(no subject)
Hmmmm. It's like a month since I last posted here. WoW, work, FF7: Crisis Core (which is addicting) have all taken up a good deal of time.
On a note here, I was reading about our dearest presidential candidates' education proposals and contrasting them against what we have here today. There is definitely a need of a major overhaul.
First and foremost, public education system needs to implement accountability. According to my older sister, who is teaching at a public high school, a school and its district administration are like Congress and White House, full of politics and backstabbing games of power struggle and appeasement. This has got to stop because it impedes an overhaul education functionality in the country. I'll address the solution for this later in this post.
Hillary Clinton has proposed kindergarten a mandatory education phase and will be funded by the federal government. This proposal is the right direction since children who learned basics of learning from kindergarten will absorb materials better in elementary classes. And because they are armed with the art of learning, they will not fallen behind with the rest of the kids and not flunking classes in high school because they don't even know what fraction and percentage are.
Barack Obama has proposed turning all college student loans into government-issued loans. This is something I think is good as private sectors tend to use extreme measures to trick businesses into their individualized contracts. With government loans, the contract is the law and the world can review it before it goes into effect. If there are any strings attached, there will be a fight on the Capitol Hill. A lot of students each year got their asses and dreams kicked because they took out a student loan from a bank and did not know that the low introductory APR is only valid for the first 5 years and then it turns into a freaking personal line of credit loan with a whooping 25% to 40% APR. The conversion is hidden in the wall of text, 500,000 words spanning over 10 pages and type-sized to 6 points. This has got to stop. If there are no ethics left in these banks then this duty will be given back to a third party that actually believe in the good of quality education for all.
Standardized testing system is still needed for statistical evaluations. Rather than punishing schools or districts directly because couple students are idiots, it is time to increase accountability and turn to an honor and reward system. All public schools in this country will be unified in topics and subjects to be taught to students of each grade. An aptitude evaluation test will be given at each grade level for measurement of student progression and academic performance. The test will contain subjects that all students should know at their respective grade level. The result of the test will then be compiled and analyzed against all students of the same level across the country. A national average will then be established. Schools with students that perform above average will get rewarded. However, the test will specify which teacher the student belongs to. And for every student scoring above the national average, the teacher gets a bonus. The more students excelling above the average, the more bonuses the teacher will get. For the school, for every student scoring above the average, they get a funding bonus to either further their academic strength or for other school curriculum, like sports, bands, etc. And if the educator, school administration, or district administration want to play politics, they will only hurt themselves when they try to push responsibilities around.
The counselors will be responsible for distributing the children to the classes they are best at. Of course, they can cheat by placing overqualified students in lower classes. However, the reward bonuses are paid in ladder option. Higher the education class, more bonus they get. Honor classes and college level classes, like advanced placement classes, will worth a lot more than regular classes. But the inherent risk for the school administration will be that if they put an underqualified student in one of those classes, the student will end up failing. The teacher of that class will then reserve the right to transfer the student to a lower level class and this transfer will be placed on file at the federal education department. So the counselors cannot just play favoritism because they can get punished for making the wrong decision. And they certainly cannot help educators and administrators with their political games because the federal government see all these changes. Too many changes and an investigation will be opened. Once a standardized statistical methodology is established, all pictures will be revealed.
How about students who are falling behind the national average? A margin of error will be established with the national average. If the student is within this margin then the teacher and school will get a notice to promote improvements. If the student is way below the national average, the teacher and the school will get a warning for improvement. If a particular teacher is cranking out doorknob-smart kids consistently for 3 years, then the teacher will get a notice for immediately improvement or lose teaching credential and whatever government pension plans on contract. This country cannot consistently tolerate poor educators who should not even be working at all. This country should reward educators who excel by giving them bonuses that have no caps so they can be making as much as the principal if they are that good with teaching.
