarely taught at the largest schools.
So all you do is devise a way of sharing the power
and authority and using computers to process paper.
The learning, physical,
emotionally, language, challenged can be reported, tracked, planned and
tested by Information systems rather than mounds of forms in triplicate.
* even using voice recorded reports as doctors have learned to do.
Sometimes three generations - for example, urban sprawl
boomed after WW II with the auto age, housing developments, "
The grass
grows greener over the septic tank" , malls and social isolation from depersonalized
life styles.
The first generation came from multi-person networks of family,
community, church, and school.
Their children were the baby boomers born
from 1948 to 1964.
The children of the suburbs had parents, who came from
older communities, and had expectations and standards which sometimes the
children valued.
The children of baby boomers, however, suffer from the
sins of their parents and grandparents who valued real estate and consumer
values over stability, family, community, sex, drugs and rock-a-roll or
any other ideology.
At the same time old high schools were converted into
Jr. High's then Middle Schools and new BIG high schools were built as part
of the auto culture.
The first generation suffered but is some style.
The
second generation still had teachers and administrators and school board
members from a more stable time with actual standards.
The third generation
has baby boomers from the lowest quartile of academic ability as smarter
people, largely women, found better jobs as lawyers, doctors, accountants,
rather than be stuck as school teachers with no clear lines of advancement.
Teachers with 30 years make 1/4 to 1/3 more than beginning teachers rather
than 3 to 4 times the difference between beginning salary and becoming
a partner.
They are all paid the same regardless of their skill level,
coaches or science, or their performance.
They often do not have telephones,
copy machines, clean rooms, offices, support services and supplies and
other objects of today's professional. Teaching is seen as a low status
blue collar job with union protection of the lazy and incompetent. Schools
spend 50 % on overhead, outside classrooms. Most of the 1/2 of which is
caused by "special" students with dozens of types and regulations that
add nothing to learning.
Small schools, public, charter, voucher, will help
make up for the cultural gaps caused by rapid growth suburbs, television,
video games, fractured nucleus in families, and other social decay.
The Synergy Network http://www.wiredbrain.net/
pflaump@cfl.pflaump@cfl.pflaump@cfl.pflaump@cfl.rr.comh4> The purpose of this paper is to report
and summarize some literature currently available on multiage nongraded
elementary school groupings.
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pflaump@cfl.rr.coms individual student
needs.
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The Synergy Network http://www.wiredbrain.net/
pflaump@cfpflaump@cfpflaump@cfpflaump@cfl.rr.cometer E. Pflaum, Social
Sciences pflaump@cpflaump@cpflaump@cpflaump@cfl.rr.comsues in Education
Research and Outcomes: PROBLEM: 10% or less High School graduates ready
for college (N.A.E.P. 1).
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pflaump@pflaump@pflaump@pflaump@cfl.rr.com theme: SMALL SCHOOLS, EFFECTIVE
SCHOOLS A building is not a school.
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pflaumppflaumppflaumppflaump@cfl.rr.comAND AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL TRADITION
Introduction When my husband Peter and I moved from the Virgin Islands
back to Florida in spring of 1982, our mode of transportation was our 27-foot
sloop Far Tortugas.
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The nongraded elementary school: Lessons
from history. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Education
Research Association, San Francisco. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service
No.
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pflaumpflaumpflaumpflaump@cfl.rr.comm Ph.D. 225 Robinson Road New Smyrna
Beach FL 32169 (904) 428-9609 June 15, 1994 pflaupflaupflaupflaump@cfl.rr.comSCHOOL SURVEY by Mary Anne Watkins Private Schools in America Numbers In
1987-88, there were more than 105,000 elementary, secondary, or combined
schools.
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pflapflapflapflaump@cfl.rr.comng early twentieth century Dewey and in
reading Goodlad's recent book (Goodlad, 1984), one is struck by recurrent
themes and by apparent inability of the American educational system to
adapt to changing circumstances.
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83% Multiage_Teams.html
- National Middle School Association Middle School Journal Volume 30-Number
3 January 1999 David Kommer, Ed.D. Ashland University For over thirty years,
educators in America's middle schools have been making schools more responsive
to the needs of adolescents.
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pflpflpflpflaump@cfl.rr.com - the nongraded School- Summary Proponents
of multiage grouping see it as a natural order of society.
