I am also planning to throw my hat in the ring -- as a school board candidate.
Downsizing the district is not the answer. The district is losing a lot of the students who are not getting what most people would consider a good education: the kind of education they want for their own children. All of the district's schools can be good schools. The quality of education delivered can be better and more equal. And real progress can be made toward closing the gap without "No Child Left Behind" trickery and Enron-style accounting gimmicks. I am for closing the academic achievement gap, and for focusing on what is happening at school that influences student performance. Too many students are doing poorly as a result of watered down curriculum, low teacher expectations, and low self-esteem as a result of being identified as a low-ability learners and being educated accordingly. What do I propose to do about that? 1) Measure the effectiveness of employees and programs using the goal of closing the gap as the yardstick What I am proposing here should not be confused with the type of "pay for performance" program which the district administration has been trying to ram down its teachers' throats. 2) Base instruction for the general student population on a college-bound curriculum and individualized educational planning rather than "ability-grouping" and watering down the curriculum for a majority of students. 3) Respect teacher tenure (appeal) rights. Teachers without tenure rights are afraid to buck the system. Teachers need protection from higher ups who want them to engage in practices that widen the gap, such as tracking students on a part-time basis into separate classrooms for reading instruction (on the basis of perceived ability), and grouping-by-ability for instructional purposes within the class room in other subject areas. 4) Desegregate inexperienced teachers. Students at some schools have been and will be overexposed to inexperienced teachers. We should create positions for new, inexperienced teachers that are scattered evenly throughout the district. By doing so even the district's better schools will be better off in the long run because inexperienced teachers will receive better training and supervision under more favorable conditions. There may be little need for such positions within the next few years, but it is important for the district to make a commitment to making all schools good schools. -Doug Mann, King Field Author of "Flight from Equality: School reform in the US since 1983" http://educationright.tripod.com REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