How about special education? There are children with mental, physical, or psychological disadvantages and children who just came from other countries. These will be special cases which the school will get a very specific funding from the federal government to educate these children. However, I do not think the government should just write a blank check to schools for handling special education cases. For the sake of accountability, there will also be a bonus for school programs that turn these disadvantaged students into success stories. A nation-wide standardized methodology for evaluation of special education cases will be implemented so schools can't cheat their badly educated children with the label of special education. Each time one of such evaluation is given, a case file will be opened at the federal level of department of education. The case file will then be monitored and followed up throughout the year. If a special education student has achieved national average on a subject, the educator of that subject and the school will get a bonus bigger than just passing a normal student. If the special education student isn't reaching that goal, the school will just have to at least get the student to graduate with a high school diploma. But the educator and the school won't get any bonus from that student besides the usual special education funding.
This special education arrangement works well with the below-average student label. If the school or the educator thinks that this kid is a special education case, then they will have to report this to the central government. If they abused this arrangement too much, then the central government will know they are cheating by looking at how many of these case files they have from that school. Cheating the system will not only lead to loss of teaching credential but school found cheating will lose its charter and its administration held accountable for conspiracy against the federal government.
School district will be responsible for promoting their highly educated children to the colleges. Rather than sitting there and pushing papers, a school district will report their graduates to the federal government for a closure of the process. School districts will get access to special education funds of the federal government if they can promote more than 80% of their students into a 4-year college. Community colleges, 2-year colleges, and technical colleges do not count as they do not require academic performance to enroll.
This whole education setup will, of course, shift some accountability to parents. After all, the best motivators are still the parents. While government cannot grant funds to parents for promoting their children to learn and be academically excellent, the government can grant tax credits for family with an academically excellent child. For every child scoring above the national average, the parents or guardians who claim that child as a dependent will get a tax credit as a reward for pushing their kid to excel. However, for parents that consistently showing no interest in the child's education progress by not working with the school to find ways to get their child to at least the national average, then the parents will be criminally negligent. If you can't take care of your child, don't have one at the first place.
Of course, there will be details and tricks to be smoothen out here but this should be what a good education system should be heading toward. We reward the good educators and dump the bad ones. The prospect of making over $150,000 a year for working only 9 months is enough to get highly qualified individuals to jump on public education. And districts with extremely academically competitive schools will make other school districts across the country to think what they can improve. And because there will always be schools trying to raise their standards and national standing, education progression and standards will continue to rise every year. After all, the economy cannot grow and the people cannot make the right political decision with their votes if they are dumber than a doorknob.
On a note here, I was reading about our dearest presidential candidates' education proposals and contrasting them against what we have here today. There is definitely a need of a major overhaul.
First and foremost, public education system needs to implement accountability. According to my older sister, who is teaching at a public high school, a school and its district administration are like Congress and White House, full of politics and backstabbing games of power struggle and appeasement. This has got to stop because it impedes an overhaul education functionality in the country. I'll address the solution for this later in this post.
Hillary Clinton has proposed kindergarten a mandatory education phase and will be funded by the federal government. This proposal is the right direction since children who learned basics of learning from kindergarten will absorb materials better in elementary classes. And because they are armed with the art of learning, they will not fallen behind with the rest of the kids and not flunking classes in high school because they don't even know what fraction and percentage are.
Barack Obama has proposed turning all college student loans into government-issued loans. This is something I think is good as private sectors tend to use extreme measures to trick businesses into their individualized contracts. With government loans, the contract is the law and the world can review it before it goes into effect. If there are any strings attached, there will be a fight on the Capitol Hill. A lot of students each year got their asses and dreams kicked because they took out a student loan from a bank and did not know that the low introductory APR is only valid for the first 5 years and then it turns into a freaking personal line of credit loan with a whooping 25% to 40% APR. The conversion is hidden in the wall of text, 500,000 words spanning over 10 pages and type-sized to 6 points. This has got to stop. If there are no ethics left in these banks then this duty will be given back to a third party that actually believe in the good of quality education for all.
Standardized testing system is still needed for statistical evaluations. Rather than punishing schools or districts directly because couple students are idiots, it is time to increase accountability and turn to an honor and reward system. All public schools in this country will be unified in topics and subjects to be taught to students of each grade. An aptitude evaluation test will be given at each grade level for measurement of student progression and academic performance. The test will contain subjects that all students should know at their respective grade level. The result of the test will then be compiled and analyzed against all students of the same level across the country. A national average will then be established. Schools with students that perform above average will get rewarded. However, the test will specify which teacher the student belongs to. And for every student scoring above the national average, the teacher gets a bonus. The more students excelling above the average, the more bonuses the teacher will get. For the school, for every student scoring above the average, they get a funding bonus to either further their academic strength or for other school curriculum, like sports, bands, etc. And if the educator, school administration, or district administration want to play politics, they will only hurt themselves when they try to push responsibilities around.
