Matt Damon - Another Hollywood Hypocrite

Parent Cafe
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<p>“Usually judged” by whom? I know I checked out the following in choosing a private all boys school. </p>

<p>Enrollment: 852 boys
Students of color: 41%
Student:Teacher Ratio: 8:1
Teaching faculty: 124
Full-time faculty with advanced degrees: 79%
Faculty with more than 20 years at the school: 32
Endowed teaching positions: 15 including 12 Master Teaching Chairs
Number of AP Courses Offered: 20
Endowment: $100 Million</p>

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<p>Then is the overall success or lack of success of public education simply a result of lack of motivation and self-direction in the students?</p>

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<p>Why are the outcomes better in Catholic schools? I keep going back to the Heritage paper.</p>

<p>[Why</a> Catholic Schools Spell Success For America’s Inner-CityChildren](<a href=“http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/1997/06/why-catholic-schools-spell-success-for-americas-inner-city-children]Why”>http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/1997/06/why-catholic-schools-spell-success-for-americas-inner-city-children)</p>

<p>General Characteristics of Catholic Schools</p>

<p>In general, studies show that Catholic schools by design foster the academic, religious, and moral development of their students. These schools frequently are characterized by parents as exhibiting a strong sense of community and as having an environment characterized by high academic standards, discipline and order, and a strongly committed and collegial faculty.21</p>

<p>Anthony Bryk of the University of Chicago Department of Education, Valerie Lee of the University of Michigan School of Education, and Peter Holland, the Superintendent of Schools in Belmont, Massachusetts, compiled empirical evidence on Catholic school organization and its effects for a study published in 1993. They based their findings on extensive field visits to seven high schools around the country that represented the diversity of Catholic secondary education, and on an extensive analysis of data collected for the U.S. Department of Education’s comprehensive study of high school seniors and sophomores, High School and Beyond (HS&B).22 After studying the social and intellectual history of these schools and coupling their findings with information gathered by the National Catholic Educational Association, the authors generalized their observations to the Catholic school sector as a whole and found the following common elements:</p>

<p>More internal diversity with regard to race and income than the typical public school; </p>

<p>On average, an 88 percent acceptance rate for those who apply; </p>

<p>Less specialized staff and less complex school organization than in the large public secondary schools; </p>

<p>More advanced academic courses and fewer vocational courses, with 72 percent of Catholic school students studying an academic program and only 10 percent concentrating on vocational studies (in public schools, children are distributed approximately equally across the academic, advanced academic, and vocational tracks); </p>

<p>A focused curriculum and high standards; </p>

<p>A principal with discretion in hiring and firing staff; </p>

<p>A written code of conduct that includes a dress code, standards for social behavior among students and faculty, and a list of prohibited behaviors; and </p>

<p>A lower incidence of students’ cutting class, refusing to obey instructions, talking back to teachers, and instigating physical attacks on teachers compared with public and other private schools.23</p>

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<p>riprorin–your article is from 1997 about studies/costs that predate the article by as much as 7 years. Things have changed in the last 16 years. Catholic schools are closing at a record pace.</p>

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<p>[New</a> York Catholic Schools: Will Decline Spark Innovation? | Newgeography.com](<a href=“http://www.newgeography.com/content/003513-new-york-catholic-schools-take-a-beating-from-charters]New”>New York Catholic Schools: Will Decline Spark Innovation? | Newgeography.com)</p>

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<p>Again, when compared with public schools the statistics for private schools, after adjusting for selective student characteristics, appear to not be significant. </p>

<p><a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/studies/2006461.pdf[/url]”>http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/studies/2006461.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>emilybee–is that a correct statement for private schools that were not of the religious affiliations listed in the analysis?</p>

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<p>Probably because it is a Heritage paper. </p>

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<p>The most important stat on the list.</p>

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<p>The authors of the study concluded"</p>

<p>“Comparison of Results for Grade 4
and Grade 8
Overall, there were many similarities in the results
for the two grades. In both reading and mathematics,
analyses employing unadjusted NAEP scores indicated
that the average private school mean score was higher
than the average public school mean score, and the dif-
ference was statistically significant. Including selected
student characteristics in the model, however, resulted
in a substantial reduction in the difference in all four
analyses. The reduction varied from 11 to 15 score
points. For grade 4 reading and grade 8 mathematics,
the average difference in adjusted school mean scores
was no longer significant. For grade 4 mathematics,
the difference was significant, and the adjusted school
mean was higher for public schools. Only for grade 8
reading was the difference still significant with a higher
school mean for private schools. For all four analyses,
with student characteristics such as gender and race/
ethnicity incorporated in the model, the inclusion of
school characteristics (e.g., teacher experience, type of
school location, school size) had little impact on the
estimate of the average difference between the two
types of school.”</p>

