Scary stuff-parents, you need to be paying attention

[Slowhand]

I just hope that all this shit is gone and figured out by the time I become a teacher in ~4-5 years!

My girlfriend is going to be starting her student teaching in the fall. I've told her not to hold her breath for a job when she gets out of school.

[Nash B.]

Problem: Kids do poor, Teachers do poor.

Solution : Lower the Standards and give the schools a bunch more funding.
(Keep in mind DISD's funding this year topped $1.1 Billion That's 1.1 with eight zeroes behind it.)

You mean $1.100000000? Doesn't sound like that much, really...

[cobrajet69]

Apparently your district lost funding a long time ago...

GAWT DAMNED

Best laugh of the week!


David

[cobrajet69]

New Stadium in Allen ISD was a cool $65 million or so. You should look at the cost of the new Prosper High School. Fuck, go look at the building! It's absurd! Though I understand some of it was private funding, the old high school was only around 5 years old and now sits empty.

Cutting football programs is shooting yourself in the foot. That's a lot of revenue. There has been wasteful spending for decades. This news isn't exactly groundbreaking. Everyone saw it coming. If the govt has proven anything, it's that it can't run anything lean, or efficient.

Take a look at the $55mil high school down the street from me (Central/Keller). That thing looks like a freaking University.


David

[HenryJ]

I wonder if or how this will affect the Westlake Academy. We decided to stay in this town mainly because of the state funded charter school that was built a few yrs. ago.
It's an IB accredited school, but that may not matter any.

[sc281]

You mean $1.100000000? Doesn't sound like that much, really...

LOL

[juiceweezl]

So when is this going to get done again? Surely that is on the Public School agenda, right?

Do you honestly think NCLB is supported by any school administrator or teacher? If so, then you haven't spoken with any of them. They hate it. They hate a ton of the policies they are forced to adhere with. ISD administration does have a rating system, and they do have turnover when necessary -- some districts more than others. Is it fast enough? Probably not in most cases, but that's the way it is in a lot of businesses. As for getting rid of the NCLB, I'm pretty sure you vote for lawmakers just like me and many others in this thread. That means you can help make things change as well.

Trust me when I say that teachers would much rather spend their time working with a child that wants to learn instead of giving some kid a 3rd chance to score at least a 70 on a test.

[Taylor]

Our educational systems needs a top to bottom shakedown. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

[built2layframe]

It’s a tough call for me. I was raised in the sticks and our school was pretty vanilla. They didn’t offer swimming, orchestra or soccer so to me those types of programs should be cut. Don’t let the education suffer before extra curricular activities. Another program that chaps my ass is the dual language program… for my child to learn Spanish, which brings us back to the largely un-contributing part of our society. It isn’t just illegal’s either. You’ve all seen ‘em. People who are able bodied but not able willed; soaking up someone’s generosity and state funding.

GGRRRR

Oh, sorry.

< R

[Chili]

< R

I was confused when I started reading this.. I was asking myself, was Euless the sticks in the last couple of decades?

[Leah]

When the schools are more worried about getting butts in the seats to fill a quota for state funding, there is a problem. They shouldn't have to be worrying about getting money. That shouldn't be their priority, but unfortunately that is todays reality. The schools will put off to the last minute to close these days. They contemplate the risk of getting the money for the attendance over the welfare of the kids and the parents dropping them off.

What I am saying is, people that run schools should not have to worry about money. Their main function is to educate, and the way the system is setup now, the money is more important to keep the school running.

Yeah, who needs to worry about how they will get books and other supplies to actually DO the educating.

For those of you bashing the school system and teachers and ragging on the quality of education, hold off just a bit. The current system is flawed, and I agree that private sector would be much better for managing education. However, don't lump all teachers and educators together. My wife teaches, and is in her 14th year spread across 3 districts and 2 states. She probably logs close to 60 hours per week between after school tutoring, team planning, and grading papers at the house. There are a TON of teachers like here out there. Her students perform better because of that effort as well. The problem is that the current system doesn't reward her outstanding performance. The crappy teachers at her school make just as much, and the students in those classes suffer.

You can't tell me that the gym teacher should make as much salary as a math teacher for example. A lot of people gripe about teachers being underpaid, but many (my wife included) will tell you that isn't the case. If you factor in that they have 2 months a year off, then the pay turns out to be fairly decent in many districts (she's in FISD now). Now if you made say 20% of pay based off performance, then she'd max out and other teachers would wash out. Successful teachers win, the students win, and the districts win by attracting better prospective teachers.

Oh, and for the record, if you really want to fix the education system, then start with the No Child Left Behind crap.

A FUCKING MEN!

Do you honestly think NCLB is supported by any school administrator or teacher? If so, then you haven't spoken with any of them. They hate it. They hate a ton of the policies they are forced to adhere with. ISD administration does have a rating system, and they do have turnover when necessary -- some districts more than others. Is it fast enough? Probably not in most cases, but that's the way it is in a lot of businesses. As for getting rid of the NCLB, I'm pretty sure you vote for lawmakers just like me and many others in this thread. That means you can help make things change as well.

Trust me when I say that teachers would much rather spend their time working with a child that wants to learn instead of giving some kid a 3rd chance to score at least a 70 on a test.

You are absolutely correct. NO TEACHER supports NCLB. It is an idiotic piece of legislation that has done nothing but hurt education.

Our educational systems needs a top to bottom shakedown. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Agreed.

[JP135]

My wife is ex AISD. Yesterday she spoke to one of her former co-workers who is fairly high in the school administration and chose to retire this year. Two things she said really annoyed me. Arlington claims to have eliminated a bunch of admin positions at the headquarters. What they did was shuffle positions around. Now the high-paid administrators have different job titles and are still making the same money they were. So that little story is just a shell game.

Secondly, at the school board meeting they planned to allow teachers to speak. One requirement was that probationary teachers were required to wear a blue ribbon so the board would know who they were. I don't know what the official reason was, but it was very clear that speaking while wearing the blue ribbon was an immediate termination.

[Leah]

My wife is ex AISD. Yesterday she spoke to one of her former co-workers who is fairly high in the school administration and chose to retire this year. Two things she said really annoyed me. Arlington claims to have eliminated a bunch of admin positions at the headquarters. What they did was shuffle positions around. Now the high-paid administrators have different job titles and are still making the same money they were. So that little story is just a shell game.

Secondly, at the school board meeting they planned to allow teachers to speak. One requirement was that probationary teachers were required to wear a blue ribbon so the board would know who they were. I don't know what the official reason was, but it was very clear that speaking while wearing the blue ribbon was an immediate termination.

When did (or will) all this supposedly happen?

[Baron Von Crowder]

My wife, mother in law and my mom are all teachers. Two at Arlington.

While I dont like the instability of the whole deal, I think there will be some good that will come from it. My wife's school has a new principal that is already shaking up things. A couple of teachers have already been told they would not have a contract next year. They have low passing rates, and classroom control. GREAT. Too many good teachers out there for a shitty one to keep their job because of time at the district. They are also killing the coaches positions that dont teach.

They are going to do performanced based reviews, and take one conference period away from teachers and give them another class. Great.

One of the reasons I did not continue on the path to being a teacher is that GENERALLY the people who are running the schools are educators, not buisness people. It takes someone who is qualified to run something that large to make it work. I hear they are calling in the Bobs to see where they can cut some fat.

*posted from my phone, blow me on the spelling and such.

[sc281]

I hear they are calling in the Bobs to see where they can cut some fat.

Soooooo what would you say....ya do here?