It's not going toWM: How do you know this, Mr. Atherton? I certainly don't know it and I have access to the same information you do.
be all that different of a situation than standing by the reforms that need to be made (of course the Board isn't interested in making
any real reforms anyway).
What I do see is that the school systems are pushing a boulder uphill with their noses. The feds have laid a second unfunded mandate on them (maybe more than two). They are dealing with kids from all over the map and all over the preparedness-for-school map. They are battling the ill effects of families who cannot even feed their kids every day. We are 20 years into the effects of crack on children who's parents were on the pipe when they were conceived and gestated. Fetal alcohol syndrome is eating away at numerous families. We are only beginning to address the effects of childhood lead poisoning. All these things make for a rich stew, not one which makes the job of educating kids simple.
We have a state which cannot decide whether profiles of learning or other methods are appropriate
long enough to really test any one of them and then are not putting money into supporting school systems worth a darn. And we have vultures who want to privatize the school system on the totally erroneous belief that vouchers will solve the myriad problems.
The school systems are being pecked to death by ducks, all of whom claim to know how it could be done better, cheaper, faster, and more thoroughly. I don't believe it.
I have some very clear ideas of things done in the past which appear to have been counterproductive, but since there was no way to isolate those individual things from the other changes made at the same time, it cannot honestly be said that X thing was clearly a mistake and needs undoing.
Ergo, I cannot see that "the board is not interested in any real reform;" though I do see that the board of ed is caught among the parents, the state, the feds, and the teachers unions. How awful.
WizardMarks, Central
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