Get Schooled

By Jeff

February 26, 2007 8:03 AM | Link to this

Unfortunately, probably not.

And we will ALL be the worse for it.

By jim d

February 26, 2007 8:23 AM | Link to this

I really doubt it.

I suspect we will soon be following in these footsteps.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54425

By jim d

February 26, 2007 8:24 AM | Link to this

jeff,

how’s the job search going?

By Jim in Marietta

February 26, 2007 8:24 AM | Link to this

Let’s see. When taxes are no longer collected to support public school it will cease to be a political issue. No money = No interest. That should occur about the same time hell freezes over.

By jim d

February 26, 2007 8:31 AM | Link to this

Jim in Marietta,

That happened some time ago.

http://humor.beecy.net/misc/hellfrozeover/

By Jim in Marietta

February 26, 2007 8:56 AM | Link to this

jim d,

A link on the same page says Hell Does Not Exist. Go figure.

By jim d

February 26, 2007 9:27 AM | Link to this

Proof that it does.

I grew up about 45 minutes from hell.

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tips/getAttraction.php3?tip_AttractionNo==2456

By Ronnie B

February 26, 2007 9:29 AM | Link to this

Supporters think having consistent, rigorous academic standards across states would improve public education. But it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the process of creating such standards would be fraught with politics, with different groups (liberal, conservative, name your favorite activists here) trying to influence what’s taught to impressionable school children. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to high quality education is the tenacious commitment to the status quo: inequities and unfairness. Very few programs can overcome that kind of commitment.

So maybe we DO need rocket scientists to fix this.

By GaNative

February 26, 2007 10:54 AM | Link to this

Nope, sorry to say but I don’t ever seeing it not being political. The current school board and a lot of positions in the school system are like an inheritance for family members and friends.

By Janine

February 26, 2007 10:58 AM | Link to this

But will public education ever not be political? Having been in the education morass for many years, I’m with the *Hell freezes over * contingent. Education’s entanglement in politics is a given. Even the most naive of brand new teachers [and most are NOT naive} come to that conclusion in a matter of weeks. It is evident in every decision made by those in administrative positions from the assistants to the superintendent to the Secretary of Ed. to the President. It is unambiguous and indisputable. Every time a new program was purchased, or a new consulting business hired, even new textbooks chosen, my colleagues and I always remarded….”Wonder who is driving the new Mercedes this week”.

By Janine

February 26, 2007 11:02 AM | Link to this

GANative…AGREE! Nepotism is Dekalb is rampant. If anyone ever did an investigation, they would find relatives of the school board, past and present, relatives of administrators, past and present mingled throughout the system, in positions from teachers to custodians, from consultants to clerks, from adminstrators to paraprofessionals.

By mem

February 26, 2007 11:04 AM | Link to this

I am not a rocket scientist—I am a teacher. The problem does not exist with the curriculum—the problem is too many dumb people are having kids that they don’t give a rip about. Some parents truly care about their child’s education, but the majority send their kids to school and then gripe when their kids don’t measure up and try to blame it all on the school. Spend some time with your kids—that is the key to making a huge difference!!

By Janine

February 26, 2007 11:08 AM | Link to this

Need we be reminded once again, that in the U.S., education is the domain of the state …NOT the feds. It’s bad enough when education is ensnared in state politics. It’s totally unacceptable when the feds get involved!

By GaNative

February 26, 2007 11:11 AM | Link to this

AMEN Janine, in my opinion, competent folks need not apply for a job in the Dekalb County School System. You’re just wasting your time.

By GaNative

February 26, 2007 11:17 AM | Link to this

Wasn’t State School Superintendent Linda Schrenko involved in some political buddy buddy situation that got her 8 years for embezzlement? She shoulda have waited until she got elected govenor, then get her chronies to pass a law making embezzlement legal, like Sonny did on this Land Tax Deal.

By Teacher Teacher

February 26, 2007 11:30 AM | Link to this

GaNative and Janine, ya’ll are so on the money! DeKalb is nothing but a sinkhole. Cronyism and nepotism are the biggies in DeKalb, as is sleeping your way to the top. There’s someone at the County Office in a big leadership role who only spent 5 months in the classroom as a teacher. Although Frances Edwards was defeated (thank God!), it’s rumored that her family and friends who are employed by the County earn over a million all together per year.

DeKalb could care less about students. It’s all about the benjamins going to the select few. Think of how many new teachers could be funded for DeKalb if the County would flush the dead weight out of the central office and the service center.

WOW.

By ron

February 26, 2007 11:56 AM | Link to this

Education is a large political football at all levels of government.So is about every other aspect of life.Except dying;you are usually allowed to do that by yourself.

By V for Vendetta

February 26, 2007 12:10 PM | Link to this

I believe it is possible. I think education can be a non-political topic.

Ok, now you tell one.

By mmm

February 26, 2007 12:11 PM | Link to this

I decided to give up blogging for Lent.

