Franklin Schargel’s Blog

I want to wish one and all, a great holiday break.  Whether you celebrate, Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanza or simply need time to catch up on reading, chores or sleep, I want to assure you that we will still be here when you return.

Stay well, enjoy time with your families.

While I am somewhat disturbed by America’s scores on the PISA examination, I am even more disturbed by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s remarks calling the scores “pictures of educational stagnation.”  After more than 12 years of President George W. Bush’s NO Child Left Behind and President Obama’s “Race For The Top” with their emphasis on high stakes testing and holding teacher’s accountable, I would assume, obviously incorrectly, that Duncan would assume some of the responsibility for the “educational stagnation.”

There are three types of dropouts:

• The physical dropout – in most states students are not permitted to dropout until the age of 16.  This accounts for the high school dropout problem.  Many students dropout before high school.  Some even dropout in elementary school to go to work – even though this violates the law.
• The Psychological Dropout – these are students who may be physically in class but mentally are miles away from school.
• The Push Out – these students are told either by word or action to leave school.  As I have traveled around the country I have met and spoken to a growing number of these children, who have been told they are not wanted in the school system they are attending.

The last category – push outs – are the fastest growing category of dropouts.  In  El Paso the former School District Superintendent Lorenzo Garcia was found guilty of fraud by a federal judge. As superintendent, he came up with a scheme to force hundreds of low-performing sophomores to drop out of school in order to prevent them from taking a state-mandated accountability test. By weeding out the weaker students, Lorenzo Garcia boosted his schools’ test scores and as a result, was able to collect $56,000 more in federal funds and personal bonuses. Lorenzo Garcia was sentenced by a federal judge to 3½ years in prison for those crimes.

As long as principals, teachers and superintendents are going to be rewarded for the raising of test results we will continue to see the “fudging” of these results as we have seen with Arlene Ackerman, Beverly Hall, and Rod Page,  the former US Secretary of Education.

 

 

Arapahoe High School Shooting

When will there be enough school shootings and student deaths?

It is now over the one-year anniversary of the massacre at Newtown, Conn.’s Sandy Hook Elementary School. Twenty children, six staff members, shooter Adam Lanza and his mother all died that day.

According to the New York Times (roughly) 1,500 state gun bills have been introduced in the year since the Newtown massacre and, of those, 109 are now law, according. Seventy of the enacted laws loosen gun restrictions, while just 39 tighten them. And, though largely symbolic, some 136 bills nullifying federal gun regulations were sponsored in 40 states. In Colorado, where the latest shootings took place, two pro-gun control lawmakers were booted from office in historic recalls and a third stepped down in anticipation of a similar fight.

As I have written in the forward to my latest book, “Creating Safe Schools”¦” children, parents and school staff need, want and deserve a safe learning environment.  But the crazed individuals neither do not read nor understand the “No Guns Allowed” signs. As for the NRA’s proposal of arming school personnel, I believe that this is ridiculous.  Their answer to having a gun in school is not to put more guns in school. I have fired weapons, it takes practice. I would not want my children in schools where we encouraged inexperienced and ill trained school personnel to have weapons.

Teachers have enough to worry about without worrying about where they hide the weapon so that it cannot accidently find itself in the hands of a student.

How many more weapons need to be brought into schools?  How many more students need to be shot at?  How many more staff needs to be shot at and killed?  When will our state and federal officials do something about this horrendous situation?

 

Routledge Press has announced the publication of my latest book, “Creating Safe Schools:  A Guide for School Leaders, Teachers, Counselors and Parents” on April 1, 2014.

Students, parents and school staff want, need and deserve a safe learning environment.  Yet recent headlines of violence, bullying, and drug abuse have shown the vulnerability of schools.  The book provide school leaders, teachers, counselors, parents and students with the necessary information to address and diminish safety problems in schools by providing the strategies and tools to address them.  The book covers Bullying, cyber-bullying, drugs, alcohol and tobacco, internet safety, violent school incidents, sexual activity, suicide, truancy, suspension, and youth gambling.

Early in November, CareerBuilder, the largest online employment website in the United States, published its report “America’s Job Outlook: Occupational Projections 2013-2017” and helped forecast the nation’s fastest growing occupations from the years 2013 to 2017.