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At school, Klebold and Harris openly admired Hitler,
hurled insults at minorities and conducted a
running feud with the school's athletes. In the presence
of adults, however, they were polite and
friendly.
Klebold lived in a home worth nearly $400,000, a modernistic
cedar-and-glass structure tucked
between two huge stone formations on a rural road.
His father, THING1 Klebold, 52, is a former geophysicist
who now runs a mortgage management
business from his home. His mother, Susan, 50, has
worked for the Colorado community-college
system for years, helping disabled students gain access
to education.
His maternal grandfather, the late Leo Yassenoff, was
a prominent Jewish philanthropist in
Columbus, Ohio,
The Columbus Dispatch reported today.
The Jewish Community Center of
Columbus was named for him.
Small schools - HS schools under 500, middle schools
under 250, and elementary under 125 - have almost no problems with discipline
and perform much better.
There are so few of these schools ( even in rural
areas ) that the numbers are difficult - but it makes sense - everyone
knows everyone - they can't fall between the cracks -
The critical elements are that students have to apply
to a school ( theme schools, technology, science and math, arts, etc.)
and can be "selected out". If no other school will take them they are assigned
to alternative education.
Second, the goals are set but the means are open. If
the students can pass external exams there are no rules about hours,
teacher requirements, credits etc. Now we require means but not outcomes
- it should be the other way around.
A building is not a school.
It
can be made into many schools. - you can
take a 2000+ school such as in Colorado and divide it into five schools
- real schools ( not pretend houses or teams ) as has been done for 25
years at Harlem Community School
District 4, East Harlem, New York. http://www.wiredbrain.net/answer.htm
http://www.wiredbrain.net/gvs2.htm
see http://www.wiredbrain.net/documents/ethos/small.txt 1. Clear Goals
2. School-Focused Improvement
3. Strong Leadership
4. High Expectations
5. Focused Program of Instruction
6. Collaborative Decision-Making
7. Individual & Organizational Development
8. Order & Discipline
9. Maximized Learning Time
10. Parent/Community Involvement
11. Incentives/Rewards for Academic Success
12. Careful and Continuous Evaluation
How do we know anything ? We have ideas, thoughts, beliefs, options,
and feeling - but knowledge must be grounded in objective external reality.
The basis of all knowledge, as different from faiths, is objective - It
does not require repeated experiments by neutral observers of some laboratory
sciences, which is considered hard science and factual but also can be
the results of observations and theories that can not be subject to clinical
trials.
The Cosmos does not repeat itself in an orderly way, but if known
observations comply with theoretical rules we can believe in a correspondence
between what we believe and objective reality. Such is the case with evolution,
atomic particle physics, medicine, and other fields where the exact connections
can not be directly observed. We can be conformable with the general theory
even though we don’t completely understand all the underling mechanics.
We can know a drug works, in blind trials it has clearly better effects
over a placebo, but do not know the exact chemical means - each detail
of a set of complex reactions and interactions are beyond us.
The great spirit is programmed into people in the same way language
and speech is hard wired. If children do not use language, the natural
language center is taken over by other uses because of the competitive
nature of cortex applications. If the natural location of the great spirit
is not used it will be over written by something else - Sesame Street where
God was planned ? Once used it is very hard ( or impossible ) to recover
and only extreme methods will retrieve even the rudiments. An eye not used
by Children ( covered by a patch ) will go predominately blind because
the brain connections have been taken over. So it is terribly important
to talk and read to children and to promote the great spirit within them.
The Great Spirit is known by experience -
The American Friends experience
the knowledge of the spirit directly through practice. In objective research
the great spirit has the ability to calm, to heal, to focus attention,
to make connections, to promote well being and physical and mental health.
Without the guidance of the spirit people lose their way, wander unhappily
in the barren and wild places of their imaginations. People without the
internal guidance of the spirit become subject to all kinds of ghosts and
illusions, subject to external manipulations and false claims, as they
try to replace a legitimate desire for spiritual knowledge with commercial
and political products.
They can not experience real freedom or liberty
but are enslaved by irrational passions.
The evidence is overwhelming.
There is no competing theory that even
gets close. Psychology is a babble of unsubstantial claims clearly inferior
to traditional believe in the importance of the spirit. Political theories
are short lived and have not been very productive of human well-being.
The Great Spirit has worked in organized religion but not always.
The
Great Spirit exists in the material objects by projection or in itself,
it comes from the harmony of all matter and the music of the universe in
the form of the ether; the heavens.
