Virtual cruising

[lenquixote66]

Just now, cruisemom42 said:

 

I'm not talking about the 1950s, I'm talking about the 1970s. We knew better by then. It was not allowed in the previous two school districts where she had taught. 

 

I had a friend who taught in rural Georgia from 1966 to 2006 and never used or knew anyone who used a paddle.He was an English teacher with a Brooklyn,NY accent and loved by his students.

[ldubs]

On 9/27/2020 at 7:26 AM, ilikeanswers said:

 

I can only speak from an Australian perspective but the issues are really varied. You can have social and family issues, somethimes it can be as simple as no quiet place to study especialy in large multigenrational families who are squished in small flats. Then there are undiagnosed learning disabilites and even if diagnosed most school don't have any resources to assist the students. Sub standard teachers (I admire teachers but there are people who really shouldn't be in the proffession) which is a big issue in outback areas and something state governments are trying to fix with programs to encourage those at the top of the class to go outback. In communities with large immigrant populations you obviously have the language problem but also if you have refugees it is not uncommon to have PTSD issues which lets face it not many schools are equipped to deal with. Of course there is also the unequal funding issues. We have some schools that get government funding for their second pool while others who can't get funding to get their broken computers replaced. There are so many other reasons I haven't touched on but I guess if there is one thing I have learnt is every school's issues are individual so governments trying to standardize them isn't helping🙄.

 

Having measurable standards helps identify some of the issues you mention and hopefully leads to solutions.   If a problem is not identified it isn't likely to get fixed.   

 

Unequal funding is of course a different kettle of fish.    

[ilikeanswers]

37 minutes ago, ldubs said:

Having measurable standards helps identify some of the issues you mention and hopefully leads to solutions.   If a problem is not identified it isn't likely to get fixed.   

 

I don't think it is quite that simple. I knew a maths teacher who started at a Northern Territory school who couldn't understand why her students would do terribly at tests but in class were really competent. She got the idea to administer an aural exam instead of a written one. Her students results went up 80%. If you took the test results of the school by themselves it seems all the students were terrible at everything but it turned out the issue was their literacy skills. They were good at all the subjects they just couldn't read their test questions. So the tests didn't really identify the problem it just made out the school and students were bad. It took an attentive teacher to put two and two together. In my opinion I think the school system relies too heavily on tests to identify problems rather than listening to on the ground experience of the students and teachers. 

[ldubs]

2 minutes ago, ilikeanswers said:

 

I don't think it is quite that simple. I knew a maths teacher who started at a Northern Territory school who couldn't understand why her students would do terribly at tests but in class were really competent. She got the idea to administer an aural exam instead of a written one. Her students results went up 80%. If you took the test results of the school by themselves it seems all the students were terrible at everything but it turned out the issue was their literacy skills. They were good at all the subjects they just couldn't read their test questions. So the tests didn't really identify the problem it just made out the school and students were bad. It took an attentive teacher to put two and two together. In my opinion I think the school system relies too heavily on tests to identify problems rather than listening to on the ground experience of the students and teachers. 

 

Of course it isn't simple.  In your example, tests certainly did not identify the specific problem.  Test scores identified there was a problem. Then,  the teaching professional was able to drill down to the issue.  So in this case testing led to identifying a need to address literary skills.  I don't see how "ground experience" can have any legitimacy without some kind of objective measurement.  Human nature being what it is, it is more likely going to result in, well poor results.       

 

I think we are probably closer on this than it seems -- just looking at it from opposite ends.   

[rkacruiser]

19 hours ago, ilikeanswers said:

 In my opinion I think the school system relies too heavily on tests to identify problems rather than listening to on the ground experience of the students and teachers.

 

Amen!  And, let's add to the "school system relies" of your comment with all of the Federal and the State politicians who somehow know more than those within the education profession know.