SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS SPEAK AT EDUCATION FORUM
The state of public education in Washington County was the subject of a luncheon forum today (Wednesday) at Blinn College. The Education Update Forum was presented by the Chamber of Commerce and featured Burton Superintendent Dr. Edna Kennedy and Brenham Superintendent Dr. Walter Jackson.
Each superintendent gave an update on their district. Dr. Kennedy spoke about the growth at the Burton schools and the planned improvements if the proposed 18 million dollar bond issue is passed in November. Dr. Jackson talked about how the national community has turned its back on public education. He said we need to return to the idea that schools are the “shining city on the hill” and that teachers are due the same respect we give to veterans and first responders.
The second half of the forum featured questions from the audience. When asked what they would like to see the state legislature do in support of education, Dr. Kennedy replied that districts need to get the message out about their accomplishments:
The most pointed part in the question and answer period came when the superintendents were asked why the standardized test scores weren’t higher. Dr. Jackson explained that schools are only half of the equation:
The next Chamber of Commerce event will be the annual Tailgate Party scheduled for Thursday, August 25th at 6:00pm at Silver Wings Ballroom. For tickets and more information call the chamber at 836-3695 or email Tailgate@BrenhamTexas.com
Truthbtold maybe should reread seniors comments. It mentioned supporting legislators who will make better decisions for the education program. I take that to mean you cannot keep doing the same thing and expect different results, so clean house on the ballot. The only way the “system” is to blame, is as senior mentioned, do not reward poor choices or behavior repeatedly thru the “system”, again clean house on the ballot. The current thought in our state legislature is to dummy down the future voters by providing even more misguided education or reduce graduation requirements( they did this last year). AND I think what senior tastefully tried to state was, “. Do not push your children into adult social situations, which will and does result in children having children”. And that gives us more neglected children.
Dr. Jackson preached a sermon and hit a homerun at the same time ? If the shoe fits, say, “OUCH!”
The current testing of Texas students is designed to determine if students are on pace according to standards developed without Texas educators input. The Texas educators are tasked with teaching the state standards that have increased in difficulty to a degree of mastery that keeps increasing to an expected passing rate near 90% or more. These results are used only for declaring schools as failing or meeting expectations. These results are used to determine student’s understanding of the expectations for THAT YEAR at THAT point in time.
Originally, testing was used to determine the success or failure of a student to GROW in their mastery from year to year. When used in this manner, schools are motivated to meet the needs of students longitudinally, over several years. It requires schools to develop curriculum that is VERTICALLY aligned. The difference is that skills and understanding are built AND reviewed for understanding. Students have previous skills reinforced and then have applied to integrate in future learning. For example students learn basic operations such as add, multiply, subtract and divide in elementary. In HS Algebra they use the SAMs skills, but substitute solving for X, Y and Z for example. Districts can vertically build skill sets and review more complicated skills such as dividing fractions, if students are having difficulty.
Using results longitudinally also allows schools to demonstrate to the state that not all students begin school at what the state “assumes”. In some districts there are pockets of students that do not have access to Sesame Street, tv, computers, Internet or interaction with a diverse population. They also may have no parent at home working with them on learning colors, counting to ten, playing with others or other social skills. In a school setting, they learn at a slower rate because of adjusting to the social and structural setting. However, as they become more comfortable, with parents supporting them at home and extra minutes in small settings, they are able to fill in the blanks in understanding in early grades and by 5th or 6th grade, they can be on level. However, in the years they were behind, the district has a problem getting enough students to pass. There is no credit for the effort to advance the student more than one grade level over the years, BEFORE the student passed.
Lastly, the current political interests in control of the state legislatures support charter schools and private education. They have made a concerted effort to increase the standards, change the passing standards, require teacher testing, cut funding for public universities and schools and withhold teacher retirement and health benefits and pay. All of this was designed to set public schools up for failure in an effort to justify more charter and private schools.
What is their motivation? If more students attend charter and private schools, there will be less teachers, administrators and support people employed in public schools. What is the difference you ask?
Private and charter schools are not required to have certified teachers. They are thus cheaper to employ. Computers can be taught by someone that worked at Dell Computer for example. Administrators do not have any skill set. You have heard of private schools run by a church or “foundation” that has a Board of Directors that are family members, as well as the administrator? The kids pay tuition, that goes to the business, church or foundation. Or the kids are recruited for athletics and the teams play for state championships. Many of the schools are set up as “magnet schools” and accepts only students with high academic records. They can exclude any student with a handicap, special education, language that is not English. Public schools must provide a “free and public education”. Private schools can be run as a for profit.
For the state, they do not have to pay into retirement, health and other benefits. They just send the school a check per student for that school to educate the student. That frees up state budget money to spend on items that the lobbyists are selling.
It is all about the money. It is not just in Texas. Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Tennessee are other states that have been through this. Read about how Kansas and Oklahoma have done after going through the cycle. Oklahoma and Kansas cannot find certified teachers. Funding for public schools has been challenged in their court systems. Students scores on SAT are slipping. Schools are fundraising to supplement budgets. In states that have property taxes, they are going up to supplement lacking state funds. In the current election cycle, the primaries saw 20 conservatives lose re-election because local citizens are making an effort to support their local districts.
It all starts at home! Thank you Dr. Jackson for being real, now parents need to get real.
We all know that parenting in this school district is lacking, no surprise there. But many of the problem parents had children for reasons other than simply a desire for children and parenting. So may we be real here again? By accident, for money, just because they can or think they should, or from lack of resources for an abortion, as an accessory, for any reason other than a responsible thought out decision. The result is no parenting and children not wanted for the “right” reasons. Child rearing is for mature adults, not children in adult clothing.
So we the voters can make changes by providing solutions to reduce those wrong reasons. Support legislators who want to thoroughly and properly educate children so they know the difference berween responsible and poor choices. Honest, truthful, real classes on life and living. Do not reward poor choices. Provide reasonable resources to correct or reverse consequences of poor choices. And parents can stop promoting adult behaviors in the lives of elementary age children, with boyfriend/ girlfriend chatter and giving dolls that resemble hookers to girls age 4 to 12, or dances in 5th grade. Stop the encouragement, monitor their media habits, take control. Where did good sense go? So he is very correct in his statement, it starts with us, the adults. The schools are not miracle workers.
Wow Senior!!!Really??? You have no clue!!
I will just say,most of every State sytem (Education, Welfare, Criminal Justice, Mental Health,etc) is set up for certain demographics of people to fail and that is a fact!!! None of these problems are new, but these standardized tests that the State Board members of Education could not even pass themselves are. Since when did these tests cost the State milions of dollars and the success rate returns to be a complete joke?
You cannot teach standards different ways by different teaching styles, and the test be designed for maybe 60% of the majority of the demographics….if that much. Blame it on the system if anything else! No child left behind has turned into every child for himself as far as the Department of Education. However, teachers and districts are killing themselves to do the impossible. Of course it is easy for richer districts and demographics.