The element believed in ancient and
medieval civilizations to fill all space above the sphere of the moon and
to compose the stars and planets. Physics. An all-pervading, infinitely
elastic, massless medium formerly postulated as the medium of propagation
of electromagnetic waves.
The point is that education is pathos and ethos as well as logos.
The
passion for truth is consistent with the passion for spiritual knowledge
and growth.
The three reinforce each other - Knowledge, feeling and spirit
all exist and need to be praised - This seems obvious, a knowledge without
passion is not very interesting or exciting, without values and ethics,
dangerous and ugly, but passion and spirit without knowledge and objective
criteria is crazy and harmful.
Dr. Peter E. Pflaum & Mary Anne Watkins Pflaum
225 Robinson Road
PO Box 2176, New Smyrna Beach, FL 32170-2176
904 428 9609
Tuesday, May 02, 2000
No longer care ? We give up ?
Sara has another poor grade in chemistry.
The subject wasn’t taught,
the test is from the wrong chapter or book so there was no way of getting
it right. She says she doesn’t care - It is just impossible.
The class
makes little sense and the tests don’t follow from things taught. You can’t
win and do it right. She is learning not to care. Not only is she not learning
the subject she is learning to hate school and learning.
She visited New College over the break - they don’t do remedial classes
and if you want a career in Medicine or sciences you need to know chemistry
- but she has learned very little because it is so badly taught. So she
can’t do well - can’t get top scores on national tests because she is not
being given the chance to learn.
OK she gives up, we give up, what can you do ? She doesn’t care how
she does, We won’t care how she does. She doesn’t care about grades, We
won’t care about grades because they are ill rational and senseless like
the crossword puzzle.
These inadequate activities are irrationally justified
by the claim of professional knowledge, experience and expertise. My wife
and I have more experience, degrees and expertise - but that doesn’t matter
- What ever is done is claimed to be done for expert reasons no matter
how unlikely and defended by an unwillingness to learn or change, or engage
in reasonable discussion.
We don’t care if she gets into New College by being in the top 2 % of
students nationally. We don’t care about what college is like for her.
She can always go to a mediocre school, get mediocre grades in a teacher’s
college, get a certificate and teach mediocre students, in a mediocre school
for 36 years without the desire or responsibility to do a professional
job because she has been taught and has learned not to care about excellence.
Mediocre is good enough.
If we say anything we become the subject - we become the problem. Clearly
the message is that you don’t care - and dislike being reminded of on going
faults in the school, mediocre is good enough.
The Superintendent knows
that - the system knows that, most people know that. That fine - it’s all
fine - what ever - we don’t care - we have learned our lesson - it doesn’t
pay to care - to seek the best, to do your best because it just doesn’t
matter and causes trouble.
This the hidden curriculum of the school. Mediocre is good and expected
because it’s so common and all we can reasonably expect - take it or leave
it - I guess we have to take it because it’s not going to get any better.
Well maybe next year - and we can redo chemistry using home study and/or
Florida High School - but what a waste of time and instead of being excited
and rewarded by trying to do your best and learning for the future you
learn to be frustrated by stubborn incompetence to expect mediocre as good
enough. Better not to go to medical school with that attitude - we don’t
really want sloppy doctors - or scientists or engineers - but where are
excellent professional people to come from - overseas - a few select communities
- good preparatory schools - not from schools that don’t try to do their
best and expect students to do their best. Not everyone is able or interested
in excellence in academics but those that do care should be cared for -
supported and rewarded.
Linda Dowdy, Guidance
Father Lopez High School
960 Madison Avenue
Daytona Beach, FL 32114-1889
CC;
David Gonsalves, Principal
Re: Sara Pflaum, Grade 10
Dear Linda:
Thanks again for the considerate call and all your help for Sara. It
was very good to hear she is still first in her class - and your attention
to the issues of overload is much appreciated.
The crossword ended up taking
over 35 hours or two weeks of normal homework time while she was also at
play practice every evening. ( homework takes 2 to 4 hours a night plus
weekends - Sara get home at 5 to 6 gets up at 5:15 AM to get the bus at
6:30 ) and the crossword put a lot of time pressure on all subjects - putting
her behind in Algebra and Chemistry.