Career Builder and Economic Modeling Specialists International (EMSI) explored projections over a five-year period by occupation, wage group, and education for the US and the 52 largest metropolitan areas, and from their research, the groups uncovered the top occupations over the 2013-2017 time period, while also highlighting the urban areas that best support this job growth. After determining that the U.S. workforce is expected to grow 4.4% from 2013 to 2017, Career Builder found that occupations requiring college degrees are growing significantly faster than those that do not.

Here are the top 7 jobs that Career Builder highlighted as the fastest growing. Of the 785 occupations investigated for its report, the company found that 329 of them are projected to grow 5% or more from 2013 to 2017.

1. Personal Care Aides

A profession similar to No. 2 on the list: personal care aids. These employees might not visit patients’ homes daily like the home health aids do, but they still help meet patients’ personal care needs. Together, personal care aids and home health aides are projected to add nearly a half million jobs through 2017, and they are gaining significance as the population ages and more assistance is needed. The average personal care aid makes around $9.77 an hour, and about 1,334,313 workers currently hold the position. That number will increase to 1,608,211 by 2017, reflecting a 21% change.

2. Home Health Aides

Coming up with the No. 2 distinction is a home health aide, or someone who visits the home of a disabled, chronically ill, or elderly patient who requires extra assistance. The number of jobs in this low-paying field is increasing exponentially and is expected to grow 21 percent by 2017, but the average worker in such a profession still only makes $9.97 an hour. There are currently 950,273 home health aides in the U.S., but by 2017, they are expected to total over 1 million, standing around 1,150,340.

3. Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists

Market research analysts and marketing specialists are next. Making around $29.10 an hour, these employees, often referred to as consultants, are expected to increase significantly in number by 2017 as more businesses and investors employ their expertise and market knowledge. There are currently around 438,851 positions in the U.S. for market research analysts and marketing specialists, but 60,889 jobs will be added within five years, eventually totaling 499,740.

4. Medical Secretaries

Staying in the medical field, next are medical secretaries for the No. 4 spot. This increasingly important occupation is expected to experience a 14% growth by 2017, as 76,386 more jobs in the position are added. There are currently 537,064 medical secretaries in the U.S., but by 2017, there will be around 613,450. These workers generally make around $15.17 an hour, reflecting another healthcare occupation in the medium-wage category.

5. Emergency Medical Techs & Paramedics

We come to an entirely differently field for the No. 5 spot, and it is in the healthcare division that emergency medical techs and paramedics fall. This healthcare occupation also falls within the medium-wage category, which is a segment that is expected to grow significantly over the upcoming years, and where workers generally make around $15.28 an hour. The number of positions available in the field is projected to increase 13% by 2017, from 238,658 jobs to 268,892. But, remember “” workers have to like blood.

6. Software Developers, Systems Software

Also making Career Builder’s list is a similar position: software developers for systems software, another division of the technology sphere. These developers make a slightly higher wage than their neighbors on the list, coming in at $47.64 an hour, but the number of jobs available for such a division is expected to grow 11% from 2013 to 2017, adding 48,291 positions. The number of software developing jobs for the systems software division currently stands around 420,109, while that number is expected to increase to 468,400 by 2017.

7. Software Developers, Applications

The seventh-fastest growing occupation projected for the 5-year period comes from an increasingly popular and lucrative field: software development. The number of software developing jobs in the applications sphere is expected to grow 11% from 2013 to 2017 in the U.S., and increase by 61,758 positions. At the time of Career Builder’s research, there were currently 626,262 jobs in this profitable line of the work, and that number is projected to total 688,020 by 2017.

It’s of little surprise that occupations in information and computer technology top the job growth list, as this kind of technology is one of the fastest growing and highly anticipated sectors in the United States. Still, careers in software development usually require a a significant amount of schooling and experience before one can secure such an opportunity, and the average hourly earning of a software developer is $43.34.

 

 

 

Daniel Domenech, Executive Director of the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) wrote that ” A majority of students in Europe engage in vocational studies.  In Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, less than 40 percent of the student population  is engaged in a college-prep program.”

With almost 1/3 of our students dropping out, maybe preparing all students to go to college might have to be rethought.  We need automobile mechanics, tool and die makers, and other people who work with their hands.  Why do we ignore these students who might otherwise succeed if we prepare them for the world of work?

If you want to see the possibilities of the future of technology, check out this humorous and creative RSA video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU74PWokGdI&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DgU74PWokGdI&app=desktop#!