Money can't buy.....

For far too long we have heard the message....give us more money and we will give you better schools. Has it worked? Not to my knowledge. The fact is that, even adjusted for inflation, the amount of money spent per pupil is around seven times what it was thirty years ago. Does money matter? Of course. But administrators and boards sometimes forget what their primary purpose is; not just to educate our children but to do a better job than we are currently
doing. Yet, just as we continue to do the same things we have always done, and in the same manner, we continue to allocate our funds in the same way they have always been allocated.
Identifying goals that will truly improve student learning and then prioritizing your funds to insure that the goals can be reached, why do we seem to find this impossible?

For instance, most educators and a large portion of the public see high school education as that area most in need of reform. With the rapidly accelerating knowledge bases, why do we continue to have six or seven period days from 7:30 to 3PM? Why aren't they open from 7AM until 5 or even 8PM? Students and staff could choose the times that worked best for them, tutoring sessions, on line learning and special interest classes could be held, there are a multitude of available plans and ideas. Would it cost more? Probably not much.

We have been talking about the critical need to reform for 18 years, (remember....A Nation at Risk?) The time for action is now! Visit http://www.electmarcianeal.com/

Ending Social Promotion

Not long ago I read an article in the Rocky Mountain News about a Denver school that had made the decision to end social promotion! What an earth-shaking idea. Surely we can't do that? Stop moving students from grade to grade .....risk damaging their self esteem?

About 30 years ago educational critics began to agitate about "failing" students. While the original protests did contain some germs of truth, namely that having the student repeat the entire subject or class was not very successful, they wrongly concluded that the solution was to just pass them on and the next teacher could bring them up to the desired level. This led to teachers having learning gaps of up to six to eight years along with an expectation that they should meet the needs of all students. It also had the unintended consequence of creating generations of students who knew that they didn't have to work hard to master subjects because they would be passed on.

Simple solution: Instead of starting over the student needed to finish the work. This might be done in a variety of ways, tutoring sessions during the year, after school, or weekends; a two to four week summer school session; there are many options. This has two advantages: For those students who just need more time and attention to master the subject, it is provided. But the big advantage: re-creating students who realize that they are expected to produce satisfactory results and that true self esteem comes from working hard to master a difficult subject and achieving success.

This is step one in educational reform. Visit http://www.electmarcianeal.com/