SCHOOL REPORT CARDS
Really, what are the point to these things other than to give the state a reason to give more funding to one school or another. The worse part of is that they keep changing what it takes to be Excellent. It's almost like they made up the system and then the majority of the schools jumped through the hoops and became Excellent. After that the Ohio Department of Education said "we can't have that happen" so they changed it again. They realized that the standards that made a school excellent didn't mean much so they keep changing the target until they one day (hopefully) get the results they expected out the program.
SCHOOL FUNDING
Property taxes to fund schools have already been declared unconstitutional, so why don't they do something to fix it? The current method helps wealthy school districts get even better while the poor ones just get worse. No one moves into the poor districts because the state report cards tell them it's a bad idea, so they get fewer property taxes. Not only that but when the report cards say a district is bad, the property values decrease because it's undesirable to live there and the district gets less money. See a vicious cycle? When the district gets too bad, the state comes in and tries to save the day by throwing more money and resources at it. I hate to say it, but throwing more money at a bad school district will never make parents become more active in their child's lives.
Personally, I think the property taxes should be removed, a quarter percent sales tax created, and then split the money up to the schools based on the number of students. That would then make it so districts don't have an unfair advantage.
IEPs (Individualized Education Plans)
Another big waste of time, but this time it's placed on the teacher. So when a student doesn't perform as someone thinks they should, the school creates an IEP so that the student can work half as hard to get the same grades as someone who does all the work. For example, John is an honor roll student, studies hards, and aces his tests. Billy doesn't. For one reason or another someone thinks he should get an IEP. Because of his IEP, the teacher now has to fill out extra paperwork to judge his progress and then make up special tests for him to take when John takes his tests. Also, Billy gets an intervention specialist to help "guide" him through the tests. All the while, John studies hours before the tests, has to pick from all 4 possible multiple choice answers (while Billy only has to pick from 2 multiple choice answers) and they both manage to get the same grade. The funny thing about it is that when they finish the test, they both get an A. But wait, they didn't take the same test, or have to do the same amount of work?
I hate to say it but these are not preparing students for the real world. In the real world, your employer doesn't put you on an IEP when you don't do the same amount of work as your colleague. No, they promote the colleague and fire you!!! Some people are able to learn things faster and apply them easier. Some people have to work harder to get the same grades. It's just a fact of life. You can't try to level the playing field in school to make everyone feel like they're the same because in the real world, it doesn't work that way (unless you live in a communist society).
ACADEMIC CONTENT STANDARDS, STATE STANDARDS, and OHIO GRADUATION TESTS
The state says "teach this, teach that" or "by this grade, they should be able to do this". Sure these sound like a good idea, but the fact of the matter is that you have teachers spending the majority of their time teaching just what is necessary to get kids to pass the test so they do well on the state report card and not teaching kids how what they're learning is applicable in real life! What a waste! The best teachers I had were the ones who could take what we were learning and then apply it to a real world situation so we would know why we were learning it and why it would be important in real life. If you don't know why you're learning something, then you have no reason to retain it and absolutely no reason to be passionate about it. The downside is that teachers are teaching what they're teaching so they meet all the state requirements (insert more paperwork here). This leads to teachers who aren't as passionate about what they're doing and therefore aren't performing as well as they could be.
Again, in my personal opinion, it would make more sense to let teacher teach and not make all these requirements and state standards that consume a teacher's time. Oh the gnashing of teeth that is coming out of Columbus right now. Listen, if a teacher doesn't teach what they should teach, then it should be evident in their assessments and they should be FIRED by the district.
Agree with me or disagree, I don't really care. I just wanted to share my thoughts.