The counselors will be responsible for distributing the children to the classes they are best at. Of course, they can cheat by placing overqualified students in lower classes. However, the reward bonuses are paid in ladder option. Higher the education class, more bonus they get. Honor classes and college level classes, like advanced placement classes, will worth a lot more than regular classes. But the inherent risk for the school administration will be that if they put an underqualified student in one of those classes, the student will end up failing. The teacher of that class will then reserve the right to transfer the student to a lower level class and this transfer will be placed on file at the federal education department. So the counselors cannot just play favoritism because they can get punished for making the wrong decision. And they certainly cannot help educators and administrators with their political games because the federal government see all these changes. Too many changes and an investigation will be opened. Once a standardized statistical methodology is established, all pictures will be revealed.
How about students who are falling behind the national average? A margin of error will be established with the national average. If the student is within this margin then the teacher and school will get a notice to promote improvements. If the student is way below the national average, the teacher and the school will get a warning for improvement. If a particular teacher is cranking out doorknob-smart kids consistently for 3 years, then the teacher will get a notice for immediately improvement or lose teaching credential and whatever government pension plans on contract. This country cannot consistently tolerate poor educators who should not even be working at all. This country should reward educators who excel by giving them bonuses that have no caps so they can be making as much as the principal if they are that good with teaching.
How about special education? There are children with mental, physical, or psychological disadvantages and children who just came from other countries. These will be special cases which the school will get a very specific funding from the federal government to educate these children. However, I do not think the government should just write a blank check to schools for handling special education cases. For the sake of accountability, there will also be a bonus for school programs that turn these disadvantaged students into success stories. A nation-wide standardized methodology for evaluation of special education cases will be implemented so schools can't cheat their badly educated children with the label of special education. Each time one of such evaluation is given, a case file will be opened at the federal level of department of education. The case file will then be monitored and followed up throughout the year. If a special education student has achieved national average on a subject, the educator of that subject and the school will get a bonus bigger than just passing a normal student. If the special education student isn't reaching that goal, the school will just have to at least get the student to graduate with a high school diploma. But the educator and the school won't get any bonus from that student besides the usual special education funding.
This special education arrangement works well with the below-average student label. If the school or the educator thinks that this kid is a special education case, then they will have to report this to the central government. If they abused this arrangement too much, then the central government will know they are cheating by looking at how many of these case files they have from that school. Cheating the system will not only lead to loss of teaching credential but school found cheating will lose its charter and its administration held accountable for conspiracy against the federal government.
School district will be responsible for promoting their highly educated children to the colleges. Rather than sitting there and pushing papers, a school district will report their graduates to the federal government for a closure of the process. School districts will get access to special education funds of the federal government if they can promote more than 80% of their students into a 4-year college. Community colleges, 2-year colleges, and technical colleges do not count as they do not require academic performance to enroll.
This whole education setup will, of course, shift some accountability to parents. After all, the best motivators are still the parents. While government cannot grant funds to parents for promoting their children to learn and be academically excellent, the government can grant tax credits for family with an academically excellent child. For every child scoring above the national average, the parents or guardians who claim that child as a dependent will get a tax credit as a reward for pushing their kid to excel. However, for parents that consistently showing no interest in the child's education progress by not working with the school to find ways to get their child to at least the national average, then the parents will be criminally negligent. If you can't take care of your child, don't have one at the first place.
Of course, there will be details and tricks to be smoothen out here but this should be what a good education system should be heading toward. We reward the good educators and dump the bad ones. The prospect of making over $150,000 a year for working only 9 months is enough to get highly qualified individuals to jump on public education. And districts with extremely academically competitive schools will make other school districts across the country to think what they can improve. And because there will always be schools trying to raise their standards and national standing, education progression and standards will continue to rise every year. After all, the economy cannot grow and the people cannot make the right political decision with their votes if they are dumber than a doorknob.