"Joseph A. Erickson" wrote: > Parental Involvement > Perhaps it goes without saying that parent involvement is a crucial element > in high learning achievement. But what many teachers and administrators > misunderstand is how parents perceive parent involvement. Parent involvement > is not just going to PTA and selling raffle tickets. Studies reveal that > most parents feel that getting their children to school in the morning, > monitoring and limiting TV, serving good meals, etc. is parent > involvement--because it is! We need to acknowledge, support and celebrate > that sort of involvement, too. > > We should also support the kind of deeply engaged parent involvement which > is the hallmark of truly remarkable schools--helping with instruction and > co-curricular activities, authentic involvement in school governance, > fundraising, etc. The community schools model should help more parents to > engage in these more intense activities.
Basic Liberal Axiom: Parent involvement is important for a student's education, but is the responsibility of parents. Negative Outcomes: Children only benefit when they have motivated parents. Children who are not raised in environments that emphasize, promote, and support educational outcomes do not perform well in school. Conservative Assumption: Parent involvement is important for a student's education, but is the responsibility of parents. My Perspective: Parent involvement is important for a student's education, but it is not only the responsibility of parents, but also the schools. My Proposal: A comprehensive, structured, and well managed parent involvement program that centers responsibility for involvement on the schools. A network of parents who will help involve and contact parents in their neighborhoods. Accountability for meeting outreach and involvement goals. > Profiles of Learning > The profile is a solid idea that is unfortunately dying a slow death due to > profound political and strategic errors by the state and huge campaigns of > misinformation by conservatives. The Profile may or may not be salvageable, > but make no mistake--it started as a good bi-partisan idea which embodied a > revolution in how we "show what we know" and in how we teach children. It > remains to be seen if the revolution will be rekindled or continue its slow > de-evolution. Basic Liberal Axiom: Education must relate to the "real world" rather than intellectualism and focus on "authentic" assessment. Negative Outcomes: We are nowhere need meeting basic standards in core academic areas, let alone other areas such as Arts and Literature; trying to do it all at once diverts energy from assuring that students are strong in the basics. Conservative Assumption: Public education should focus on basic skills. My Perspective: We should assure that students have the basics and then focus on a more comprehensive education. I generally support the goals outlined in the Profiles, but I think that they should be used as guidelines rather than standards. We need a more focused set of standards. I also see the evaluation standards in the Profiles as being overly cumbersome and placing too much of a load on teachers. My Proposal: Focus on a smaller core set of standards that can be evaluated effectively. > School Choice > The general public often misunderstands school choice. What the state law > promotes is inter-district choice, not intra-district choice. The phenomenal > level of intra-district choice enjoyed by MPS parents for many years was an > artifact of the district's desegregation efforts. Those days are over due to > the twin movements of community schools and transportation cuts. Any > remaining intra-district school choice options will be severely limited. > Inter-district choice of the sort mandated by state law is still available, > however this is used by only a fraction of families primarily due to > geographic limitations. Basic Liberal Axiom: The only equitable form of education in the United States is the public school system, all other forms of education are elitist and hinder the improvement of public education. Negative Outcomes: Magnet school have largely been an improvement made by the Public Schools in reaction to School Choice, so to this extent they have been a positive change. However, while magnet schools offer more choice to students and parents they do not reflect underlying changes in the way students are taught or the overall quality of education offered. Conservative Assumption: Major changes are required to improve the quality of education in the public schools; minor adjustment are not sufficient. My Perspective: I think that magnet schools offer the ability to provide the opportunity to efficiently provide more depth in some area of the curriculum such as science or arts. However, there still needs to be a core curriculum. My Proposal: Continue with comprehensive middle and high schools, but additionally some can have components which focus on particular content areas. > Sex Education > Sex education certainly should remain an option for families, but I think we > should still allow for an opt-out option for parents who would prefer to > provide their own sex education resources in a manner more consistent with > their beliefs and values. If we provide sex education in the format promoted > by most knowledgeable sex educators--i.e., values-based and restraint > oriented, not just a plumbing approach--I am confident most parents will > decide to have their children participate. Basic Liberal Axiom: Students should understand the fundamental of sexual relations. Tolerance for different sexual orientations should be taught in the public schools. Negative Outcomes: Has alienated conservative parents who feel that such matters are the concern of families. Conservative Assumption: Ethical values regarding sex and marriage should be taught in the home. My Perspective: It's interesting that Dr. Erickson and switch positions somewhat on this issue. I lean towards the Liberal Axiom and he towards the conservative one. In general I don't think that it's the role of the schools to impart social values, but sex has a direct impact on students' ability to successfully complete their educations and I'm a results oriented person. I think that we need to begin teaching students about sex and relationships in middle school (God knows what they learn incorrectly on their own). However, I believe that parents should be able to opt out if such teaching violates their ethics and principles. My Proposal: Provide initial introductory classes on sex and relationships in middle school, with more advanced ones in high school. Promote safe sex in both middle and high school. Provide contraception as long as parents don't explicitly request that their children be exempted. > Testing > I am passionately opposed to the simplistic high stakes testing favored by > some conservatives including both Republican candidates for governor. I > think this is wrong-headed and harmful. As Janet Reno said recently, "you > don't get the blue ribbon pig by weighing it, you get the blue-ribbon pig by > feeding it." > > Carefully prepared diagnostic testing used to help learners and their > parents understand their educational strengths and challenges are great, but > using simplistic multiple-choice tests to bash children, their teachers and > schools is wrong in all sorts of ways, and I support parents and others > organizing to get the state to change their mandates in these areas. Basic Liberal Axiom: Testing harms students. Negative Outcomes: Schools are able to deteriorate without accountability. Students are often passed along without successfully acquiring necessary skills. Conservative Assumption: Testing improves the quality of education. My Perspective: I passionately support simplistic high stakes testing as long as it is valid, reliable, and practical (does not interfere with the educational process, i.e. it's simplistic). Without testing there is no quality control of what is learned, who can teach, and how schools are performing. My Proposal: I think that the current testing standards are adequate for the time being as long as research is conducted to insure that the tests are valid and reliable. I would also support a science and American History graduation requirements test as part of a basic core. I think that more emphasis needs to be placed on the validity and reliable of teacher's assessment of students. > Vocational Education > I support both school-to-work and tech-prep curricula. One interesting > development in the past few years has been the upgrading of the so-called > voc-ed track. When asked to name the sorts of skills necessary to survive in > the high tech marketplace, many companies such as Ford and IBM have outlined > essentially what we used to call the college-prep curriculum. What this > tells me is that if we provide high quality vocational education, we will > not be dead-ending these learners because they will be taking a high > quality, high expectation curriculum within a vocational framework. If those > young people do decide later to go to college, they should be as well > prepared as any other motivated student. Basic Liberal Axiom: A comprehensive (college prep) education for all students is best. Negative Outcomes: A deemphasis on providing marketable job skills for students who do not go on to college. Students graduate with virtually no marketable job skills. Conservative Assumption: Job skills are the responsibility of the individual. My Perspective: Students who do not go on to college should be able to walk out of high school graduation and find a decent paying job; as long as they have taken advantage of one of many strong vocational programs offered in the schools. My Proposal: I believe that some of the vocational and technical training offered in the community colleges should be offered to high school students. The public schools should form partnerships with business who need skilled workers to provide training and jobs to high school graduates. To be continued... Michael Atherton Prospect Park _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
