american public school system

[Dalya]

it's a problem that's found outside of the classroom, and it's one that, unfortunately, is beyond the scope of educational reform.

well clearly you didnt read the bill gates speach

"The Kansas City, Kansas public school district, where 79 percent of students are minorities and 74 percent live below the poverty line, was struggling with high dropout rates and low test scores when it adopted the school-reform model called First Things First in 1996. This included setting high academic standards for all students, reducing teacher-student ratios, and giving teachers and administrators the responsibility to improve student performance and the resources they needed to do it. The district’s graduation rate has climbed more than 30 percentage points.

These are the kind of results you can get when you design high schools to prepare every student for college.

At the Met School in Providence, Rhode Island, 70 percent of the students are black or Hispanic. More than 60 percent live below the poverty line. Nearly 40 percent come from families where English is a second language. As part of its special mission, the Met enrolls only students who have dropped out in the past or were in danger of dropping out. Yet, even with this student body, the Met now has the lowest dropout rate and the highest college placement rate of any high school in the state.

These are the kind of results you can get when you design a high school to prepare every student for college.

Two years ago, I visited High Tech High in San Diego. It was conceived in 1998 by a group of San Diego business leaders who became alarmed by the city's shortage of talented high-tech workers. Thirty-five percent of High Tech High students are black or Hispanic. All of them study courses like computer animation and biotechnology in the school's state-of-the-art labs. High Tech High’s scores on statewide academic tests are 15 percent higher than the rest of the district; their SAT scores are an average of 139 points higher.

These are the kind of results you can get when you design a high school to prepare every student for college"

[aquaphase]

That's because J hates Bill

I'm not too fond of Bill myself, but the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has done an awful lot of good in the past several years.

[Dalya]

i agree. and to be honest i dont care what their intentions are as long as the good things are being done. obviously it would be "better" if they did it because they wanted to and didnt get anything else out of it, but i dont think its bad to give to charity because you want a tax cut. the charity still gets the money.

[zenmomma]

c) lecture briefly and have them take notes, then pass out some sort of game, divide the class into teams, and play. here you are reaching the greatest percentage of students. even the students who miss out in the first section will pick up things during the game that they missed. plus you are making learning fun, the students forget they are learning-- this is when the most learning takes place (like getting into a good book).

I agree totally...

Another example... I just started a new job with a financial services company. They put us through eight weeks of intensive training. On the first day of training took tests and had discussions about what types of learners we are so the trainers could adapt teachings acoordingly. They even passed out slinkies, koosh balls and plastic tangles for those of us who wanted them as sometimes people find it easier to learn when they have something to play with. Our days were split with games, puzzles, shadowing, q&a and regular old lecture/reading learning. I don't think I could have coped had it been any other way.

[James]

Want to know what the official Language of the USA is? NONE.

I don't understand the culture of not learning a second language. It's not like it's going to replace English. Plus, a LOT of the world speaks Spanish. A lot of countries speak Romance languages, which can be discerned between fairly easily (at least enough to read signs and menus). I know some kids that went to Country Day school in Fort Worth (read: high priced private school). They were taught Spanish from age 4 through graduation. All of these kids are fluent in Spanish and better off for it. Especially in Texas, where there are some parts of the state you really need to speak the language. Sure, the kids should learn English, because a lot of business goes on in English (until the Chinese take over, then we're all screwed, because those languages are mas dificil).

I think the biggest misgiving of education is lack of parental involvement. If my parents weren't there for constant support or to kick my ass should I get anything less than a B, who knows what I might have done. I always had that instilled that my education was my responsibility first, with a support group around if I need help. I think that's lost as well.

[eebs]

we need to remember that in the rest of the world, it is common that folks are fluent in more than one language.

Froggy does bring up a good point here. How many American Forkers here can speak more than one language? Hell, I'll even entertain answers from the non-American Forkers.

I speak 2: English & German.

i learnt 4 languages at school - english, french, german and spanish and did O level courses to 16 in english language, english literature, french and german. One of my A level's was in german too.

i also know how to say happy christmas in polish from my days in primary school

[eebs]

I think the biggest misgiving of education is lack of parental involvement. If my parents weren't there for constant support or to kick my ass should I get anything less than a B, who knows what I might have done. I always had that instilled that my education was my responsibility first, with a support group around if I need help. I think that's lost as well.

i agree with that 100%

[mr_j]

Want to know what the official Language of the USA is? NONE.

but for all the talk of other countries teaching second languages in their schools, I'm pretty sure that none of these nations have state-sponsored curriculums for non-native language students. even though they're teaching second languages to the children of their nation, they're not teaching it because their population is burdened with kids who don't speak the native tongue, and i think that's a big difference between our situation and theirs.

I think the biggest misgiving of education is lack of parental involvement. If my parents weren't there for constant support or to kick my ass should I get anything less than a B, who knows what I might have done. I always had that instilled that my education was my responsibility first, with a support group around if I need help. I think that's lost as well.

totally. if the kids aren't getting the support at home and aren't taught the importance of education, then no amount of money you spend is going to help that kid. rich kid, poor kid, black kid, white kid--it doesn't really matter; the parental involvment is so important, and if there's not that very basic foundation in the child's life, then you're going to (generally speaking) have problems.

