Rhee may not get to finish what she started.

This article in Education Week discuses the implications of a recent election in Washington D.C. to Michelle Rhee who is their Education Chancellor. Because her boss, Mayor Adrian Fenty lost the election she may loss her job. If you have ever heard her name then you know she has been a vary controversial figure in education. She has made broad changes throughout our nations capitol's education system, firing many teachers, school employees and principles. She has closed several schools and spent a lot of money to revamp the system, and made a lot of enemies.

Only three years as Chancellor, the numbers speak for themselves. She has raised test scores, increased the number of students who are going to college, decreased the number of drop outs and decreased the budget. If she losses here position because of politics, Washington D.C. will loss a great student advocate. As she point out in this article, she will be fine, but the students will be the ones who loss out. It is sad that because the media never picked up on the positives of her tenure, she may only be remember for the controversy.

I hope that if she does lose her job, she might consider moving to Oregon, or maybe into a position of great range of effectiveness.

Charter Schools Program

Charter Schools Program This is a link to the federal governments Charter School program I found on Education Weeks website.

School Closures, a fundamental flaw in NCLB

This article online at edweek.org sites a study that proves that there are many fundamental flaws with "Shooting the goat" just because it is under performing. Unlike a goat, schools are complex problems that have more solutions than can be put into words. This article points out just one of the many implications caused by shutting down a school that is underperforming. They site a study of the NY City School District  that shows that closing schools effects the the poorer students the most. They don't have the resources to cope with this kind of change in the middle of critical education periods.

This article on opposingviews.com has more concrete information regarding the failure of NCLB. It points out that the people who are hit hardest are the ones who already are the most disadvantaged.

If you think about this on a more local level, it could be devastating to Oregon if some of their poorer schools where to close. Mostly because these schools tend to be in rural areas. Can you imagine if Dallas High School where closed because of poor test scores? Where would these kids go? What about even more rural areas of Eastern Oregon? These children already are so separated geographically, then you have to make them move to a new school and have to readjust to a new social structure.

I also think that shutting down a school makes poor economic sense as well. You shut down a school, then you move all the children to another school that is probable already taxed to its limits and you have a perfectly good physical location that stands empty:-( It makes more sense to me that you change some of the parts and try and give any underperforming schools additional help so that they can change their own situation. I agree that major change needs to take place in this country, but it needs to be done in a way that puts the children first.

P.S. This looks like a great resource for everyone involved in education:
http://nationsreportcard.gov

First week

These are my notes from class today regarding one of the articles from last week.

Education Weekly, September 1, 2010

Merit Pay or Team Accountability?

Commentary piece page 24

Strong reactions of article

Why is this important? Who is important to?

Teachers pay structure is important to tax payers, especially ones that don’t have children in the system. They are worried about where their money is going.It is important to teachers because they need to make a living. 

I wonder how their pay coorilates to other professions. What is the per hour salary of the average teacher?

This is the basic question of teacher worth

What is the function of each teacher?

            It is to prepare students for the future

            To provide the fundimental building blocks for society.

Individually or as a group

            The author of this article is arguing that teachers are only as good as their students and the only real way to analyze there progress is to analyze every aspect of there schooling. So each teacher needs to be judged in a group setting. I agree for the most parts with this because each teacher only gets a short time with each one.

Priciples roles

The question of teacher accountability is one of effectiveness.