Tornado Alley (PROG)

[Max Power]

On the first link: I think ideas like this are fantastic! When I went to graduate school I really enjoyed it, there was so much time devoted to discussion. It doesn't feel like prison and starting a class like this is would engage students. Good teachers already do things like this as a natural out growth of their philosophy or personality. UNFORTUNATELY: the real truth going on out there in education land is only the wealhiest schools are doing anything like this now. Testing is the focus every minute of every day. Kindergartners are now having recess taken away from them just to make more time for instruction. Not a minute is wasted. there are some innovative techniques being used but the whole child/360 degree education just isn't happening. If your school is the kind that the vast majority will pass the standardized tests no matter what you MAY get your administrators to allow you to do some cool stuff but mostly they are up your @#(*# with the latest 'techniques' that some ed reformer sold them through their political buddies. its so utterly disgusting to be a teacher in America right now.

2nd link:

Wow, i didn't even need to read the article..i saw the headline and i have written on other forums and talked with colleagues at length about this idiotic idea. there is a historical (but closing) education achievement gap in Florida, like most other areas. However I would compare it to my own 4 children, they are not equal. If one was really struggling in school i wouldn't set a super low goal for her and tell her and her siblings that she likely wasn't going to do as well as them.

Its just common sense to me that you don't set a goal like this and humiliate 1/2 of your children in a state. People also NEED to understand this very important point: It is NOT affirmative action, They ARE NOT LOWERING the individual standards for any student regardless of race or ethnicity. A African American kid has to get the same score as an Asian or white child to show proficiency. That said Florida is simply publicly saying their expectations for their Black and Hispanic children is that more of them will fail. Shameful.

I read this article first on Huffington Post. All the conservatives came on to deride this "liberal" plan. After cursing to myself I proceeded to TRY to educate them. I informed them that the board is not elected they are appointed by the governors and that Florida has been in Republican hands for a long time. That did not convince them so eventually had to resort to posting the voter registration and bio's that showed the entire board are republican and political operatives/allies of various current republican leaders. So its once again NON EDUCATORS making decisions for everyone in the actual profession. Educators are constantly told how we should teach by people with zero credentials and zero track record of success with students.


Its all political now and Obama has made the bet that most of the countries 4 million teachers will continue to support him despite the betrayals. if he loses a close one you can really look to that miscalculation as a reason why. There is also the fact that most of the people on the Florida board of education are huge charter proponents who stand to personally financially gain from proliferation of these charters (in florida charters are 7 times more likely to be F schools). Its pretty slimy business, but then Rick Scott is a pretty slimy human being. MOST charter schools target poor and minority children who are higher performing...further degrading public schools in the toughest areas as the 'creme of the crop' is skimmed and the ell, special education, and low performing students are not admitted to these charter schools.

If you ask most uniformed people they will tell you that charter schools are not public, they of course are, but they can lower the standards for their teachers and raise them for the kids they admit. Real public schools take everyone. So minority parents hear this bullshit from florida's ed department and think this is a reflection of how the public school system feels about their children and when charter schools snake oil salesmen come calling they are ready to leave those public schools. (should there children be high enough academically) They aren't told charter schools are also public schools, just with lower standards. They are not told that that the 'ceo' of the school may be making 3 times what the superintendent of the local district makes who oversees 100 schools to the 1 charter school.

Most charters are solely in it for the money and if they don't make enough they shut down shop in the middle of the years and the kids are left out in the cold. of course the local public schools have to take them, despite not having hired the teachers for those kids at the beginning of the year. So where does all that extra money for the 'ceo' of the school come from? LOW pay for teachers, hey they aren't certified, so you don't have to pay em' much! HUGE classes. 40 kids or more to guarantee you that your kid will never get personalize attention, no transportation, no extra curricular (some will have them, but parents have to pony up) ... and don't even get me started on online charters, now those are out and out frauds 99% of the time.

SO in short if something doesn't make any logical sense and it has to do with education you can almost bet with 100% certainty that the reasoning behind it is the corporate deform movement. Whether they are trying to embarrass schools and teachers by grading them on student test scores or just out and out not funding public schools in favor of charters (http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/content/house-wont-recommend-peco-funds-traditional-public-schools) the reason is the same. The 'job creators' want a piece of the education "market". They will prostitute anyone children they can to make a buck, except their own little darlings who will be educated at a 40k a year elite school so they have the skills to rule over our children for the next generation.

I shudder to think what education will be like in 20 years, then I want to throw up when I realize that even though I am in year 15 I will likely have to go another 30 before I can retire. BTW enrollment in education at the college level is dropping like a rock. My own 4 children (3 in school, one is too young) are extremely high performing. The two that took the FCAT in Florida last year got level 5's including a couple of perfect scores. They will NOT be going into education if I have anything to say about it. Why teach in America? R'money and Obama 'love' teachers but the working conditions, pay, and benefits are shit throughout most of the country. I don't want my kids to have all the anger that I and my colleagues currently harbor. I think a huge change is coming, and the strike in Chicago was just a hint. When the economy returns I don't expect many experienced and high achieving teachers will. I guess people can go to their corporate overlords and ask them who will teach our kids, and they will develop another useless computer program to further lobotomize students. America is eventually going to get the teachers they DESERVE. they are currently getting way more than they do.