Oprah: American Schools in Crisis -- Is 'separate but equal' still implemented?

Parent Cafe
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<p>a. Disband the Department of Education
b. Disband the NEA
c. Disassociate yourself from the ASCD
d. Tell the Carnegie and Ford Foundations et al to get lost
e. Tell Bill and Melinda Gates to get lost (because they have $$$ they can tell us how to educate our kids?)
f. Progressive methods have and are not working
g. Give parents the power to send their kids to any school they want (they make the choice, they live with the consequences).
h. Give anyone the power (tax $$) to start-up any kind of school they want (instead of pouring $$ into the sinkhole that is currently public education). (Teachers unions are fighting charter schools like mad as they are vouchers.)
i. Power to parents and local control. Period. Stop lying to parents. Parents, you have no power at all. Bake sales and car washes are not going to change anything.</p>

<p>Yes, I’ve been in the “trenches.”</p>

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<p>j. Revamp teacher training - degrees in academic disciplines only - no “education” courses allowed.
k. Do away with “certification” - let anyone with a passion for a subject have a chance to teach - observe during a probationary period and if they can do it, hire them.
l. Stop the media blackout on real investigative reporting on local schools. Give parents real facts and numbers. Stop the spin.</p>

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<p>m. Keep Oprah out of it.</p>

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<p>n. Tenure for K-12 teachers is ridiculous. Do the job or you’re fired like everyone else in the world.
o. Ditto for sabbaticals (yes, some schools have this at hs level).
p. No advanced degrees in “education.” (Our fine superintendents.)</p>

<p>Education is big, big business in America! One of THE largest employers in the USA.
Since it’s big business, dismantle the monoply - create a free education market.</p>

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<p>“I just don’t get all the criticism concering the efforts of Bill and Melinda Gates. They are putting a BILLION dollars of their own resources toward trying to improve PUBLIC education in this country. At least they’re doing SOMETHING.”</p>

<p>Just a small addendum to Poetsheart’s post. The running total of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s grants in education is quickly approaching $3,000,000,000. </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Education/Grants/default.htm?showYear=2006[/url]”>http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Education/Grants/default.htm?showYear=2006&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>What am I missing here, hereshoping? Why are you opposed to the involvement of Oprah, and the Gates’ in our quest to improve education in America?</p>

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<p>Well, IMO, the Oprah show was nothing but a propaganda piece, and judging from the comments here so far, it worked! <em>Suddenly</em> Oprah has discovered an education crisis in this country? And now Bill Gates is going to sweep in and save us all!</p>

<p>If Bill Gates wanted to open private little Bill Gates schools all across the land with his money, I would have no problem with that. If parents whose kids are stuck in public school hellholes were allowed to use the money they are now forking over to the government to run the hellholes and chose to send their kids to the Bill Gates schools (with clear knowledge of what his schools’ mission is), I would have no problem with that.</p>

<p>But the truth is that there is in essence a “shadow” educational system in this country. Practically all of the NPO’s that Xiggi has linked us to have a certain ideological bent, if not an outright agenda. Parents are not informed of these links and what most of these groups are about. They just think, oh, wonderful, Bill Gates and his friends are going to fix all our problems! They are not being informed.</p>

<p>For example, Gates recently signed an agreement with UNESCO. (I can’t get a link to the info to work but you can google it.) Gates’ agenda goes far, far deeper than what was shown on Oprah, which is why it was propaganda IMHO. Whether Oprah is aware of this, or is just a useful idiot, I have no idea. It seems to me that the administrations of most of our school districts are simply useful idiots though some clearly know what is going on.</p>

<p>The pesky little parents themselves have no say and no power to disagree on the content of the “reform” these groups are intent on pushing through.</p>

<p>For example, my district had an agreement with “America’s Choice”, an offshoot of NCEE (given $800,000 by Gates on Xiggi’s link). We, as parents, were not told anything about what this agreement entailed. I personally am strongly against the NCEE agenda, but I could not find one parent in this district who has a clue of what it even is! </p>

<p>These people purposely keep parents ignorant of what is going on, and the local media does not cover it. You as a parent have to dig and dig to find these connections.</p>

<p>I find the link Xiggi provided to be absolutely facinating. It will keep me busy for many hours in my spare time.</p>

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<p>Hereshoping, you’re big into conspiracy theories, aren’t you?</p>

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<p>I knew someone would say that, which is why I hesitated before throwing this stuff up here. Yeah, I’m part of the vast right wing conspiracy :)</p>

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<p>My d’s highschool was split into “learning communities” as part of a Gate grant. They wanted students to decide if they were interested in Arts, or Science, or Law…of course most of the honors students were interested in all of those things, and many of the lower students weren’t interested in much, so were steered or placed into the communities to balance out the numbers. Most 13 years old are not ready to pick a major area of academic interest, and it defeats the idea of an education opening up horizons by exposing students to new ideas and interests. Picking major interest of study four years before you even start college does not make sense for most students. The honors and AP students who had aready existed as a non structured small learning community, were split up and labled on paper, but in the end they all fought to get back into the same AP classes that they had planned for. The big plus was the grant money was used to pay for the increased number of administrative staff.</p>

