@zeke4ahs this is always so hilarious to me. A complete nobody, who has zero clue about 99% of how the world works, compares themselves with a billionaire, who’s been President of the United States - twice, has built a global real estate empire over a 60 year career, swims among the elites and kings globally, and has employed literally thousands of people that are head and shoulders above you!
Please have a glance at reality and that includes the mirror.
@MoHoosier, I'm not a believer in anti-racist dogma. Just explaining it.@bradstevens racist requires race, not familial
position
To them, if your explanation disproportionately negatively affects black people, then it is racist. End of analysis, and if you argue against it, it is a sign of white fragility.
@zeke4ahs this is always so hilarious to me. A complete nobody, who has zero clue about 99% of how the world works, compares themselves with a billionaire, who’s been President of the United States - twice, has built a global real estate empire over a 60 year career, swims among the elites and kings globally, and has employed literally thousands of people that are head and shoulders above you!
Please have a glance at reality and that includes the mirror.
.
I'll put in my two cents as an educator. I have worked in both public and charter schools here in Indianapolis. This is a very complex issue that has multiple spokes.
1) The quality of educators has eroded. With the teacher shortage schools and districts are going toward these transition to teaching and emergency permit programs. Very rarely do you get a teacher who has done the necessary service hours in student teaching. Districts and Charters can pay these people lower salaries because they are not qualified and pass it off as "on the job training". This leaves students with someone who can read out of a book, but can't actually teach or run a classroom.
2) Overcrowding Classrooms- Charter schools and other schools will say they have 12:1 or whatever teacher to student ratios. That is just twisting data. They will count every time someone else is in the room for one-on-one help or just by staff numbers. Most classrooms have between 25-30+ kids and one teacher. Instruction suffers, time on task suffers all in the name of getting that ADM money.
3) Testing Companies make the curriculums. I mean come on. Is there a better business model than selling the test to school and also selling the test prep materials. When numbers slag, you sell a new or adjusted curriculum or program.
4) Too Much Time Assessing, Not Enough Time Using the Data
I am a coach at heart and I am NOT anti-test, but if you are not properly using the data it is a total waste of time. I have been at schools that test weekly from K-6th grade. You lose a ton of instruction time by taking tests where a lot of the people don't know how to adjust to the data. Then there are wasted WEEKS for these state tests.
5) No Homework
This one boggles my mind. No one knows how to use homework. It is not just for the things you don't get to in class. Instruction happens at school and then practice happens at home. Nobody practices anymore and it's showing on tests. I am not saying load kids up with 5 hrs of HW a night, but 20 minutes on specific skills goes a long way.
There are many, many other factors. Attendance, elimination of electives, lack of parent involvement.
There is no one entity or person to blame.
Thank you for reading Hoosier Huddle
@thehoosierhuddle my youngest has homework, but it's all done online, so if she has a question with it and wants my help, I really don't have much reference to go off of, which then causes her to have to email her teacher who might get back to her the following day. Its so frustrating and sometimes i forget she's only 11 doing all this.
@boogie I am cool with getting rid of most tech in classrooms too. The program I do like for homework is IXL (if used correctly).
Thank you for reading Hoosier Huddle
5) No Homework
This one boggles my mind. No one knows how to use homework. It is not just for the things you don’t get to in class. Instruction happens at school and then practice happens at home. Nobody practices anymore and it’s showing on tests. I am not saying load kids up with 5 hrs of HW a night, but 20 minutes on specific skills goes a long way.
this bit is shocking indeed. my daughter only rarely has homework.
The quality of educators has eroded. With the teacher shortage schools and districts are going toward these transition to teaching and emergency permit programs. Very rarely do you get a teacher who has done the necessary service hours in student teaching. Districts and Charters can pay these people lower salaries because they are not qualified and pass it off as “on the job training”. This leaves students with someone who can read out of a book, but can’t actually teach or run a classroom.
This is a pet peeve of mine. I'm of the opinion that the best teachers are born, not made. There's too much emphasis on pedagogy instead of subject knowledge, practical experience, and just having that "it" factor that the best teachers have instinctively.
Case in point, and this is going back to the 70s and 80s...
My dad was a graduate the IU School of Music, majoring in voice and choral music direction. The business he owned and operated was summer seasonal, and he always looked for things to do in the winter. My folks were also social friends with the school superintendent and his wife. Back then you could be hired as an "emergency" substitute teacher without any teaching credentials. Whenever there was an opening in the music department, my dad got the call. He was good; the students loved him and the performances they did under his direction were outstanding. At one point Dad went to see the superintendent to find out what it would take to get his full teaching credentials. He was told he would have to take a minimum of three full semesters of actual education courses (possibly more, I'm not certain). Needless to say, that wasn't going to happen. And the kids where the ones who were shortchanged.
