August 15, 2007
City Puts $5 Million Towards Improving Middle Schools
While the jury is still out on whether Mayor Bloomberg's improvements to the public school system have really worked, he, along with City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and School Chancellor Joel Klein, announced new initiatives to help middle schools improve academic performance and provide better resources for students, parents, and teachers alike - plus $5 million to fund them. The money will go to the 50 lowest-performing middle schools, so they can staff up with guidance counselors, offer mentoring programs to less experienced supervisors, and offer Regents-level classes.
The initiatives were proposed by the City Council's Middle School Task Force, which was formed because NYC middle school students lag behind elementary and high school students: " In 2007, less than 50% of middle school students met or exceeded the English Language Arts (ELA) standard, and only 45.6% of 8th graders met or exceeded the math standard."
Mayor Bloomberg said middle school is "where many students begin to lose their footing." Teachers union president Randi Weingarten supports the plan; per the Politicker, she siad, "Let's make this real. Let's turn around our middle schools."
However some would like even more dramatic reforms. For instance, why didn't the Mayor take the task force's suggestion of reducing class size to heart? City Councilman Michael McMahon of Staten Island thinks there should be more to address discipline issues, suggesting a "Marshall Plan approach" to safety and discipline. And a teacher writing on the Huffington Post, Dan Brown, believes that the test-driven learning culture of students makes them uninterested once the tests are over. And the Wonkster wonders if Quinn went ahead with the Mayor's middle school plan to aid her mayoral aspirations.
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The biggest problem with schools at all levels is political meddling like the "No Child Left Behind" and other test mandating legislation which forces schools to teach to the test instead of teach the things that kids actually need to know. The tests are basically ways politicos can look like they are producing results because they have something that they say can be looked at as a measure, despite being absolutely worthless and causing more harm than good.
The first thing that needs to be done is eliminate all standardized testing and teach kids the basics and practical things instead of teaching to the politicos stupid tests.
Yeah, Toby, testing is the biggest problem. Your rants are staight out of the teacher's union talking points. Nobody is forced to teach to the test. The fact that they do is a pretty good indicator that the teachers and administrators are only concerned about their jobs.
Is it me, or does $5 million sound like a REALLY small amount of money for such a big system?
how about paying the families to ensure that those kids go to school and behave appropriately. Give these families a financial incentive to ensure attendance. Give financial incentives to encourage parents to teach/reinforce appropriate behavior for the classroom - 3 warnings with counseling from school staff. After the 3rd infraction, family starts losing money from the program.
Then maybe, teachers will be able to teach. I agree with MT that $5 Million seems small.
I'm with #4. Take away the testing and these kids still have parents that can't keep them in line. Middle school is the age kids start getting into trouble and it starts at home. Plenty of studies have shown that additional spending, testing, etc. end up helping the smart (read:affluent) kids.
If students actually learned things they need to know, the tests would be a formality. The idea shouldn't be that the teachers are "teaching to the test", the idea should be that they're teaching a subject and the material covered includes what's on the test.
Teachers unions are another part of the problem, since they don't always have what is best for the kids in mind and of course protect bad teachers and administrators.
The bloated educrat system and lack of parental oversight are also problems as well. There are no easy answers and something like what other industrialized nations have in a national curriculum wouldn't work because you would have some backwards hicks trying to foist off religion as science.
Here's how I would spend the money - on tutoring, with teeth. Kids who are flunking a class are required to sign up for one-on-one tutoring after school. The tutors basically babysit them and teach them how to focus and study. Seems like that's where you could get the most bang-for-your-buck.
Yes, that should ensure for every school a brand new pencil sharpener that is in proper working order..
because you would have some backwards hicks trying to foist off religion as science.
#6, the tests would be a formality but there is no way to know of the kids are actually learning anything. We could just hold classes and give everyone an A, much like Harvard.
Again, not defending "intelligent design" but I have to point out that evolution and intelligent design is so unimportant in the larger debate about the problem of our schools and have little or no bearing on the lousy state of New York's schools. But Toby does a nice job of getting one his insults to the non-NYC parts of the country. No wonder you have no credibility.
And FYI, national curriculums are exactly what the teachers unions don't want because it allows for testing results to be compared. See California. The union there was/is backing the elimination of a state curriculum to create total local control. Curiously the liberals were all calling for local control after the latest Supreme Court ruling that declared race based admissions unconstitutional.
I think you misread JMH's comment, "guest." He was arguing that in a well-taught class one would not have to "teach to the test." He's not anti-testing.
Your argument contra Toby is on basically on target (that the biology debate is a tiny part of the curriculum) until you go all ad hominem on his ass.
"Curiously the liberals were all calling for local control after the latest Supreme Court ruling..." Huh? What's the connection between race-based admissions (or lack of it) and local control? Do you just mean that liberals are anti-testing?
pay parents to send their kids to school? yeah that'll work as well as welfare and government handouts.
that really made me laugh... thanks for making my day with that tidbit.
5 million seems like chump change given the potential 350 million expected for mass transit. Mixed up priorities. Also, even if Bloomberg pulled it out of his own pocket, it would still be chump change (relatively speaking). Guess middle school students will remain chumps.