-
-
-------------------- 2509 - EDUCATION - What Teachers Need to Know?
-
- The US scholarship of low achievers grows every year. This erosion occurs gradually so it is easy to ignore. It is like cooking a frog. If you gradually turn up the heat the frog will never jump out of the pot until he is cooked. But, if the US does not correct its educational system and the results it is getting it will sink in competitiveness in the world economy and sink its new generation’s standard of living.
-
- Bush’s No Child Left Behind law is lifting minority’s kids test scores. At least, it is measuring results. “You can not manage what you do not measure“. Yet, it is too little and not fast enough. 39% of white 8th graders ar proficient in reading, 15% of Hispanics, and 12% of blacks.
-
- In 1980 82% of the US work force was white. By 2020 only 63% will be white. Minorities will be 37% of the work force, Hispanics 17%.
-
- Of the 9th graders who will graduate high school on time in 2001, 75% of white, 49% of blacks, and 52% of Hispanics. From college 23% of whites, 10% of blacks, and 15% of Hispanics.
-
- In 2002 of the students starting 9th grade in high school only 68% go on to graduate.
-
- The US must push harder to get better teachers into poorer schools. One way would be to pay teachers more for the tougher job they have to do. Parents, communities, and schools must work far harder keeping students from dropping out of high school, even as we are raising graduation standards for proficiency.
-
- Standards must continue raising because 33% of high school graduates are unprepared for college. They need remedial courses in order to keep up with a college curriculum. Only 50% of those who enter college are able to graduate with a bachelor degree.
-
- More money is needed as well. Good teachers need to be paid higher salaries. Poor kids need financial aid to stay in school. Educational technology needs major capital investment and teachers and administers need to be trained how to get maximum return on the investment.
-
- US math and reading scores rank below Europe and Asia. Education is exploding in India and China. More US white collar jobs will be moving off shore to these new graduates.
-
- The state of Texas has calculated that by 2020 the number of minorities in public school will grow from 57% to 80%. If the same educational ratios of drop outs and proficiency remain the average Texan inflation adjusted income will fall by $6,500 by 2040. In other words, there is a direct relationship between education and your standard of living.
-
- If current trends in US education are not reversed the US living standards will dive, and it takes generations to recover. We need to act now
-
---------------- EDUCATION AND THE WORLD’S STANDARD OF LIVING:
-
- 30% of the US total income belongs to 10% of the households. 20% of the US households at the lower incomes get 5% of the income. Every nation has a gap between the haves and the have-nots. The disparity goes beyond the money.
-
- The average life expectancy for the 9 richest nations is 74 to 78 years. The average life expectancy for the 18 poorest nations averages 35 to 59 years. Among the poorest nations are Chad, Congo, Ethiopia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Yemen, Zambia. For more than half the poor population the life expectancy is less than 47 years which was the life expectancy in the US in 1905, 100 years ago.
-
- In rich countries literacy is 96 to 100%. In poor countries it ranges from 15 to 80% literacy.
-
- The poor countries suffer from a lack of food. It is estimated that poverty kills 30,000 people each day. At the same time, over consumption of food is the biggest problem for health in the US.
-
- Over 9,000,000 Americans are more than 100 pounds overweight. Morbid obesity will cause 300,000 premature deaths in the US this year, 823 premature deaths per day in the US. (For comparison in 1988 134 Americans died in automobile accidents per day). Obesity may soon surpass both hunger and infectious disease as the world’s most pressing public-health problem
-
- The higher standard of living brings a complexity of life style and problems of its own. How great it would be if the gap between poor and rich could close simply by learning from each other. There is excellence in the poor. Health and education is all they need.
-
- Hundreds of millions of people find their lives blighted by war, crime, disease, and famine. Even slavery today is more prevalent than it was all the years slaves were stolen from Africa in the 1800’s.
-
- It is futile and naïve to look at governments to solve these problems. We the people are the government. The solutions must come from individuals working together to achieve the goals of a better world. It will not happen without sacrifice. The poor in this world are worth the investment. There is excellence in the poor.
-
- With health and education the poor can make amazing contributions to the world society. It is still a global village of individual families. The poor do not want to be fed fish, they want to learn how to catch fish for themselves and feed their own families. The world’s salvation lies in education.
-
------------------------------ LEAVE NO CHILD BEHIND:
-
- Ok, then , double the salaries we pay teachers. The No Child Left Behind Law mandates that all U.S. children meet math and reading proficiency standards by 2014. With this law’s performance bar 15,000,000 students will fail to make the grade. Why, because there is a dire shortage of qualified teachers and administers in thousands of schools in the U.S.
-
- Schools must all adopt a 100% guarantee for all proficiency goals. For example, by third grade 99.9% of all students must be able to read. To get the people needed to make this happen the average teacher needs to be making $90,000 a school year. The best teachers should be making $130,000 and the best principals $200,000.
-
- Performance based pay is needed to fill the national shortfall of 250,000 qualified math and science teachers. To pay for doubling teacher’s salaries we should cut the number of teachers in half. To do this you do not double the class size. You double the amount of time students spend in independent study.
-
- Starting in forth grade and by high school 50% of a student’s day would be spent in independent study. A heavy reliance should be made on computers and today’s technology should monitor and assist this independent study.
-
- Students should have a heavy role in running the schools. The best students should be tutoring the ones that need help. Students should be fixing computers, cleaning rooms, answering phones, monitoring study halls. All students should be working 3 hours per week performing these duties.
-
- Technology is a key. Today we spend $260,000,000 on research and development in education. R&D should grow to $4,000,000,000 a year to develop the most efficient and effective systems for managing schools.
-
- Students independent studies should include lessons on choosing a career, consumer finance, maintaining your own health and physical fitness.
-
- This was written 15 years ago, how much has changed? It is the most important job we have, raising and educating our children.
-
- Other Reviews available:
-
- 1575 - Teaching how to learn.
-
- 1400 - Should we have a Department of Education?
-
- 806 - Word processing through the ages.
-
- 804 - Double loop learning
-
- 771 - Sonoma County schools.
-
- 708 - The state of affairs in the US.
-
- 697 - So you want to be s genius?
-
- 690 - College prep. SAT scores in 2006. Sonoma County.
-
- 678 - English our national language.
-
- 624 - Math through the decades.
-
- 526 - Improving our education system. Written 2004.
-
- November 30, 2019 2408 2509 578 559 568
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----- Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ----
--- Some reviews are at: -------------- http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
-- email feedback, corrections, request for copies or Index of all reviews
--- to: ------ jamesdetrick@comcast.net ------ “Jim Detrick” -----------
- https://plus.google.com/u/0/ -- www.facebook.com -- www.twitter.com
--------------------- Saturday, November 30, 2019 --------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment