NationStates Jolt Archive

For those of you not aware how schools in america are funded, here's a break down of it.
There are really two types of funding given to schools. One is based on the number of students and the amount of taxes the people in the area pay, (Meaning that there are better public schools in areas of greater economic sucess)
The other type of funding is based on academic achievement. (As in a school that has a system that works gets more funding than one that has a system that doesn't.)
What this means is that there is a fundamental inequality in our public school systems. If you are poor, your child likely goes to a lower quality school than if you are upper-middle class. It also means that if the school is struggling, rather than get help with funding to get it back on track, it will likely get less funding. This means that overall, grades will likely not improve.
Why is this, and what should we do about it?

Yep, you know something is screwed up when you got a higher IQ than one of your teachers...

Education Report (http://mwhodges.home.att.net/education.htm)

I haven't even read this yet (I'm starting right now) but I'll bet you anything it addresses your question. This website is the new gospel.

Edit: According to the report the sky is currently falling.

I happen to be fine with the current system for funding for schools. I go to a public school, that hasn't recently gotten any big donations, that decided this year to buy a laptop for each student to use. That is 2,000 ibooks, what i happen to be using to type this with. This whole funding system right now works just fine.
On a more serious note, the difference in funding is an example of inequality, but it is inequality that is not done on purpose. I am sure that the people in my public school district would sooner decide to buy the school and make it a private school then share its funds with other districts.

Dammit! When is my school gonna give us laptops?! All we did was change to block scheduling, aka, 4 periods a day each 1hr 45mins long...God, 1hr45mins of math a day, I can barely stand a regular 45mins...

Dammit! When is my school gonna give us laptops?! All we did was change to block scheduling, aka, 4 periods a day each 1hr 45mins long...God, 1hr45mins of math a day, I can barely stand a regular 45mins...
That, my friend, is pain.

(sorry that this is kind of off-topic)
Our school uses modulal scheduling (I don't think i spelled that right) That would be 10, 40 minute classes a day, with a different order/entirely different classes, each day. We also have "open mods" which are kind of like a study hall except we either eat, study, screw around, or leave school.

I happen to be fine with the current system for funding for schools. I go to a public school, that hasn't recently gotten any big donations, that decided this year to buy a laptop for each student to use. That is 2,000 ibooks, what i happen to be using to type this with. This whole funding system right now works just fine.
On a more serious note, the difference in funding is an example of inequality, but it is inequality that is not done on purpose. I am sure that the people in my public school district would sooner decide to buy the school and make it a private school then share its funds with other districts.

What school district do you go to, you rich $#*& :)

I happen to be fine with the current system for funding for schools. I go to a public school, that hasn't recently gotten any big donations, that decided this year to buy a laptop for each student to use. That is 2,000 ibooks, what i happen to be using to type this with. This whole funding system right now works just fine.
On a more serious note, the difference in funding is an example of inequality, but it is inequality that is not done on purpose. I am sure that the people in my public school district would sooner decide to buy the school and make it a private school then share its funds with other districts.

But did the kids in your school get smarter as a result?

I live in Omaha, Nebraska. I wont be too specific so I dont have a creepy old man come and try to molest me. We live in a nicer part of town, but by no means are we all rich. Oh, for any of you who think we are all farmers here in Nebraska, we aren't. In fact, I do not know a single person who farms. I live in a city what if you include the directly surrounding areas, has about half a million people. People from Omaha and Lincoln are most likely not farmers, if you meet a person from Nebraska other than these two cities, there is a good chance they are hicks.

Nebraska has a smaller population than Alaska....



.............



Randomness rulez! :D

The computers have really helped our school. There is a fair share of messing around on them, but we don't use nearly as much paper, and everyone has a lot more equal access to resources. It helps to raise the playing field compared to the rest of Omaha, and level it out between ourselves in our district. This might sound arrogant, but we are generally ranked in the top 10 school districts in the country (USA)

Nebraska has a smaller population than Alaska....

Alaska also happens to be the largest state in the US, several times larger than Nebraska.

All I have to say is that public schools in Arizona are really bad; only about half of high school students pass the AIMS test
(sample question from the AIMS test: what is the perimeter of an octagon with a side length of 2)

Public Schools vary a lot all over the nation in quality. Here in Omaha, my public school regularly scores higher on ACT's and SAT's than any of the other public or private schools. That isn't saying that the private schools are bad, they still get good scores, they just don't score as high as the public school kids in my district. I have heard that in Dallas the vast majority of kids have to go to private schools because the public education is horrid. (not sure if that last part is true, but i have heard that)

The computers have really helped our school. There is a fair share of messing around on them, but we don't use nearly as much paper, and everyone has a lot more equal access to resources. It helps to raise the playing field compared to the rest of Omaha, and level it out between ourselves in our district. This might sound arrogant, but we are generally ranked in the top 10 school districts in the country (USA)

But did it make the dumb kids smarter?

