Absolutely Amazing

[George Hatch]

Parental involvement in education is the surest measure of success. Unfortunately, folks scraping to get by have much less time to be involved.

It doesn't take all that much involvement to get the kid to school every day, go with the program and to do their homework. And that's about all it takes for a kid to avoid being functionally illiterate by the age of 12.

 

[Joe Flacco]

It's not just parental involvement in education but involvement in the overall upbringing. General parental supervision.

 

[Pittsburgh Pete]

It doesn't take all that much involvement to get the kid to school every day, go with the program and to do their homework. And that's about all it takes for a kid to avoid being functionally illiterate by the age of 12.

As easy as that??!!

 

[Deleted member 152047]

The teachers at my son's charter school are paid significantly less than public school teachers in the area. However, they are given the tools and support they need to teach the kids. Also, the culture of the school makes it nearly impossible for parents to not be involved. That said, those same requirements are not possible in public schools.

 

[Pittsburgh Pete]

N

The worst part of it is not the pay, it was the lack of administrative support, liberal top-heavy nature of the school district, lack of facility funding, lack of supply budget, and in general not being allowed to do their jobs. Teachers in this district last about 7 years, then they move on. That is when the money comes into it. Heck most admins in the private industry make more than teachers.

Lee County didn't have the turnover problem as they supported their teachers better, even though the pay was only a few $k more than Hillsborough.

Regardless, my wife is "retired" now and takes care of our young daughter. She will never go back to teaching.

Sounds like a fiscal issue manifesting itself in multiple areas. But then again it's probably just traceable to the "liberal top-heavy nature" of the administration. Them d&amn liberals screw up everything!

 

[Joe Flacco]

The teachers at my son's charter school are paid significantly less than public school teachers in the area. However, they are given the tools and support they need to teach the kids. Also, the culture of the school makes it nearly impossible for parents to not be involved. That said, those same requirements are not possible in public schools.

Yup. It is not the amount of funding at the school. The school is successful because the parents of the kids in the school are like minded with their kids education. That's what the culture of the school is built on which attracts more like minded parents. You want your kids going to school with other kids with like minded parents.

 

[Deleted member 152047]

Sounds like a fiscal issue manifesting itself in multiple areas. But then again it's probably just traceable to the "liberal top-heavy nature" of the administration. Them d&amn liberals screw up everything!

Yeah, that statement was based on fact. They did a study and determined that the school district spent 3x more on administration as a comparably sized (and more successful) school district (Orange County- Orlando). They offered hundreds of back-office administrators an option to retire early, get laid-off, or transfer to a teaching position. So you had people that had never been teachers push out qualified teaching candidates because of their tenure as employees of the district.

 

[George Hatch]

The operative word in play here is "support", and the parallels with the appraisal business should be obvious. If you are an appraiser (or a teacher) and you're confident that your client (or the school administrators) will support you in the event of a dispute that support serves to better isolate you from the undue external pressures to just cave and take the path of least resistance.

When your clients habitually take the borrower's side it makes your job that much harder and contributes to the more hostile working environment, which will have the inevitable result.

I told my kids from the outset that in the event of any disputes between they and their teachers that my default would always be to support the teacher until proven otherwise. So don't even ask me to go fight your fights for you. Part of the job description is working with others and sticking to the program.

Unfortunately there are a lot of parents out there who don't see it that way, and who will automatically defend the kid even when the kid is in the wrong. When a teacher has to prioritize a majority of their energy in maintaining class discipline then the net result of that is the instruction ends up coming second. Or third.

It only takes one or two problem children to hold the entire class back, and then you run into motivational problems with the others.

IMO we don't have a teacher problem - we have a huge parenting problem that's backstabbing the teachers and administrators. Throwing more money at the problem isn't the answer. Every dollar spent to remediate the cumulative effects of parental opposition to simple law-n-order at school is money that is being stolen by these parents from their kids' education.

 

[Pittsburgh Pete]

Yeah, that statement was based on fact. They did a study and determined that the school district spent 3x more on administration as a comparably sized (and more successful) school district (Orange County- Orlando). They offered hundreds of back-office administrators an option to retire early, get laid-off, or transfer to a teaching position. So you had people that had never been teachers push out qualified teaching candidates because of their tenure as employees of the district.

Sorry your district is inefficient but the fact remains that Florida public schools are notoriously bad and grossly under-funded.

 

[George Hatch]

Sorry your district is inefficient but the fact remains that Florida public schools are notoriously bad and grossly under-funded.

And yet the Catholic schools (as just one example) are proving the opposite.