@boogie cosign. and it only gets worse. portals and emails and no textbooks and all the rest. tech has actually imo made it harder on parents
@unclemark it’s a different era. Your dad seems like he enjoyed his students and the subject. That’s not the case a lot anymore
Thank you for reading Hoosier Huddle
Awesome insights. I've never heard of a school doing a form of standardized testing once a week. That's wild. Part of me thinks that could be very beneficial, although you're right, only if you know how to use and respond to the results.I'll put in my two cents as an educator. I have worked in both public and charter schools here in Indianapolis. This is a very complex issue that has multiple spokes.
1) The quality of educators has eroded. With the teacher shortage schools and districts are going toward these transition to teaching and emergency permit programs. Very rarely do you get a teacher who has done the necessary service hours in student teaching. Districts and Charters can pay these people lower salaries because they are not qualified and pass it off as "on the job training". This leaves students with someone who can read out of a book, but can't actually teach or run a classroom.
2) Overcrowding Classrooms- Charter schools and other schools will say they have 12:1 or whatever teacher to student ratios. That is just twisting data. They will count every time someone else is in the room for one-on-one help or just by staff numbers. Most classrooms have between 25-30+ kids and one teacher. Instruction suffers, time on task suffers all in the name of getting that ADM money.
3) Testing Companies make the curriculums. I mean come on. Is there a better business model than selling the test to school and also selling the test prep materials. When numbers slag, you sell a new or adjusted curriculum or program.
4) Too Much Time Assessing, Not Enough Time Using the Data
I am a coach at heart and I am NOT anti-test, but if you are not properly using the data it is a total waste of time. I have been at schools that test weekly from K-6th grade. You lose a ton of instruction time by taking tests where a lot of the people don't know how to adjust to the data. Then there are wasted WEEKS for these state tests.
5) No Homework
This one boggles my mind. No one knows how to use homework. It is not just for the things you don't get to in class. Instruction happens at school and then practice happens at home. Nobody practices anymore and it's showing on tests. I am not saying load kids up with 5 hrs of HW a night, but 20 minutes on specific skills goes a long way.
There are many, many other factors. Attendance, elimination of electives, lack of parent involvement.
There is no one entity or person to blame.
If I'm down your way sometime, I'm buying you a beer or four and picking your brain on this stuff. My kid's school drives me insane.
Awesome insights. I've never heard of a school doing a form of standardized testing once a week. That's wild. Part of me thinks that could be very beneficial, although you're right, only if you know how to use and respond to the results.I'll put in my two cents as an educator. I have worked in both public and charter schools here in Indianapolis. This is a very complex issue that has multiple spokes.
1) The quality of educators has eroded. With the teacher shortage schools and districts are going toward these transition to teaching and emergency permit programs. Very rarely do you get a teacher who has done the necessary service hours in student teaching. Districts and Charters can pay these people lower salaries because they are not qualified and pass it off as "on the job training". This leaves students with someone who can read out of a book, but can't actually teach or run a classroom.
2) Overcrowding Classrooms- Charter schools and other schools will say they have 12:1 or whatever teacher to student ratios. That is just twisting data. They will count every time someone else is in the room for one-on-one help or just by staff numbers. Most classrooms have between 25-30+ kids and one teacher. Instruction suffers, time on task suffers all in the name of getting that ADM money.
3) Testing Companies make the curriculums. I mean come on. Is there a better business model than selling the test to school and also selling the test prep materials. When numbers slag, you sell a new or adjusted curriculum or program.
4) Too Much Time Assessing, Not Enough Time Using the Data
I am a coach at heart and I am NOT anti-test, but if you are not properly using the data it is a total waste of time. I have been at schools that test weekly from K-6th grade. You lose a ton of instruction time by taking tests where a lot of the people don't know how to adjust to the data. Then there are wasted WEEKS for these state tests.
5) No Homework
This one boggles my mind. No one knows how to use homework. It is not just for the things you don't get to in class. Instruction happens at school and then practice happens at home. Nobody practices anymore and it's showing on tests. I am not saying load kids up with 5 hrs of HW a night, but 20 minutes on specific skills goes a long way.
There are many, many other factors. Attendance, elimination of electives, lack of parent involvement.
There is no one entity or person to blame.
If I'm down your way sometime, I'm buying you a beer or four and picking your brain on this stuff. My kid's school drives me insane.
The problem is you can't design an educational system for "born" teachers. Scale is a problem. We have 4 million K-12 teachers in the US! So whatever system you land on, has to roll out to a large sector of people with different abilities, IQs, etc. and you need them all to teach it at a minimum level of competence.This is a pet peeve of mine. I’m of the opinion that the best teachers are born, not made. There’s too much emphasis on pedagogy instead of subject knowledge, practical experience, and just having that “it” factor that the best teachers have instinctively.
@bradstevens the born teachers aren’t going into the field anymore. It starts with pay.
Thank you for reading Hoosier Huddle