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<p>Oprah’s just a rich lady with a giant soapbox. I liked that one chicago school, but the other one was god awful. No one really cares (outside CC) that much about education, it’s really sad. That’s why America sucks.</p>

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<p>Several Seattle are schools have dropped out of or been dropped by the Gates program. Reasons vary but I think most of it is control issues and the smaller HS requirements.</p>

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<p>azn Thank you for providing us with your insight and an opportunity for barrons and most of the rest of us to agree…America can and will improve but it does not suck.</p>

<p>Gates would have done better to provide residential facilities for hopefull students living in hellish environments. That would have been a god send, instead of a new bureaucratic night mare.</p>

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<p>I’m not going to weigh in on the whole Oprah, Bill Gates, conspiracy theories thing, but getting back to the original post… here’s a link to some research from the Harvard Civil Rights Project and the Urban Institute regarding the dropout crisis, No Child Left Behind and racial and socioeconomic disparity in education. <a href=“http://www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu/research/dropouts/dropouts_gen.php[/url]”>http://www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu/research/dropouts/dropouts_gen.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Several Seattle are schools have dropped out of or been dropped by the Gates program. Reasons vary but I think most of it is control issues and the smaller HS requirements.
actually the whole district was dropped from the funding
there wasn’t any accountability
the gates foundation had certain guidelines in place for the uses of the money- but the schools didn’t follow through- they pretty much gave lipservice to what the requirements were and used it to fill short gaps in other areas- at least with the budgets I was involved with.</p>

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<p>Now that I’m finished with public education (at least the K-12 levels) here are some of my thoughts:
-many younger grades are “dumbed down” because everyone has to “feel good”. Our school system won’t allow pull-out AG program or separate classes because it might make the other children feel bad.
-not near enough emphasis on basics in younger years
-lack of parental encouragement at older grades for “high risk students”
-poor guidance counseling–it seems all their time is taken up now with administering tests and documentation chores, leaving little for actual guidance with students
-lack of discipline in the schools, often due to fear of lawsuits because “My little Johnny would never do something like that” attitudes</p>

<p>An anecdote–my son’s college roomate (white) attended a public high school that was 80% black. He said there were constant complaints from the community about the black students not being prepared for college, offered challenging courses, etc. However, he said few black students would ever sign up for an honors or AP class because of peer pressure or because their parents did not encourage them—and many of these students were more than capable of the work.</p>

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<p>I just want to say I went to HS, in a school that was falling apart. My DH was a “DROPOUT”.</p>

<p>Poor schools have been like this since I can remember. Nothing new.</p>

<p>The “Crisis” part I think was added to the show becasue the dropout rate is increasing at an alarming rate.
I do believe that was the point of the show.</p>

<p>My dd’s are above average. Only the “gifted” kids get the benefits!!! How are schools are set up is WRONG!
My dd was NOT ALLOWED to even be given a chance to take a higher level class.
The system stinks and I agree with Bill Gates.</p>

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<p>I do not doubt that there are legions of people who would spend Bill Gates’ money in different ways. Not surprisingly, it is the same group of people who are experts at spending … someone else’s money. Bill Gates is treated in the same manner than Steve Jobs was treated a few years ago. The message is clear: Have money? Give it to us! Have ideas? No thank you!</p>

<p>Obviously, the problem is that it IS Gates’ money and he will spend it as HE feels like. There is a great benefit of having a foundation and being alive. No trustees or hired management to follow a different path than the late donors wanted. Hello Princeton and Woodow Wilson! </p>

<p>Will all the education ventures supported by Gates work? Hell no! How could they as they still have to use teachers, an administration, deal with teenagers, and last but not least, parents and unions. Do we really expect that additional funding would be an universal panacea? </p>

<p>As a beneficiary of Mr. Gates’ largesse, I freely admit my bias.</p>

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<p>“Obviously, the problem is that it IS Gates’ money and he will spend it as he feels like.”</p>

<p>Really? I thought I lived in a representative democracy. I don’t remember voting for Gates. If Gates wants to run for congress, and lay our his education plan for us voters, maybe I’ll vote for him. Until then, I wish he would stop using all these kids as his own little personal guinea pigs. Either start up his own private schools, or run for elected office. This way he gets a big pat on the back for “trying,” and in the meantime bypasses any personal responsibility to parents. Don’t forget, parents are usually locked out of any important decision making at the local level (at least that’s been my experience.) When districts see money dangled in front of them, they will ordinarily take it; few questions asked. I find it frightening that intelligent people seem to just accept his influence without question. It amazes me.</p>

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<p>Hereshoping, first off, I did read the article you provided a link to. Also, since the reading, I have tried to find more information about the extent of the “failure” and find more recent news. </p>

<p>I am not sure if I can follow your assessment of students being guinea pigs, and the lack of representation by parents in the school decisions. Do parents in non-Gates school have much DIRECT say in matters related to the management and funding of the schools? </p>

<p>Finding solutions will not be easy, at least not as easy as identifying the causes of our most egregious problems. It only takes a trip to the next high school.</p>