We still thing it is plain wrong to ask students to do something you
can’t do yourself. Mrs. Wolf’s response is not to the point and misused
the Sunshine State Standards or SAT’s as cover ( the size of the task is
inappropriate to any "possible" educational return not bad in itself as
a small supplemental activity but unsuitable as a big part of the class
). Mr. Nave has not responded at all.
But that is water under the bridge and all issues are resolved for this
year. I have no reason to drag in on or see Mr. Gonsalves. We feel that
you have done a wonderful job in helping Sara as she is doing fine under
fire, which is a useful lesson in itself.
Thanks for your response. We, of course, only wish everything goes smoothly
with our kids schools. We really want to avoid problems or make solutions
a simple as possible.
There is no point in a meeting if you are going to continue to take
the position that there are no problems, there never are and no one has
ever raised any issue before. It is the problem of the student or the parent
but never the school or its staff. Defense is good offence but not productive
of progress.
I just ask why have a Superintendent, a School Board, Department Chairpeople,
Curriculum, Lessons Plans, Course Descriptions, if teachers just do anything
they want in the classroom ? Mr. Nave does not follow the course plan,
does not test on the material, and his grades are not reflective of what
is to be learned. He is a best disorganized, at worse incapable of doing
the job.
Mrs. Wolf made a heavy grade of this impossible crossword - She has
never done it herself because it is absolutely impossible, now Sara has
spent 16 hours on a activity which is not in the course materials but supplemental
at best. Before you say anything about it - try it - then you can have
an opinion, otherwise, I am correct and you have to believe me. But that
is the way it goes - anything goes and nothing is ever done. So if nothing
is ever going to be done - there is never a point in even talking, which
I guess is what you want.
The message is "Go away and don’t bother me".
OK
Today the issue is Mrs. Wolf and the crossword assignment. Sara has
been struggling with this questionable activity for over eight hours. She
is in the final part of play rehearsals and has other, more useful, school
work to do. So I tried to help and find the task close to impossible. How
much time and effort should be devoted to this kind of "bead work" which
is our term for activities that don’t relite to the mainstream of education,
have no application to further studies, and distract from useful learning.
( Making posters, mobiles, et al ) This activity seems especially wasteful,
extravagant, unnecessary, SUPERFLUOUS labor-consuming, time-consuming,
energy-consuming damaging, DESTRUCTIVE and carries a lot of weight in her
grades. We are stuck !
Copy attached - She is required to fill in all but 10 % of the spaces.
As the spaces fill up it becomes progressively impossible to do. Can Mrs.
Wolf or anyone do this ? I can’t ...
The Four Steps under review: for Sara and me and Mrs. Wolf at 3 PM at
your pleasure . What is the connection - ?
First:
The mission or long term goals, what knowledge, behavior, attitudes
should the student display at the end of the program;
Second:
The curriculum or course outline:
The lesson plans for instructional
activities directed to learning and behavior to achieve the goals.
Third: Classroom activity, reading assignments and homework as tasks
relited to the lesson plans as steps to objectives and goals.
fourth: Evaluation, tests and grades reflecting progress towards the
goals and the content of the lesson plans.
CC;
David Gonsalves, Principal
Mr. Michael Nave, Science Teacher
Mrs. Jean Wolf, English
Mr. William Hunter, English Chairman
Mrs. Patricia Dailey, Science Chairperson
Private - confidential - not a request for action just FYI
Ms. Maureen Huntington
Superintendent of Schools
Orlando
Fax 407 246 4940
You maybe interested in this correspondence.
The central issue is lack
of meaningful response so I turn to you. We have given up on getting any
positive response to any changes at Lopez -Last year - We felt freshmen
should have a mentor and guides to make the transition smoother ( especially
for those from small or non-feeder schools ) We felt the Summa program
could be more club like and social as the NHS - We thought of some sort
of PTA ( academic ) besides the booster club ( non-academic ) for parents
to have input. We were worried that a science teacher was boring and out
of date - and could be helped to make his classes more current and interesting.
The stock reply is " no one else thinks that " - when we know others do
" and " we are doing it - or have plans " when there is no action or plans
of taking action - or to suggest not too subtly we shut up and go away.
Well we will and have - but I think you need to be informed.
This is NOT a request that you do anything because we are afraid to
complain or say anything because of our experience of being attacked and
criticized " the shoot the messenger theory" in practice. Sara will be
followed by James Blaine, another honors student - so we have six more
years to go.
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