The programs of the Unique Education Division are broad based, positioned in every single creating and level of the Lansing School District. Not surprisingly, some administrators and teachers have been caught doctoring student achievement test outcomes in order to stay away from college closures, teacher firings and losses of funds.Teacher merit or efficiency pay and charter schools are becoming supplied as panaceas for improving public schools.
My encounter-as a student (in 8 schools elementary by means of grad school), teacher (briefly) and as a parent of 3 children-tells me that improvement needs improved funding, smaller sized, far more decentralized schools (200 to 600), smaller sized class sizes (maximum 25 for most courses) and easier curriculums emphasizing excellence in the core subjects of English (reading and writing), math, science, foreign languages, music and the fine and industrial arts.
The finest use that Bill Gates could make of the fortune he spends on education would be to make the sort of schools that he and other really wealthy folks send their youngsters to: schools with little classes (not necessarily tiny schools), a fantastic ratio of adults — teachers and support employees — to students, intensive remediation for those who require it, and enrichment of all sorts, which includes the arts, sports, technology, clubs and trips.
Expertise in Mississippi public schools exactly where police turn minor disciplinary challenges into criminal matters, described in the New York Times articles and editorial linked under, supports the conclusion that routine assignment of police to schools is not a useful policy.
Cathleen P. Black, a magazine executive with no educational knowledge who was named as New York City schools chancellor final fall, will step down Thursday morning at the mayor’s urging, city officials mentioned, after a tumultuous and brief tenure.