See you in April! =)

Maybe you can figure out how to fix this mess by then. Ha Ha Ha!

By GaNative

February 26, 2007 12:23 PM | Link to this

LMAO at mmm. Oh yeah, Lent will fix it. Fasting and Prayer will certainly solve the educational problems. Just look at the hell hole the church has become. Fasting and prayer hasn’t seem to help it.

By decaturparent

February 26, 2007 12:33 PM | Link to this

mmm - good idea - I too will give up blogging for Lent. This is going to be tough!

By catlady

February 26, 2007 12:40 PM | Link to this

Dekalb and Gwinette do not hve a lock on nepotism, etc. In some places it is much, much worse.

Hooray for Cindy Cupp! There is much, much more that the feds should know about this program. Reading First is a monumental crock, first, because it is built on false premises, second, because it has been political from the start, and third, because it does not work. Millions of dollars and kids wasted!

By Jeff

February 26, 2007 1:05 PM | Link to this

Jim:

I start a programming job in Macon Thursday.

By GaNative

February 26, 2007 1:07 PM | Link to this

I agree with you catlady about the Cindy Cupp ordeal. Phonics is the best and it works. It seems like those in charge now have the attitude of “If it don’t work, don’t fix it”.

By philip kovacs

February 26, 2007 1:34 PM | Link to this

Yes education is and should be political.

The issue is how involved are you, and would you like to be more involved?

Join us March 17th as we begin a national conversation about replacing standardization and monothought with innovation and diversity.

It doesn’t get any more political.

By GaNative

February 26, 2007 1:59 PM | Link to this

Dayum Phillip Kovacs, I think you silenced us all. There is no way I’m going to give up 8 hours of my Saturday to listen to a bunch of political insiders razzle me with dazzle and baffle me with bullshid.

By Joe

February 26, 2007 2:01 PM | Link to this

How many million from the lottery? And the schools are no better and the students are not smarter. Let’s throw some more money at the school system that is only open 180 days per year. Or maybe yet we could shorten the school year and all the teachers and students will be happy. Boy, that would be a win-win and total loss situation.

By GaNative

February 26, 2007 2:04 PM | Link to this

Phillip Kovacs, seriously, I think if you held the national conversation through a blog on any weekday of Monday thru Friday between the hours of 9:00am and 5:00pm, you’ll get more participation.

By catlady

February 26, 2007 2:05 PM | Link to this

The deal with Reading First, as with some other things, is not just political. It is theft by deception, paid by taxpayers and perpetrated by our federal government and their cronies. As important, it is not only not legal, it is immoral.

By GaNative

February 26, 2007 2:37 PM | Link to this

LMAO at catlady. Preachers and Politicians are the only ones that can get away with theft by deception. Everyone else goes to jail.

By JustMe

February 26, 2007 3:05 PM | Link to this

Um, Joe….

The lottery really is not intended and doesn’t help K-12 education. It is primarily focused on providing the HOPE scholarship that is used in college, and it also helps with pre-K.

To be on topic….

A national curriculum would help only for the very basics. By this I mean the 3 Rs in elementary school. By middle school, students begin to show too much diversity to attempt to maintain any national curriculum. By high school, you should forget about any sort of national standard like that, at all!

By Blind Homer

February 26, 2007 3:19 PM | Link to this

The audit, at least, should have been pretty objective unlike Cupp and Johnson, who had their own axes to grind. Politics has never been more than an attempt to legitimize one group exercising its will over another. As long as it’s unclear whether or not using their products rather than Reading First would raise reading achievement levels, it’s just sour grapes. BTW, there isn’t any product, short of mandatory abortion and sterilization, that will have much impact on the major problem that’s destroying public education. Nature apparently has intended for the shallow end of the gene pool to have much higher birth rates as compensation. The only way Ms. Cupp’s product will stem that tide is if it successfully motivates Jack and Jilly to keep their pants on!

By philip kovacs

February 26, 2007 4:28 PM | Link to this

Teachers need to be a part of the conversation and they tend to be at work m-f.

Parents need to be part of the conversation and they tend to be at work m-f.

And blogs are good for ideas, but ideas can only do so much.

Hope to hear from you Saturday.

By philip kovacs

February 26, 2007 4:35 PM | Link to this

In terms of political insiders razzling and dazzling you, you obviously didn’t read the bios for the speakers.

Also, do note the phrase “we have invited educators” not “political insiders.”

I am a former high school teacher who believes that teachers and communities are going to need to participate in schools more than they currently do. Additionally, as a teacher of teachers, I believe we must improve the quality of the workforce, something that won’t happen until we demand professional treatment of professional teachers.

This is a political project. Every decision that’s made inside of classrrooms is a political project, but our meeting, sir, is not for political insiders but for those members of our community who wish to enter the policy realm in order to change classroom reality.

If you can’t give up a Saturday to participate in such a conversation, I understand, but please do me the consideration of reading the material before the adhoc attack.

