Franklin Schargel’s Blog

According to the US Department of Education, the number of guns in schools has gone up. The report states that the number of guns increase by 10 percent  from 2008-2009 to 2010-2011. The number of guns had been dropping since the 2005-2006 school year.  During the 2010-2011 school year, 2,761 students were caught with guns at school.

How many of you were well-prepared to enter the classroom when you graduated from your School of Education? I wasn’t!  It didn’t take me long to learn that if I wanted to succeed as an educator, I would have to learn on the job. 

So I wasn’t surprised at the report from the National Council on Teaching Quality headed by Arthur Levine, the former President of Teachers College at Columbia University which concluded that a majority of colleges and universities do a poor job of preparing their students to teach.  “We don’t know how to prepared teachers. We can’t decide whether it is a craft or a profession.”

My college professors seemed uninterested in teaching me anything practical. So that when I graduated I had no more practical knowledge than when I started.  Why don’t Schools of Education adopt the Medical School approach.  Medical students spend the first two years learning the fundamentals and theories of medicine and then proceed to the practical application of patient care an guided practice.

Sereno Alliance for Higher Education and the University of New Mexico released results for minorities on the ACT test results for high school seniors.

Latinos scored better than blacks and Native Americans, although they lagged behind Asian Americans and whites.  The percentage of Hispanics meeting ACT benchmarks was 48.  That compares with 34 for blacks, for Native Americans, 74 for Asian Americans and 75 for whites.

In mathematics, the Hispanic percentage was 30, which compares to 14 for black, 22 for Native Americans, 71 for Asian Americans and 53 for whites.

In states across the country, STEM education is taking top priority. Each state has different resources and advocacy efforts.

Many resources are state-specific, and others are nationwide advocacy groups that promote STEM education awareness, legislation, and action.

https://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/03/06/state-stem-resources-395/?ps=78168-0013000000j0Ily-0033000000q5dKT

 

A 2009 survey indicated that 51 percent of teenagers 17 or younger believe that cheating was necessary for success while only 10 percent of people older than 50 thought the same. Men are less honest than women.  Other traits that correlate with dishonesty, according to a 2013 study measured students’ propensity to lie to strangers include having divorced parents and majoring in business.

According to studies cheating makes us feel good.  The study’s authors called this effect the “cheater’s high”.

Fifty-one billion dollars ($51,000,000,000) is the projected amount that the U.S. Department of education is expected to earn in profits from student loans in 2013.  “Degrees of Debt” (www. DefendYourDollars.org) is a report by Consumers Union to highlight the need for student-loan reform.  Student loan debt exceeds credit card debt.  Is this fair to the individuals and their families who are trying to keep up with the increase costs of education?

New York State released teacher and principal evaluations that for the first time allow parents and administrators to assess the effectiveness of local teachers at the county, district and, in some cases, the school level.

The evaluations, which cover the 2012-13 school year, are an expanded version of aggregate statewide results that were released in October. Those figures showed that 91.5 percent of New York State teachers were rated either highly effective or effective. The results have prompted an outcry from critics who question how so many of the state’s teachers could be regarded so highly while so many of their students are performing poorly.

New York City teachers were not included in the evaluations because the city and the teachers’ union could not reach an agreement in time on how the evaluations would be formulated. The city will be included in the next batch of evaluations.

During the 2012-13 school year, 31 percent of students statewide were proficient in reading and math, based on statewide tests. In New York City, 30 percent of third- through eighth-grade students passed tests in math and 26 percent passed tests in English. But that school year was the first time the statewide tests were aligned with the more rigorous curricular standards known as Common Core, and student test scores dropped sharply statewide. The previous year, when tests were not aligned with the Common Core, 55 percent of students passed proficiency tests in reading and 65 percent passed in math.

Many experts, however, strongly cautioned against drawing a straight line between student test performance and teacher effectiveness, especially in schools filled with many students struggling with difficulties outside the classroom, including poverty, crime and a lack of support.

Under the new system, the teacher ratings are based on three elements. Sixty percent of the rating is based on metrics like classroom observation; 20 percent is based on statewide tests for fourth through eighth graders; and the other 20 percent is based on standards agreed upon at the local level through collective bargaining.

Critics have denounced the validity of the evaluations given the disparity between the percentage of teachers who were deemed solid, and how many of their students went on to fail state test. Teacher performance has been under an especially strong microscope recently with two lawsuits challenging teacher tenure wending their way through the state’s court system.

Are there ineffective teachers?  Of course there are!  But there are also ineffective doctors, judges, lawyers and politicians.  How should we measure their effectiveness? Let us assume that a judge frees an accused DUI person and the person once released gets involved in a fatal DUI incident ““ should we hold the judge responsible?  Assume a doctor tells a diabetic to give up sweets and the diabetic doesn’t and dies ““ should the doctor be held responsible.  There are many variables why students do not test well.  One reason that is built into the system is the unequal allocation of funding to rich and poor schools.   Exclusively blaming an educator for poor student performance negates the impact of parents, and the educational system.  I am not claiming that teachers do not play a major role but eliminating the impact of the environment makes little sense.

I am very proud to announce that an article that I have written will be published in STEM Magazine.  STEM Magazine with a readership of 148,000 educators and students monthly in 38 states.