[sam]

A couple observations from my recent experience. First, Dallas' schools were quite literally built in the 50s. I am just finishing up renovation and expansion work on four separate campuses, all built between 1948 and 1956. The only significant work that came between then and now was adding air conditioning in the mid 60s. Despite a $1.37 billion bond program, the improvements have been modest at best. Second, it appeared to me that the biggest difference between those schools was the principal. Dedicated and experienced ones seemed to make everything run better. A couple of them are entirely unfit for that responsibility. I don't know how those schools faired academically, though. But that brings me to the last comment. I sure hope standardized testing works, because it rules what goes on at those schools.

[Phyllis]

i don't buy into it at all. the system may have its flaws, but what he says is just bullshit. he's only doing this for the money. think bill gates cares really cares about the education system?

the system may be flawed, but it doesn't need microsoft to fuck it up even more.

i am pretty sure bill gates is in a stage where he DOESN'T NEED ANYMORE MONEY. if he wanted he could spend his life NOT caring about anything.

maybe someone is just trying to do something good? fuck. why is it so fucking hard to believe that someone wants to do something GOOD?

even if he is doing it for the money, who cares? its not like he's murdering orphan children or something.

[ree-ree]

bill gates has started a new campaign to bring attention to the american public school system and the slogan is something like "what good is it graduating in 2006 from a school system that was designed in 1956?"

discuss.

I've been reading and hearing about this. It's very interesting. I agree something needs to be changed. In a big way.
And it's not just inner-city schools that have problems. The public system needs an overhaul.
The bureaucracy is incredible here. They have blind kids taking Driver's Ed. The kids were asking to take a different class and the powers that be said, "No. It's part of the curriculum." Meanwhile, other schools can't get money desperately needed for repairs. Some of the buildings are soooo neglected. It's goofiness.

Oh, and Phyllis? I agree.

If nothing else maybe, just maybe, it'll get people to open their eys and realize the future is now and we need to do something. Something a little more tangible, positive and realistic than the ridiculous No Child Left Behind. What a joke.

[Tracy]

TAKS testing is next week. My son, who will be taking AP tests the first two weeks of May will be missing valuable instruction time due to this scheduling of the tests - the halls need to be quiet for those taking the TAKS and Exit Level exams.

Every year, three times a year, actual learning is disrupted to take the benchmarks and the tests. That's not counting the time taken to teach strategies to pass the tests (at least in the lower grades).

I think it's very sad.

[Dalya]

i dropped AP english my senior year because all they did was prepare you for the AP exam. it was such a waste of time. then i was in regular english which was too easy for me and also a waste of time.

[katie]

I went to parochial school, so I can't really weigh in too much with the whole public school debate, but I'll give my two cents on the issue of schools generally. And by the by, I speak English, French, Brazilian Portuguese, and a bit of Irish Gaelic, German, and Italian.

I think the problem with school is that it's not structured correctly for kids to be interested in learning. We as a society have made learning such a "drag" that kids detest going to school. I was a bright kid, and even I didn't like school all that much. I loved learning, but I didn't love the method with which I was taught.

I feel like schools focus far too much on rote memorization, particularly in my Catholic school environment. It wasn't about understanding concepts so much as it was about getting the right answer. I think schools need to be more focused on problem-solving and creative thinking, rather than memorizing the answer to a question and spitting it back.

That being said, I do think memorization has its place. Memorization is something I've always been good at, which is a large part of why I've done so well in school. I feel there are far more intelligent people than myself who have failed in a school environment simply because they don't have that capacity to hold figures in their head. I think alternative schooling methods might work better than the lecture-hall craze we have going now. It's like how I feel about dancing - having good technique is extremely important, but if you don't have the creativity to add your own feeling and flair to the movements, then you're just regurgitating steps and you're not a good dancer.

I think perhaps kids should be given more of a choice of what they want to study, particularly in the high school arena. It may just be that my school was tiny and we didn't have much in the way of resources, but there were very few options for electives. Electives to me were things like AP Biology or Anatomy and Physiology or Modern European History. There was one theatre class, Intro to Musical Theatre, which I couldn't even take because it didn't fit into my schedule. Kids will be more willing to learn if they are actually interested in what they're learning. A liberal arts education is important, it's great to be well-rounded and well-versed in things other than your focus, but perhaps if we focused on what children were excelling at and interested in, they'd really be able to take off and run with their educations.

I'm about to graduate college and the thought of life without school is making me panic. I think I'm addicted to learning. Can grad school be far off?

[mr_j]

I'm about to graduate college and the thought of life without school is making me panic. I think I'm addicted to learning. Can grad school be far off?

Do yourself one better. Teach. Knowledge learned that isn't shared with others is knowledge wasted. Things won't get better when those who can make it better don't try to make it better.