<p>This should be on a banner across every intersection.</p>
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<p>THis is a post from a very involved parent regarding a meeting at one of Seattle top high schools ( tied with my daughters- but while my daughters is “inner city” this school would have been where Bill Gates would have attended had he gone to public school)</p>
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<p>Twelve parents is more than the school ( where I had been on the PTA board but left after years of the same people being expected to do everything) that advertises itself as being a " family" and prides itself on community, but parental involvement is so poor, that at the most recent parent group meeting, where the board pleaded with parents to attend & for teachers to ask parents to come, in order to discuss whether they even had enough parental support to maintain the parent group- but only three parents who were not on the executive board came.</p>
<p>I have found that even at inner city schools, when parents participate in school events, kids do better- but I don’t know what else that some schools can do to get them there.
WHen I was at our previous school, we ( the parent group) supplied dinner, child care and since it was an all city school, would hold meetings in areas that were more accessible. But still, it was the same parents-(who eventually went on to other schools,as did we),that ran the fundraisers, drove on field trips and bought supplies for classrooms.
and BTW, not a high income school or board.</p>
<p>Or teacher C who is entertaining, but gets off track very easily. The class gets way behind on the AP curriculum, but they add lots of weekend study sections to catch up. The kids do well on the tests, why? Because they’ve been self-selected and they all study a huge amount outside class to cover all the material that has been missed. This is my son’s current experience. </p>
<p>That said, even though I agree with a lot of Alfie Kohn’s research, some sort of merit pay makes more sense in my mind than just getting raises for doing your time. The real problem is finding a fair way to measure merit.</p>
<p>(And to note something, just by mentioning Alfie Kohn doesn’t mean I agree with everything he says just because it’s in a book… I believe in the things that I’ve experienced/seen as well…)</p>
<p>Good teachers wasting their talent in bad neighborhoods? If we sent all the good teachers to schools where they could “actually make an impact,” we’d have a serious problem. You can’t just give up on a third grader because their parent is working several jobs, or maybe just doesn’t care about education. Kids whose parents don’t care can still become great students and amazing citizens- unfortunately, sometimes you have to work around the parents instead of punishing the kids for their parents priorities.</p>
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<p>I think the education system in Finland is pretty interesting (NOTE: UNICEF ranked them as third). Teachers are required to have master’s degrees, students are given the same schooling for the first nine years (not separated by abilities), there are no private schools, and no standardized tests other than their final exams and international testing. Education is also free. The author of the article seemed to think this would not translate well to America- maybe our obsession with testing/competition and rankings is actually hurting our education system. I also sort of have my doubts… Waaaay too socialist for the majority of America, but it’s working for them! I don’t know, parts could definitely be borrowed.</p>
<p>(Note: Erm, I am also not completely bashing standardized testing and No Child Left Behind and all that in the note about less standardized testing- NCLB does some good things, but it also has its problems.)</p>
<p>And this is one of the reasons why 20 to 25% of Seattle residents send their children to private schools. In 1962 Seattle Public Schools enrollment was 99,000. In 2007 it was 45,276.</p>
<p>Individuals who move to Seattle from out of state are absolutely shocked at how competitive it is to obtain a spot at a private school in the area. That is one of the reasons why many choose to live in the Eastside suburbs.</p>
<p>well, except I grew up in the Eastside suburbs, and chose to move to the city, because while you do know what school you will be assigned to depending on where you live, there are many other issues, like the all but forced AP tests for the students in Bellevue under Mike Riley. </p>
<p>Only two high schools in Seattle qualified for the grant, the other five were in other parts of Washington state.</p>
<p>I also feel really bad for the principal of Franklin, I know how hard she is working to improve choices for kids- we need a school in the South end with AP classes- Garfield doesn’t count because so many places are taken up with students from APP- who live all over the city, including Laurelhurst, Queen Anne & Magnolia.</p>
<p>I don’t know why we don’t have more choices for private schools, I think where one of my kids went to grade school has like a 6% admit rate- ( no idea what it was when she attended- then again she also received a great deal of financial aid so she may have been in her own pool)</p>
<p>Its hard- often mediocre public schools, private schools are very expensive and competitive and no charter schools.
Oh and our state superintendent thinks she is going to be reelected for the 4th time!
:p</p>
