State to takeover 10 failing schools in Louisiana

First of all, bless your wife for teaching in an inner-city environment. When rewards come in a setting like that, they are enormous, but it's harder to see the results in a timely manner.

Secondly, I don't think the state has a plan in mind, and that is a problem in and of itself.

And finally, if the problem truly exists (primarily) with the home environment of the children in these schools, what can any educational body do to ensure success? Our district is working with parent education in early childhood schools right now to teach illerate parents, right along with their children. We also have a program called AVID, which is in place from middle - high school to help historically underserved populations get to college (along with the skills to succeed once there.) Parent education is a big part of AVID, too.

 

I can see we have similar views. The father of one of my wife's students actually told his son that it wasn't important to learn to read or write. It wasn't really even an attitude problem with the boy. When my wife explained to him that his father was wrong and that it was important, he was genuinely surprised. Whether that will make him care about it more is yet to be seen, but it's just sad what some of these kids are being raised to believe.

 

Some parents will have an attitude of "it's not that important," while still others will tell their kids how sucky school (and teachers) were for them. The latter have always been my personal favorite, followed by enabling parents who make excuses for their kids' bad behavior.

 

This is not entirely true. The system the state uses has a HUGE flaw. Schools must show improvement every year. If a school does not show improvement every year. they are subject to probation and takeover.

The high school where my mother taught and I graduated from has a great pass rate, and graduation rate but it is on currently in trouble because it has not shown improvement in the last three years. The standardized test scores from this school are among the best in the state and improved by 12%between 2003 and 2005 but plateaued after that.

On a side note the middle school my son will go to was just taken over and plased in RSD. The school is in a good neighborhood, but draws from some bad neighborhoods such as Gardere.

 

This hit the nail on the head. Parental involvement is the key, and as long as students don't get what they need at home schools will fail.

 

I agree with everything that mctiger just said. In my 17 years teaching, I've seen the same thing.

And as a parent, I'm involved every day with my daughter's schooling, but just about everyone at her school has that, so guess what? Her school is one of the top performers in Texas.

 

Where does all the $ go? Paper work? The govt. only solution seems to be throwing more $ at the problem, but how do they spend the $? Private schools spend a fraction/student that public schools do, and have such better results.

I realize that parents may be the missing link here, but where does the $ go in public schools these days?