[ Just another pinko plan to suck the Taxpayers dry, and to make certain your Child in properly brain-washed. ] Teachers pan five-year high school proposal United Press International - July 03, 2000 17:44 CHICAGO, July 3 (UPI) - Teachers attending the National Education Association's annual meeting generally opposed a fifth year of high school for low-skills students proposed by the head of the American Federation of Teachers. AFT President Sandra Feldman Monday unveiled her plan in a speech to 4,000 members of the nation's second-largest teachers union in Philadelphia. Feldman said she thinks students who are identified as deficient in basic skills -- like reading, writing and math -- and who are at-risk of dropping out of high school should have to undergo a year of special programs to bring them back up to standards. Basic education teachers would not just repeat a year of the current school curriculum. "For those kids who may need even more help to meet the necessary standards to graduate, I propose a transitional year program - either before they enter high school or during high school, as soon as they are identified," she said in her keynote address. "And I propose that such programs be staffed by teachers especially trained to accelerate the basic skills of young adults." The controversial fifth-year of high school to help struggling students meet tough new national education standards is one of several ideas being discussed this week at meetings of the nation's two largest teachers organizations, the AFT in Philadelphia and the National Education Association in Chicago. "I'm totally opposed to a fifth year," said David Bishop, an English/speech teacher at Canton High School in Canton, Ill. "The kids will absolutely hate it. It will mean having to hire more teachers and spend lots more money. If we're going to do anything at all we should look at going to an extended school year, perhaps a year-round schedule, that would give us a chance to work more closely with at-risk students and perhaps bring out qualities that we otherwise would be missing." Feldman also recommended federal support of programs using adult literacy techniques in high schools, including programs once used by the U.S. military to bring high school dropouts up to speed. "Most secondary teachers don't know how to overcome these skills deficits in young adults," she said. "They were never trained to do so." Dee Gillham, a special education director/gifted coordinator in the Bartlett Consolidated School District, Bartlett, Neb., said she feared the additional year would severely overcrowd schools. "I'm opposed to this kind of thing with the current state in Nebraska it may take some students five years to achieve competency," she said. "Where would you come up with the teachers and the classroom space?" asked Bill Lindoff, a kindergarten teacher at Cottonwood Elementary School in Palmdale, Calif. "We're already dealing with reduced classroom sizes and remediation issues and this just adds even more pressure to do something that hasn't been thought out very well." National Education Association President Bob Chase called on teachers to renew their support for quality public schools and to back "common sense" efforts to keep the national education standards movement on track. "We have long advocated high expectations for all children," Chase said in a speech to 10,000 delegates representing 2.5 million elementary and secondary teachers, school administrators, retirees and students preparing to become teachers. "But policies that are hastily conceived and ineptly executed will never accomplish this goal." Chase said overemphasis on standardized testing undermines a balanced approach to teaching and learning. "The NEA and its state affiliates can and must intervene - not to bury the standards movement - but to save it and to save our schools," he said. Upgrading academic standards, merit pay, peer review and charter schools are major issues facing both teachers' groups as an older generation of educators prepares to retire. More than 2.2 million new teachers will have to be recruited to fill classroom jobs by 2010. -- http://www.marketwatch.newsalert.com/bin/story?StoryId=CowapWbebDxmTDgvHy2HL CNmTmxn0Bgq&FQ=v%25upi&Title=Headline B. A. T. F. Bad Attitude Towards Freedom Drug Dependency = Dependency on government programs! The Lesser of Two Evils is Still EVIL! Bard Pro Libertate - For Freedom BUCHANAN-Reform http://gopatgo2000.com/default.htm <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! 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