School A is making annual progress and its scores are improving. School B is not.
I retired seven years ago and was only there for the first year of the process. So perhaps you know your schools situation far better than I do. I distinctly remember our school made no effort at all to get those first year scores in a good positive number area because we wanted to have room to improve. I thought that was fraudulent.
Education blows, working conditions for teachers blow, there is not enough funding to make effective schools.
and the bottom 20% are functionally illiterate.
Heh. Didn't have YOU'RE best interests at heart, did he? Or did he believe that he needed to leave to make room for someone BETTER to come teach you?
What does functionally illiterate mean? And where did you come up with this figure? I think I had exactly one out of probably 500 high school students who could not read or write and i believe he had severe dyslexia or something similar. Every other student I had was definitely functionally literate in my book.
Functionally illiterate means that they cannot read unaided above the third grade level I believe.
I was a 33 year teacher and union member. I was the Union rep in my high school for more than twenty years. I was the elected chair of all the high schools representing almost 2,000 teachers and spoke for them to the union.
I am here and participating.
That is quite the assumption that does not cover how the majority of students are able to graduate. An almost linear relationship exists between graduation rates and parents income levels (among other variables like race, and divorce). Other factors such as social integration are said to play a role; however it is difficult to quantify social status. All available evidence points to growing up in a tough situation as being the most distinguishable factor.
OK.
And this information applies to what I posted....how?
Originally Posted by KevinKohler
I notice that the usual ardent proponents of unions are not present in this thread. I find their absence speaks far more than they every could with mere words, were they to participate here.
So are other strong public school systems like Valparaiso, Chesterton, and St. John. It has nothing to do with partisan politics! It is all about income levels. Children who come from wealthy families are 7 times less likely to drop out than children who come from poor families.
And, I absolutely agree with this... so should he hold chicago harmless for a 40% dropout rate?
Give me paper, pencils and access to a library and I can turn a group of incoming first graders into great readers and writers. Money isn't the problem.
hows that work with like Hazel Crest. Where they created that Subdivsion for Doctors and Medical People Right across from South Suburban Hospital.
There are huge problems such as poverty, dangerous neighborhoods, drug use, broken homes, absentee parents, etc. that are beyond a teachers control.
depends on their home life situation. motivated kids with supportive parents can make it to harvard with bare bones schools.
kids who grow up in single parent homes where mom is a crack whore and gangbanger bullets interrupt homework can have 20K a year spent on them at some top magnet school and changes are they won't even make it to college
Give me paper, pencils and access to a library and I can turn a group of incoming first graders into great readers and writers. Money isn't the problem.
Very true. As I said, money isn't the problem.
Heh. Didn't have YOU'RE best interests at heart, did he? Or did he believe that he needed to leave to make room for someone BETTER to come teach you?
Are you referring to Flossmoor?
Ehhh. Rather heroic IMO. How many of this group only receive their meals when attending public school?
that was you correct?
I would be interested to see a comparative study between schools in Chicago and schools in other cities that have similar rates of poverty and similar racial makeups. I would honestly be surprised if Chicago was not better than many other similar cities. I'm not trying to pass the buck, and I think a 40% dropout rate is abyssmal, but I feel like people are blaming teachers and we can only do so much. There are huge problems such as poverty, dangerous neighborhoods, drug use, broken homes, absentee parents, etc. that are beyond a teachers control. The schools in Chicago do not have terrible dropout rates and terrible test scores because of the teachers. Teachers are not societies whipping posts, and the lack of respect that we are given honestly has a lot to do with why we are on strike. My favorite sign on the picket line today was something like "I would settle for RESPECT."
Instead of blaming Chicago teachers for low test scores and graduation, you should be commending them for teaching in an environment that is so challenging and difficult. I personally am no slouch. I got my bachelors in Mathematics at UC Berkeley and could probably teach in the best school in the suburbs if I wanted but I wanted to use my talents where they are most needed. And the thanks I get is being blamed for societies ills? C'mon. Use a little common sense people!
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