Understanding Why "RI Teacher Says 'I Quit' "

What Do You Think??

I have received comments about my proposal to ask for your ideas regarding educational questions in my future posts.

I am including them below and also posing a question as I suggested I would.

Here is a prelude to the question.

In Jersee (as we like to call it), we have had over the past decades,  the following educational schemes, instituted and imposed by the State:

The Renaissance Act

The Urban Hope Act

No Child Left Behind  (NCLB)

The Race to the Top

The Quality Education Act  (QEA)

Thorough and Efficient   (T&E)

High School Proficiency   (HSPT),    (HSPT9), (HSTP11)

Grade Eight Proficiency  Assessment   (GEPA)

Quality Single Accountability  Continuum   (QSAC)

Comprehensive Education Improvement and Financing Act   (CEIFA)

The School Funding Reform Act

The New Jersey Assessment of    Skills and Knowledge  (NJ ASK)

NJ ASK 3, NJ ASK 4, NJ ASK 3-8

Minimum Basic Skills testing program  (MBS)

Early Warning Test (EWT)

Alternate Proficiency Assessment (APA)

Elementary School Proficiency Assessment (ESPA)

The Open Classroom

Core Curriculum Content Standards

and

The Charter School craze!

I hope I haven't missed any. There's an allow lot to remember!  If I have, please remind me.

Question:

Which, if any of the aforementioned plans, have had any success in improving New Jersey education or education in general?

Which, if any, have proved negative for education and teaching?

And, if you could devise a plan to improve education, what would be its prime components?

Please your reply to: 

wsautter@optonline.net

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Here are some of the letters which I have received regarding my previous post:

Walt,

I stumbled upon your blog through High School Herd, through Pinterest, while looking for math ideas for my high school classroom in Ohio. I am at a career and technical center serving grades 11 and 12, teaching Intermediate Algebra/Geometry and Algebra 2. I am also the numeracy coach (for one period of the day).

Your comments and feelings are echoed here in Ohio. I assume the culture of the profession and unions is similar across the country. I think the site is a great idea and would be proud to contribute to the cause. At worst, I could occasionally share some perspective from my state.

It was surprising that your blog was only a few days old. I was expecting at least a few years worth of comments. I have been teaching since 1999 and my first full year started with an eight day strike. I have been at my current district since 2007 and have certainly noticed a shift in the mindset of communities as well as union members.

Back to teaching! Looking forward to hearing back from you.

Jeff E.

*****

Sounds great! I'm in.

Peg Nicholson
Missouri Information Coordinator



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Thank you Jeff and Peg for your replies.

 

Education A Through Z

As in days of old, when the new king was crowned, his first task was to dispose of the offspring of the former king and replaces them with his own. So it seems to be in Trenton and Washington.
With every new administration a new educational scheme, with an official sounding acronym, is concocted while the old one is exiled to a dusty basement file somewhere in the state’s or nation’s capitol.
Meanwhile, teachers and administrators scurry to conform to the new set of edicts and demands. The role of the school often becomes that of a test preparatory program and the sole goal of the teacher is to be sure that the students score well.
For example, way back in the seventies, we had “T and E” (Thorough and Efficient”), QEA in the 1980s (Quality Education Act), QSAC in the 2000s (Quality Single Accountability Continuum), NCLB in the 2000s (No Child Left Behind) and CCCS in the 2000s (Core Curriculum Content Standards). Additionally, we have endured a plethora of tests, again each with its own acronym designation ESPA, GEPA, HSPT and SRA.
Oh, and let’s not forget the “Open Classroom”. Although it wasn’t a test or an official state program it was a very popular educational scheme. Also, how about the current “Educational Reforms” and the additional proposed “Educational Reforms” of the present administration? They too, I think qualify as educational schemes.
There are a few questions that should be asked about the aforementioned.
“Have any of the programs helped in the education of our children?”
“Have any made the work of teachers and the schools more productive?”
“If any of the previous plans experienced any success why then are they continually replaced with new ones?”
The real question then is, “Does all this benefit the learning of the children?
Or are they politically and PR motivated?”
I don’t really know but I do wonder – a lot?
You probably have some other questions and ideas about this. Let’s hear them!