Posted on 12/15/2004 5:22:25 AM PST by OESY
...As a new study on education standards world-wide shows, unlike in the U.S. and much of Europe, high school students in these countries actually learn something.
In this country, the study's findings grabbed headlines for how poorly American students score.... Only a generation ago, U.S. high school students ranked No. 1. Today their performance has fallen below the OECD average -- except in reading, where Americans manage to eke out an "average."...
Less publicized has been why U.S. scores are so low. The OECD researchers identified several key characteristics that most successful school systems share -- namely, decentralization, competition and flexibility. These aren't exactly the hallmarks of your typical American school system, where choice and accountability aren't usually on the curriculum.
- The recipe for success... is a decentralized system where schools are given a large degree of autonomy over curriculum and budget decisions. Whether schools are public or private is not as important as whether they "operate like a private one"...
- Another important element is an open, flexible education system....
- Last but not least, successful schools have teachers who have a large degree of autonomy and responsibility, which leads in turn to a high degree of professionalism. It is not simply a matter of remuneration. Teachers in Finland get paid relatively little, but according to Mr. Schleicher there is a strong professional ethos and teachers routinely exchange experience to improve their skills.
...With an ever-higher percentage of the work force expected to be employed in knowledge-based industries, school reform is a question of U.S. economic survival.
This is also a reason to keep welcoming immigrants and foreign students. America's elite universities and research labs remain the destination of choice for many of the brightest and most talented minds in the world....
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I've said it before, I'll say it again! Subjecting your children to Public Education when you aren't completely destitute and have no other option is Child Abuse, pure and simple.
We can thank the NEA for this.
Math and science are absolutes, no "everything's relative" or feelings....thus, hard subjects for the liberal mind to grasp or teach
Cause the kids spend more time learning about feelings and self esteem.
WORD
The problem is that those who achieve proficiency in math and science are in the business sector. They do not stay in the teaching profession.
AMEN! You are 100% correct! Sending your kid to public school is almost the same as if you sent him to stay with Michael Jackson at the Neverland Ranch! I can't conceive of doing either. Homeschooling or religious schools are the only way as far as I'm concerned. Public schools have become a cesspool, too much emphasis on sex education, 'tolerance' and diversity. In my town, the outstanding scholars are the children of foreign immigrants from Asia & India, hands down - they are far & above the best students in our public schools.
It's because of our media-centric society. No one gives a hoot about stuff that matters anymore. All we care about is Janet Jackson's boobs.
I mentioned this in another thread. There is a child in my son's class who is CP, profoundly retarded and autistic. He will never read, write, talk or use the bathroom. All he does is make noise. But there he is everyday.
Depends on which students in which school districts the author means! He's taking a system that's composed of fruit ranging from mangoes to horse-apples, mixing it together and complaining that the result doesn't taste very good.
I do know for a fact that kids in our local school district can go toe-to-toe with students in any East Asian school system. If parents in other US school districts aren't holding their administrators' feet to the fire, you'd have to ask them why. They sure are in ours.
It's time for local school officials to tell the busybodies in D.C. (from Pres. Bush on down) to take No Child Left Behind and the other federally mandated, one-size-fits-all school programs and stick them.
It's time for local school officials to tell the busybodies in D.C. (from Pres. Bush on down) to take No Child Left Behind and the other federally mandated, one-size-fits-all school programs and stick them.
App,
A woman I work with recently explained how kindergarten works where her 2 daughters go.
Her 2 girls and maybe 2-3 other kids are reasonably normal. The other 12-15 are traumatized, abused, afflicted, or been led to believe they are, and medicated to some degree for it.
Worst of it is some 100 lb kid in there who is seriously messed up and will never be a funcitoning member of society. When this one has an episode, the teachers have to clear the room and let him throw things and go nuts.
All this in one of the premier hippy/crunchy/progressive disctricts in the northeast.
There was a child with a brain tumor in my daughter's class and they had to watch him like a hawk when scissors were being used because they were afraid he would stab someone. He has since been abandoned by his parents and lives in a group home in Richmond.
I just find it ironic that the school is so fixated on testing to move up a grade but they automatically move up kids who can't even function at pre-school level.
But we are fortunate because a large number of kids in the school meet the guidelines for "gifted" by the state. Half the kids have a parent with a Masters or higher.
"We can thank the NEA for this."
Yup. You have to have a degree in education to get a teaching certificate, but you don't have to have class one in the subjects you teach.
This certification requirement often keeps people who really know their subjects out of the classroom, and at the same time, the "education" departments of universities have become the dumping grounds for those who couldn't hack it anywhere else.
"I do know for a fact that kids in our local school district can go toe-to-toe with students in any East Asian school system."
My daughter attended a very mediocre Japanese public school in grades 1-6. In 1999, in the 7th grade, I put her in a strict Catholic boarding school in the States.
In our first phone call, she asked, "How come we're doing 4th grade math?"
They require math here in grade school that you can get all the way through college without ever seeing in the US.
This is also a reason to keep welcoming immigrants and foreign students.
The WSJ gets it wrong again. Do they ever stop shilling?
One of the many hurdles our kids face in public schools is all the kids who don't speak english and slow down the pack.
Hmmm... whose kids are they? LOL!
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