All I have to say is that public schools in Arizona are really bad; only about half of high school students pass the AIMS test
(sample question from the AIMS test: what is the perimeter of an octagon with a side length of 2)

Surely that's the question they got right! :confused:

...we are generally ranked in the top 10 school districts in the country (USA)

Cant say the same here, my school has had a bomb threat uncovered, and a drug smuggling ring broken up, in the last year alone. We are the 8th best school in the state.

I wouldn't say the dumb kids are getting smarter much faster than they would have without the laptops. But the more-applied majority of the students have really been able to learn a lot with the laptops.
Our district was ranked in the top 10 before the laptop program the "1:1 Initiative" that was started this year. So we could be ranked higher now.

Surely that's the question they got right! :confused:

Probably one of the only ones; there's a Senior in my (sophmore) history class who can barely read, he can't read simple words like "through"

Sadly, the teachers and administraters have a great deal of confidence in the public schools, and in themselves,

One dude in my AP World History/Geography class (AP=Advanced Placement) thought Mongolia was a province in China....

There is a kid that goes to my church, from a neighboring school district. (one that isnt quite at the level mine is) I had to teach him (he is a freshman) how to address an envelope today. I laughed to myself about how pathetic some parts of our society have become.

One dude in my AP World History/Geography class (AP=Advanced Placement) thought Mongolia was a province in China....

That's nothing; this is what my world history teacher thought that the Pacific and Atlantic oceans have different sea levels, according to her it was "one of the greatest challenges in building the panama canal." She also thinks that Belgium is a part of France

If our school was one major fault, it is our administration. They aren't the best at making decisions, let me tell you what happened last year
Every year for quite a while, on Martin Luther King Day (we have school that day) there has been an "African-American Award" given to the best African-American student. (a horrible idea in itself, but just wait) So last year, all of the candidates were campaigning, when who would want to run for the award but....a kid from South Africa, that happened to be white. Unlike most of the "African-Americans" he was actually born and raised in Africa. So this kid begins putting up posters, the administration see this, and freaks. They take down all the posters, take the kid and his two friends that were helping him into the principals office, and tells them they "they should know what it means" referring to the fact that the African-American Award is only for black people. The kid that was running was suspended for a week, the others for 3 days. They were originally planning on taking it to the courts, but decided that it would just be to hectic. That shows the pure idiocy that our administration is capable of. As one could assume, this year they decided to change from the African-American Award to a week of doing small services for the community.

Sounds like wise use of the school's money.

Here's a quote from the report I linked.

This potential waste equates to $72,000 per student from 1st to 12th grade ($6,000 x 12 years of school), a significant drain on our economy. Investment with negative returns. At $6,000 per student per year potential waste equates to $258 billion per year potential waste for the total system of 43 million students. Instead of incurring this system waste, what would parents say if a $6,000 check was sent to parents each year for each of their school kids.

There's the ticket. Privatize the education system. Competition breeds results.

Edit: Someone said that schools in Arizona are bad. This doesn't appear to be the case (well, all schools are obviously 'bad', but I mean relative to). Arizona has better average scores on SATs then the top five states in per-student spending (Alaska, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island)

why don't we just start bussing children from poor schools to rich schools and likewise? it would probably eliminate the racial/economic inequalities.





oh wait, we protested against that a few years back didn't we?

A little bit over 1/4 of the kids that go to my school district, don't live inside of the borders. We get a lot of people from the surrounding districts, and I know a couple students that dont even live in this state that go to my school, they live in Iowa. People mail in their requests for their kids to enter our district, and new people are let in through a lottery process, because our schools aren't big enough to handle every single person that wants to come here. So, plenty of our students dont live within the boundaries, we aren't keeping out the less fortunate kids or anything, as bad as that can sound.

That's nothing; this is what my world history teacher thought that the Pacific and Atlantic oceans have different sea levels, according to her it was "one of the greatest challenges in building the panama canal." She also thinks that Belgium is a part of France
As a matter of fact, the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans are not at the same level. The Pacific is about 20 cm higher than the Atlantic. This, however, was not a major complication of building the Panama Canal.

http://www.pol.ac.uk/psmsl/puscience/#3

For those of you not aware how schools in america are funded, here's a break down of it.
There are really two types of funding given to schools. One is based on the number of students and the amount of taxes the people in the area pay, (Meaning that there are better public schools in areas of greater economic sucess)
The other type of funding is based on academic achievement. (As in a school that has a system that works gets more funding than one that has a system that doesn't.)
What this means is that there is a fundamental inequality in our public school systems. If you are poor, your child likely goes to a lower quality school than if you are upper-middle class. It also means that if the school is struggling, rather than get help with funding to get it back on track, it will likely get less funding. This means that overall, grades will likely not improve.
Why is this, and what should we do about it?
The true solution is to give each student equal value. Let them decide what school they want to go to regardless of geography. If the public schools are unattractive to the student and their parents let them select a private school. There is no reason a private school should be only for the faithful or rich. There is no reason different students should get less money for education because of where they go to school.

