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Community Forum on Job Shadowing in
St. Paul High Schools May 17 - 28
http://www.stpauljobshadow.org
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--- Brionna Harder <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
"For children dealing with
transciency, education will
most certainly suffer."
[TS] It seems perfectly reasonable to conclude that
kids do better when they are allowed to adjust to a
school; the �experts� certainly all say so. But just
as an exercise, I wonder what the graduation
rate\SAT\BCA numbers look like for children of active
duty military personnel? Maybe I�ll dig around for
some info.
"Good point here. . . but I've seen ELL and
Bi-lingual programs being cut
and/or losing money."
[TS]Ahh Brianna, you�re sharper than that!
If ELL as incorporated hasn�t worked in the past, I�d
say that is proof aplenty that no amount of money will
make it work. Public education accounts for � of the
states budget�like everything else concerned with
public finance one can ask, �just how much is enough�
and get the same ol� answer: �more than we got now�.
It seems correct to say that ELL didn�t work any
better or any worse no matter how much it was funded
in the past.
"Also, I could be making an
assumption here, but I believe
many mainstream teachers have taken coursework (or
professional development
classes) related to ELL kids in mainstream classes."
[TS]That�s fine, but have they figured out a way to
cram in 30 extra minutes into an hour to implement all
those techniques without shortchanging the majority of
their classes?
IMO, "mainstreaming" kids with "special needs" is an
equal opportunity method of shortchanging all
students, nobody wins.
"I have seen ELL kids
succeed in my class and I try to make sure they
understand the content even
if that means spending time with them outside of
class for tutorial help. I
know I am not the only teacher who does this."
[TS]I believe you�re right. But don�t you have your
hands full trying to engage and teach your
run-of-the-mill student?
"Does this then mean that it will take longer for
these kids to graduate?"
[TS]Probably.
"What will happen when the families of these students
make noise their students being excluded from
opportunities given to
other students?"
[TS]Such as what? I�m not suggesting we quarantine
them Brianna, just teach them what they need to know
before cutting them loose.
Listen, these are the kids that are not graduating at
all; and the Hmong kids who are going to show up for
next years schooling haven�t even been receiving
regular instruction at all (the communist government
of Laos refused to let them into their �peoples
schools�) seems to me that I would find it fairly easy
to argue that point with any parent who is upset
because their kids needed to spend more time in
school.
"(As a side note, the MBSTs are increasingly
irrelevant as it will be the
MCAs that schools will be accountable to according
to the No Child Left
Behind federal requirements. Could this pose a
problem for schools as the
MCAs are modeled after the Profiles, a system we no
longer use?)"
[TS]Well it means that they will once again have to
retool and yes I think we need to stop screwing around
with standards every time the political winds change
direction.
"But, I have said this before. . . I believe that
public education is at a
crossroads and the direction it takes in the coming
years will either
reinvigorate the system (through whole-system
reform) or destroy itself
(through continuing the kind of band-aid fixes and
reforms currently
implemented)."
[TS]Well you and I have reached the same conclusion
Brianna. And I also agree with your assessment of the
questions that need to be asked as stated below (guess
it was bound to happen sometime ;-).
"Public ed is an emotional and controversial topic. .
. so the questions
should be: what is the purpose of public ed? (I
believe this needs to be
redefined and committed to anew) Who are the
stakeholders and what rights
do they have in the system of public ed? To what
ends are we fighting and
are we being counter-productive through our means?
And, how can we, with
our varied beliefs, work together to make all
schools work and all students
succeed?"
TJSwift
Cherokee Park Protectorate
ps: Chuck, I get it! It's the GOP. Very funny! ;-)
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