Posted on 02/18/2010 11:03:51 PM PST by ledzep
Looking at decades of achievement data one can’t help but conclude that keeping teacher jobs at all costs truly isn’t about the kids, but the adults either employed in education, or trying to get the votes of those employed in education. As the following chart makes clear, we have added teachers in droves for decades without improving ultimate achievement at all...
(Excerpt) Read more at cato-at-liberty.org ...
Too many cooks spoil the broth?
Do more cowboys make for a juicier steak?
I would love to see the chart go back before 1970 when large classes and long school days were the normal school plans.
I am afraid this chart is choosing a base that does not show that all the levels are lower than earlier years.
This begins with the advent of new math and the end of phonics. It is also at a time that Unions began to fully take over the school systems.
No. It has to do with student expectations on the value of their labor. That hasn’t changed. If you can read OK, or even less than OK, you can still pass. It doesn’t matter what the student/teacher ratio is. If the students have no fear (or love), they will do just enough to pass. Doesn’t matter if there are 20 or 40 students in the class.
Does more spending result in lower deficits?
Can you imagine how much money it takes out of the tax payers pockets to have one employee for every two students. 400 buildings that require maintenance and thousands of big yellow buses that start up every day burning millions of gallons of gas/diesel and polluting the air we breathe.
I am of the opinion that the public school system is sucking the very life out of the Texas economy and, as the author says, is nothing more than a make work project to keep demoRat voters employed.
When I went to grade school in the 1960’s my school had 16 classrooms (2 for each grade level) and each classroom had one teacher and 50 students. We all learned really well and could far out perform most of the high school graduates today when it comes to basic reading, writing, and math. Most primary & secondary classrooms today have 30 students or less and many have a teacher and a teacher’s aide yet the mastery of basic skills is far below what used to be considered acceptable. Clearly the education system needs an overhaul!
bump
I am of the same era.
The real problem is that a teacher’s pay and promotion potential is based entirely upon their educational level. It has nothing to do with their ability to actually teach.
The only requirements for a REAL TEACHER are:
1. Intelligence (the ability to rationalize and think).
2. A good knowledge of the subject taught.
3. A working knowledge of everything associated with the subject they teach.
and finally...............
The ability to transpose that information from their brain to that of the students along with the ability to make them understand WHY they need that information.
Today’s teachers are nothing more than academic wonders simply parroting what they are told to teach from media from the Ministry of Propaganda, the green movement, NAMBLA, unions and many other special interest groups.
The majority of teachers today simply teach for the money and power involved.....not the love of teaching nor do they possess the real ability to teach as the teachers of our generation.
It s not the number of teachers, but their quality that makes the difference for students. I am a college educator and used to substitute teach in my local school district. It was immediately apparent which classes had quality instruction and which were being taught by mediocre teachers. Sadly far more classes had mediocre instruction and good teaching was the exception.
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