In Texas we have something called the Robin Hood plan. The richer school districts get their budgest cut by the state and the money goes to the poorer school district. The poorer districts however are already getting funding from the Feds. Academic performance overall hasn't changed much in Texas since the Robin Hood plan was enacted, mainly because the poorer school districts buy things like football stadiums instead of paying teachers decent wages or doing something useful with the money. The districts getting their budget cuts have to scale back budgets across the board or cut programs all together.

The public education system has some serious flaws that need to be corrected. Partially I blame parents who think their kids need to be coddled. "What do you mean my kid's fifth grade reading level is unacceptable? He's only a junior in high school!"

Partially I blame the sytem itself. Example: The problem students get dumped on the newest teachers. Now if you had a mental patient with serious issues would you send them to the shrink fresh out of college? No, you send them to the people who have the experience to deal with the patient. So why is the educational system any different?

I should stop ranting before I hurt something. :headbang:

My world history teacher let us know that "During the middle ages, most of Europe was Catholic, but there were a few Christians."

I almost fell out of my seat.

My world history teacher let us know that "During the middle ages, most of Europe was Catholic, but there were a few Christians."

I almost fell out of my seat.

That's when you also point out that most of the knightly steeds of Europe were Unicorns, and there were few horses...

My world history teacher let us know that "During the middle ages, most of Europe was Catholic, but there were a few Christians."

I almost fell out of my seat.

Maybe she meant most believed that the pope was legitimate while a few didn't?

That's when you also point out that most of the knightly steeds of Europe were Unicorns, and there were few horses...

That would have been a good thing to ask - Damn, why is hindsight is 20-20 but you can't think of it when it happens.

Maybe she meant most believed that the pope was legitimate while a few didn't?

Nope, in her view, Christians and Catholics were two separate animals.

One dude in my AP World History/Geography class (AP=Advanced Placement) thought Mongolia was a province in China....


Sorry to have to tell u but he was right! lol mongolia is a province of china. It was annexed after WW2.

Inner Mongolia - Semi autonomous region of PRC
"Outer" Mongolia - Independent state

Mongolia's a country dude. There may very well be a province in China called Inner Mongolia. But when the guy looked at the map, he was seriously shocked to find Mongolia as an independent nation.

Nope, in her view, Christians and Catholics were two separate animals.

All Catholics are Christians, but not all Christians are Catholics. She practically screwed up. In theory she could have known what she was talking about but just had a poor choice of words. I won't give her the benefit of the doubt though. You know the context she used it in better then I do.

Mongolia's a country dude. There may very well be a province in China called Inner Mongolia. But when the guy looked at the map, he was seriously shocked to find Mongolia as an independent nation.

Considering that he's in an AP geography course he should be familier with a map of the planet. If he weren't in that class then it would be understandable. Inner Mongolia has been a province of China since the 1600's, though it's an autonomous region now. Outer Mongolia became part of China a while after Inner Mongolia and stayed that way until the Russians helped them become independent in the early 1900's. Since then Mongolia has contributed next to nil to the world relative to countries surrounding it.

Yep, you know something is screwed up when you got a higher IQ than one of your teachers...


So, IQ should be an ever-increasing characteristic of humans?

Yep, you know something is screwed up when you got a higher IQ than one of your teachers...
Yeah, the way IQ is measured is screwy. It's measured by the amount of konwledge over age. Therefore the older you get, the lower your IQ gets.

Yeah, the way IQ is measured is screwy. It's measured by the amount of konwledge over age. Therefore the older you get, the lower your IQ gets.

Aren't Bell Curves wonderful? IQ tests are utter bunk, all they test is how good you are at an IQ test. I did very well on my IQ test, telling me I know how best to take an IQ test. What else could it measure?

There are book smarts and worldly smarts, mechanical smarts and nature's smarts. Some people learn by touching the stove to find out if its hot, others can read it in a book before hand, some just look and understand how the stove works. Its HOW you learn and how best you utilize your learning style to adapt to your world.

Schools are unequal, in so many ways. So many type of teaching are good for some students, but not for others. Computer can help certain students flourish, but others really need outdoor learning, field trips and experimentation. Neither student is "better" or "smarter" but they use vastly different paths to enlighten themselves.

Schools need funding so that kids can have their learning styles challenged, catered to, or pushed in new directions. If we think that one way is the right way, if we only can fund one style of learning, if we can barely afford to buy books, the real loss is the vast potential of the students atrophying.

Nope, in her view, Christians and Catholics were two separate animals.

This teacher wouldn't have a particular adversion to the colour green and take delight in the colour Orange would she?
Honestly she would be perfectly at home in Ibrox...