MP DEED's New Opportunity Office
This effort and article seem similar to this previous one. And it has the same core problem. MP Jobs
We know there is a large academic achievement gap in the union controlled public schools, and that many poor folks are not academically ready for the work force when they become adults. Apparently Dayton's solution is to try to convince businesses to accept and train these "workers" instead of changing the education bureaucracy to fix the root cause.
This effort and article seem similar to this previous one. And it has the same core problem. MP Jobs
We know there is a large academic achievement gap in the union controlled public schools, and that many poor folks are not academically ready for the work force when they become adults. Apparently Dayton's solution is to try to convince businesses to accept and train these "workers" instead of changing the education bureaucracy to fix the root cause.
9 comments:
The state is trying an intervention to improve my school. It is not working very well. Improving schools is very difficult.
I think improving schools is easy... Just swap out the Parents and Kids for luckier ones... :-)
Seriously though, HCZ found out that they needed to start with younger kids to be successful. They initially failed with the older elementary kids and chose to send them back to other schools.
Starting later in the pipeline just did not allow enough time to reach success. Whatever It Takes is a Great Book that explains the failure and what they learned from it in more detail.
Just a reminder for folks. I see the Education Employee Union policies as responsible for 30% to 40% of the achievement gap and Poor Parenting as responsible for 60% to 70%.
How is it that changing the union policies will magically make teachers so much more effective? In the real world, my school still has three unfilled teaching positions and 1 unfilled para position.
While schools struggle to get better results, it seems like a good idea to offer adults needed extra education, for those who are motivated to improve their skills (they probably don't have many fights or other behavior problems interfering with their learning.)
Do you really want me to explain it in detail again?
about- Do you really want me to explain it in detail again? NO
actually I think it was information provided by me that contributed significantly to some of your talking points. I just don't see that the changes you advocate will make that much of a difference in raising achievement. We will still have the same teaching force, even if they are shuffled around slightly. And merit pay has been shown to make no difference in increasing teacher effectiveness.
Actually many people have contributed including yourself and Lynnell.
Cause and effect aside, I would point out that we probably have about one generation to get this mess fixed, or it will become an obsolete debate. Robots are set to take away all the jobs that these folks, even if properly educated and motivated, can do. THEN what do we do?
Laurie,
I think merit pay fails unless it is accompanied by a culture and process change. Merit needs to be defined as maximizing academic achievement, measured by a real evaluation system. Teachers need to travel an "advancement track" that puts them into higher pay grades based on that merit and being classified as "apprentice, journeyman, master" (or pick your own terms) teachers. The whole school needs to be focused on achievement, with strong discipline and challenging curricula. Teachers need to be treated as professionals and tailor their methods to what works. I don't know that anybody is willing to make that "holistic" change, certainly not within the unionized public schools.
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