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<p>emilybee–doesn’t that indicate that the non-religious affiliated privates have a mean score statistically significantly higher than publics in all categories at both grades?</p>

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<p>My nieces and nephews go to a high performing public school in an affluent suburb and a lot of the kids have private tutors. I’ve never heard of private tutors at the three Catholic schools that I’ve been closely associated with.</p>

<p>For full disclosure, I’m not Catholic. I just think they do a good job at education.</p>

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<p>According to this article (and stats), non-sectarian privates exceed both public and religious affiliated private schools in results.</p>

<p>[CAPE</a> | Private School Facts](<a href=“Home - Council for American Private Education”>Home - Council for American Private Education)</p>

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<p>emilybee–doesn’t that indicate that the non-religious affiliated privates have a mean score statistically significantly higher than publics in all categories at both grades? </p>

<p>Not after adjusting for selective student characteristics.</p>

<p>“Only for grade 8
reading was the difference still significant with a higher
school mean for private schools.”</p>

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<p>" I’ve never heard of private tutors at the three Catholic schools that I’ve been closely associated with."</p>

<p>Perhaps because like the one my D attended, STUDENTS tutored other students.Slower students were strongly encouraged to enroll in this program, which worked directly with their teachers with personalized assignments. </p>

<p>I’m not sure whether you’re implying that the public school kids you know need tutors to keep up or to supplement because the schools aren’t challenging enough. In any case, there IS tutoring in at least one Catholic school.</p>

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<p>Btw, some need to see what an education major or minor (and/or certification) is currently about. I was thinking the same as many, til D2 filled a schedule gap with an ed class- and found it challenging and stimulating. She ended up picking it as a minor. I saw some of the work, expectations, and standards and will just say, it’s not as easy as I always thought. Maybe the complaint is about colleges that are generally easy and not very demanding. </p>

<p>On the other hand, bff recently certified in her state and it was a lot of busy work.</p>

<p>I’m grateful for good teachers, wherever we find them. It’s a job without many opps for re-do and you can’t go take a break when you wish. Can’t run an errand in the middle of a workday, constantly “on.”</p>

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<p>We didn’t send our kids to private schools to get a better outcome in terms of performance. We selected our schools for specific reasons which had to do with class size, learning environment, school size in general, facilities, opportunities to participate in activities, and qualities of the schools that were important to us which could not be found in our public. It was the right choice for our kids independent of whether or not their SAT scores or AP scores would be higher than if they had attended a public school.</p>

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<p>Imo, because class sizes are significantly smaller in private schools it is much harder for a kid to “hide” in class and not participate, and more likely, when a student doesn’t understand a concept the teacher knows right away. Extra attention is given to that student almost immediately.</p>

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<p>A friend of mine recently went back to school to get certified and often posted about her classwork. It WAS pretty challenging. Sure, the basic math you need to know to teach 1st graders isn’t hard, but HOW you teach them, and how you work with learning disabilities, and what you need to know about child development, etc. isn’t a walk in the park. To graduate she needed to create all kinds of lesson plans for a wide variety of subjects and grade levels and compile an enormous portfolio of practically everything she’d ever studied. It was a lot more work than studying for a series of final exams.</p>

<p>There used to be the saying “Those who can’t do, teach.” They are wrong. I think it’s mostly “Those who want OTHERS to know HOW to do, teach.”</p>

<p>My D has spent the summer teaching a bunch of rising 1st graders and I will tell you, there’s nothing easy about teaching a group of kids with different needs, ability levels and prior experience in school. I wouldn’t last very long. I applaud those who do it well.</p>

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<p>^^^^^It’s so much harder than it looks. I lasted a total of 3 years. :o</p>

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<p>Any time you grant life long sinecures to anyone the quality deteriorates and that is what tenure is. </p>

<p>There was a time that our teachers were treated terribly. That is long past and we need standards and measures and a mechanism to get rid of lousy teachers in our public schools. We also need to suck it up and test and figure out how they are doing.</p>

<p>Hey, it’s what we all face in the workplace – why is putting our kids in this never-never-land of no real consequences for those who run their world even beginning to prepare then for life on the outside?</p>

<p>And testimonials about how hard teaching degrees are to obtain are just not going to cut it. Not here. Not anywhere.</p>

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<p>There is a mechanism to get rid of lousy teachers- it is called having the supervisor do their job in reviewing and documenting the performance of the teacher. Not once or twice in a year but as many times as is needed to document poor performance.
The review could be supplemented by the department head and assistant or vice principal.
Or do you think a system without due process where political people can walk in and fire the teacher is a preferred method?</p>

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<p>Oh the myth of teacher tenure. There are anecdotes of how terrible tenure is, but the truth is that it doesn’t have nearly the impact that anti-union folks tout.</p>