3 posts tagged “public school”
In an Education Week article regarding McCain and Obama's likely different approaches to education funding, I came across these quotes regarding federal spending on education, which induced a moderate degree of mental constipation. I believe the quoted individuals are referring to the same federal government, and the same educational system, so I'm having a bit of trouble reconciling the two. I'll bold the source of my confusion.
- "Dan Lips, a senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, based in Washington, said that federal education spending has risen by more than 40 percent since the enactment of the No Child Left Behind law more than six years ago, and that the boost hasn’t led to a significant increase in student achievement."
- "Mr. Kealy of the Committee for Education Funding said, though, that Sen. Obama’s proposal could represent a 'turning point for education funding, which has seen only modest increases in recent years.' "
Isn't there a philosophical law of non-contradiction that states something along the lines that a statement cannot be both true and false? So, either "modest" is one of those words I always thought I knew, but turned out to have an entirely different definition, or one of these fools is lying (or shamelessly, shamelessly manipulating, and when someone can't talk straight, I just so happen to get a little nervous, and a little offended. I'm nervously offended). I always thought modest meant, you know, modest. Apparently, I need to recontextualize.
- Bodybuilder increases lean mass by 40%. (a modest gain).
- Patient loses 40% of blood (a modest flesh wound).
- Diet increases risk of heart attack by 40% (modest risk).
- School suffers from 40% dropout rate (a modest lack of success).
- Man spends 40% of salary on gambling (a modest lapse in judgment. Wife should not be upset).
Now maybe I should go back and give it a second read.
In a fitting end to a summer school session that began with an admnistrator telling us that "these kids have been beaten down all year long," this group of enjoyable youngsters has proven that they are no slouches when it comes to administering a little beat-down of their own.
After returning from the restroom, one of my students informed me that there was huge, buzzing, green-backed beetle bouncing back and forth in the hall outside my door. I stepped outside to have a look, and of course it turned out to be one of those situations where I couldn't resist taking one or two awkward swipes at the dive-bombing insect. One or two turned into 15 or 20, as my competitive side got the better of me. Next thing you know, I'm having a serious, cooperative, hands-on lesson with one of my students on how to swipe a bug out the sky. Thankfully no one came upstairs, or they would have seen me and one student twirling, ducking, leaping, and pawing at the air. Finally we chased it into another teacher's room (it was empty, except for the teacher). Finally, my professional instincts got the better of me, and I delegated the task of bug-capture to my student, and began walking back across the hall. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a veritable colony of these beetles meandering about the outside of another classroom door.
I made the mistake of poking my head inside the classroom to check with the instructor as to the bug-status of his room. He told me that he had killed three already, and then all hell broke loose in his room. I shut the door quickly, and promised to round up the remaining critters on my own (but not before leaving him to contend with small-scale chaos. I could hear him accusing various students of releasing the horde of beetles through the door.
Finally, with the help of my student, I rounded up the beetle battalion into a Yuban can, and sent him outside to release them. I'm not sure of who brought the bugs to school, but all but one of the beetles refused to fly, so the joke sort of fell flat. It made for a nice end to one of the wackiest summer school sessions I've ever been a part of.
Overall, the kids were a huge improvement from last year. But I hope, in the future, we will refrain from referring to summer school kids as helpless victims of the beat down.
Smaller class sizes: better for everyone.
Alas, this is one of those befuddling scenarios where the facts don't always line up with what we just know to be true.
Thank you Instructivist, a very cool commonsense blog I've just discovered, for pointing out that smaller class sizes aren't necessarily a magic bullet.
Abigail and Stephen Thernstrom's book No Excuses also notes that mandating smaller class sizes actually dilutes teaching talent, so it should come as no surprise that a decrease in the quality of instruction will follow:
Decades of research, however, have failed to establish that smaller classes have any measurable impact on student achievement....If districts have to hire a great many teachers in order to reduce average class size, they are forced to be less selective in picking those teachers, with a decline in quality as a consequence" (159).
In addition, I can say from personal experience that class management (a component of teacher quality), and willingness of the learner (along with support from parents and administration), play a much bigger role in educational environment than class size. I would love smaller classes as a whole, but I've had classes of 16 where I spent more time on discipline, routines, and teaching of simple expectations than I have in classes of 40.
Class size is easy to talk about, and it's easy to ask for more money to subsidize smaller class sizes. It's for the children, it's not their fault, education is the cornerstone of our state so cough it up, etc--the typical babble aimed at guilting citizens into forking over ungodly sums to an system that has very little accountability.
There are underlying issues, however, that are much more germane to fostering a healthy educational climate, and these issues require more than a fat green band-aid.