See you the 17th, philip

By catlady

February 26, 2007 5:55 PM | Link to this

Ms. Cupp’s concerns are mostly related to procedure that guarantees adoption of the products favorable to “insiders” like the profs at UW and the family friends of the Bush family. Even more glaring, however, are the false bases for the program in the first place: that students don’t read well because teachers don’t work hard enough, that if you increase the instructional time on one subject more learning will take place (ever hear of the law of diminishing returns?), that literacy takes place in the absence of writing (no writing, spelling, or language arts instruction during RF time), that calling words (decoding) quickly means successful reading. When I have a doctor operate, I don’t care, within reason, how long it takes; I want him to perform the surgery correctly. If she/he was a RF doctor, he would be considered successful if he perfomed the surgery in X number of minutes, EVEN IF IT KILLED ME.

By KA

February 26, 2007 7:34 PM | Link to this

As long as public education is overseen and funded by government then it will be political. Look up the definition of political, of or related to government. Too bad that those we elect to government positions have betrayed our trust and made us despise the word political. Whose fault is it when it is the electorate’s choice or apathy and failure to choose? Ours alone.

By Darrel

February 27, 2007 8:57 AM | Link to this

Quite possibly education will never be removed from the stigma of political grasps and control but at least couldn’t the little mush heads be in school more than they currently are in there? Hell, they always are getting a “day off” for one reason or another not to mention all the “breaks” (Christmas, Easter, St. Swivens Day, etc.) from school. They, the children, would have a better chance, much better chance, of learning something if they were actually in school ALONG WITH THE TEACHERS! When you’re at or near the bottom in education more time off and away from school isn’t what is needed!!!

By Lee

February 27, 2007 10:13 AM | Link to this

A national curriculum? Sounds like one more step to a fully federalized education program.

Cupp’s story is poetic justice in a way. A former state Department of Education employee tries to cash in on her contacts and influence at the state level to get her reading program approved, only to be thwarted by a bigger fish who had more powerful contacts.

Textbooks, correction, canned education programs are big busine$$. As in all things political, follow the money.

By Tony

February 27, 2007 11:05 AM | Link to this

For more depth about the Reading First saga, check the article in EdWeek: Reading First Article

It appears the federal government was using Reading First to take away local authority from boards of education. This, of course, was done under the guise of requiring evidence-based reading programs to be used with Reading First. Upon further analysis, it becomes apparent that some programs that were allowed had no evidence and some programs that were excluded had volumes of evidence. So it turns out that Lee and catlady are on the mark.

By high school teacher

February 27, 2007 11:17 AM | Link to this

Where is SET this morning with the “Brave New World” comment? It’s quite appropriate with this topic. Do we really want all of our children to learn the same thing all around the country? As for basic skills, yes, of course, but what happened to individuality? Why do kids in Wyoming need to learn the same stuff as kids in New York or Alabama?

By chuck

February 27, 2007 12:12 PM | Link to this

phillip kovacs As a current Middle School teacher, I understand where you are COMING FROM, I’m just not sure WHERE YOU ARE GOING. Your website said in part:

When every community member is involved in learning and teaching, they are empowered to take responsibility and action that makes their immediate world a better place. This compels everyone toward citizenship and is fundamental in a pluralistic, democratic society. Towards that end, we believe that the model of “one size fits all” needs to be replaced by “localization” and “particularization” of learning goals, in which educators determine needs, create programming, and are ultimately judged and retained based on measures of their overall performance, as defined by local communities.

We do not believe this to be a radical idea, and in fact will show that educator-led reform is in line with the history of this country. We hope that you will join us, and hundreds of others, in Atlanta on March 17th as we begin our movement to turn schools over to the people most qualified to run them, our teachers.

I agree to a point with these statements, but I don’t see how in the world we can get there. We have too many levels of bureaucracy at the local, state, and national levels. We have completely lost control of discipline because administrators are afraid to do what needs to be done. Our infrastructure is crumbling, there is no money for technology, and teacher job satisfaction is about as low as I’ve ever seen it in 17 years.

I still plug along every day and I’m in a really good school. I don’t know how teachers in some schools are able to keep even a semblance of a positive attitude with the problems they face. We do need a new direction and NCLB is not it, BUT WHAT IS?

By thomas

February 27, 2007 7:23 PM | Link to this

First of all, Cindy Cupp is NOT A WHISTLEBLOWER. I don’t see how the AJC can call her a whistleblower. She is simply a disgruntled woman who didn’t get a government contract. Case closed.

Things don’t go my way, so I must blame others and rock the boat. Who cares about her stinking “textbook”. Every idget who gets a doctoral “degree” gets a bighead and thinks that they know more than everybody else and they are right.

Lee was right. Old girl just has sour grapes because, like my man said, her contacts didn’t pan out and she could sell her overpriced reading “program” to some stupid school system.

By luvs2teach

February 27, 2007 7:51 PM | Link to this

thomas and lee - LOL…

I need to come up with a program to sell to the schools.