Recently, President Obama shared ideas on education reform.
Highlights of his speech included a call for:
- More charter schools to offer parents more choices
- Merit-based pay for teachers
- A longer academic year & longer school day
The President acknowleges that the idea of a longer school day/academic year is not a popular idea.
What do you think? Are you for or against a longer school day/year?
As a parent of a special need child who thrives at school, I am in favor of a year round school year. He loves the routine, consistancy and learning at school. And he has come so far because of it.
When I was in school 12 years ago my school in Colorado had a 4 day a week school week. It was from 8:06 am to 4:16 pm Tues-Fri. We loved it. Other people thought it was wierd. We also went Mid-august to first week of June.
I loved going to an all-year round school. We still had a Summer break and throughout the year we had long almost 3 week breaks. It was great! I think people should give it a chance because I think they would end up loving it.
longer school days? no. they're long enough
How do you judge a teacher's merit? Test scores? What if many of that teacher's students are low IQ? Someone has to teach the children with learning disabilities. They are important students but will never score well on tests.
Someone has to score in the bottom percentile of standardized tests. If students take a test and everyone makes an A, then those who made a 90% are in the lowest percentile. Did they still learn?
Does the principal decide? How? Subjectively. Kiss ups get the raises?
Do the parents and children decide? That would make the most sense, but it won't happen.
Marketing agents can be judged by success for thier campaigns, car salesmen by number of sales etc. Teaching is not a quantitative job.
Irishmom
I agree with this 100% plus some students just dont do well on standardized tests, this would be totally unfair to some otherwise wonderful teachers!
Quoting Irishmom54:
How do you judge a teacher's merit? Test scores? What if many of that teacher's students are low IQ? Someone has to teach the children with learning disabilities. They are important students but will never score well on tests.
Someone has to score in the bottom percentile of standardized tests. If students take a test and everyone makes an A, then those who made a 90% are in the lowest percentile. Did they still learn?
Does the principal decide? How? Subjectively. Kiss ups get the raises?
Do the parents and children decide? That would make the most sense, but it won't happen.
Marketing agents can be judged by success for thier campaigns, car salesmen by number of sales etc. Teaching is not a quantitative job.
Quoting Irishmom54:
How do you judge a teacher's merit? Test scores? What if many of that teacher's students are low IQ? Someone has to teach the children with learning disabilities. They are important students but will never score well on tests.
Someone has to score in the bottom percentile of standardized tests. If students take a test and everyone makes an A, then those who made a 90% are in the lowest percentile. Did they still learn?
Does the principal decide? How? Subjectively. Kiss ups get the raises?
Do the parents and children decide? That would make the most sense, but it won't happen.
Marketing agents can be judged by success for thier campaigns, car salesmen by number of sales etc. Teaching is not a quantitative job.
Some teachers aren't popular with students but are great at teaching. Some parents might side with their kid that the teacher is too mean and so the teacher might be left to suck up to parents and kids.
I think we should have a longer school day and year.
I do think a longer school year/longer day is a good idea.
I sat in on a very interesting talk by famed author Malcolm Gladwell, who delved into compelling research in his new book where he talks about how summer vacation can have a negative impact on some kids, citing that kids from underprivileged backgrounds lose ground
academically to their more privileged peers not while school is in session, but during
summer vacations. Not all kids are fortunate enough to have access to further learning experiences during the summer, such as touring Europe or going to camp, so year-round schooling could be a great way to continue the learning process.
Quoting Faye-Tula:
Quoting Irishmom54:
How do you judge a teacher's merit? Test scores? What if many of that teacher's students are low IQ? Someone has to teach the children with learning disabilities. They are important students but will never score well on tests.
Someone has to score in the bottom percentile of standardized tests. If students take a test and everyone makes an A, then those who made a 90% are in the lowest percentile. Did they still learn?
Does the principal decide? How? Subjectively. Kiss ups get the raises?
Do the parents and children decide? That would make the most sense, but it won't happen.
Marketing agents can be judged by success for thier campaigns, car salesmen by number of sales etc. Teaching is not a quantitative job.
Some teachers aren't popular with students but are great at teaching. Some parents might side with their kid that the teacher is too mean and so the teacher might be left to suck up to parents and kids.I think we should have a longer school day and year.
You have a point there! So - really,how would merit be judged?
Irishmom
Quoting Faye-Tula:
Some teachers aren't popular with students but are great at teaching. Some parents might side with their kid that the teacher is too mean and so the teacher might be left to suck up to parents and kids.
If a teacher is so mean that the parents feel the need to intervene, I don't see how they could be "great at teaching." For a teacher to help a student reach his or her full potential, there has to be some sort of positive connection.
The problem with our education system is so obvious. It isn't so much the teachers/schools, it's the crap they are given to teach! Kids come to school hungry, tired, unclean and NOT ready to learn. Way too many kids come from sad families or families that either don't know how or simply choose not to support education. Why do we think it is that so many private schools have kids that are so successful? The private schools aren't doing too much different except demanding proper behavior. Once that is in check the rest falls into place. Longer days/longer school year isn't going to do anything. It's about quality, not quantity!!
When I was in high school, I took French class. And we learned about how kids in France go to school. 6 days a week, all year round.
Mon 9-6 (with a 1 1/2 hour lunch - all kids go home for lunch)
Tues 9-6
Wed 9-12
Thurs 9-6
Fri - 9-6
Saturday 9-12
And these kids are learning 2, 3, even 4 languages by the time they are in Junior High. They are learning things in 3rd grade that kids here in America don't learn until 7th grade!! How is it we can sit here and knock on France and England so much when the fact is... they are smarter than we are!!
Affordable ID Theft Protection
Eight Year Old Girl Given "Catastrophe Award" By Teacher
- CharmaineL
on Mar. 14, 2009 at 12:16 PM