Mississippi bill would require teachers to grade parents

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: eisegesis

So Mississippi has given up on trying to improve its terrible school performance and has opted to just blame the parents instead?

Desperate times call for authoritarian measures.

Mississippi is in bad shape. This is from 2014...

Report ranks state schools' performance 51st in the nation

Education Week’s Quality Counts report puts Mississippi 51st among the states and Washington, D.C., in K-12 student achievement. That is actually down a notch from last year. Only Mississippi and D.C. were graded “F” in student achievement. Massachusetts and Maryland, the two top states, each earned a “B” grade from the education newspaper.

Mississippi also ranked among the lowest 10 states in providing young people a chance for success in life, financing schools and improving teaching. The state ranked somewhat higher on how well K-12 connects to preschool, college and kindergarten, and ranked 10th for standards.

Earlier, I accused the school system of shifting the blame. While that still may be the point, I'm thinking differently about the situation after reading this,

Mississippi’s best ranking, as has been the case for several years, was in the area of standards, where the state got an “A” and ranked 10th.

This paints a clearer picture, for me at least, but even having high standards doesn't guarantee a child's level of engagement or understanding. Some parents are truly hopeless, others lazy. Maybe another incentive can be offered? Free dinner to Jimmy's BBQ with every "satisfactory" report card?

The state got a “D” for school finance, ranking 46th. The state spends 3.6 percent of its taxable resources, about the national average, on education, but because Mississippi is poor, that comes out to spending that’s significantly below average, even once regional cost differences are cancelled out. Plus, property-rich districts spend more on students than property-poor districts, making spending unequal across the state’s 151 districts.

Its hard to say what exactly is the source of the problem. Parents need to get involved more, but shouldn't be held to any specific standard while at home. If they actually cared enough about their child's education, you'd think most would volunteer anyway.

a reply to: eisegesis

Well as someone who had the pleasure of experiencing Mississippi's school system, I can only see why they'd attempt something like this. Too bad it won't work and really only shifts the blame around instead of fixing the problem.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

So Mississippi has given up on trying to improve its terrible school performance and has opted to just blame the parents instead?

Yep.

Blame the parents, blame the teachers, blame the politicians, blame Obama, blame lefties, blame righties.

Blame everything and everyone...


But for gawd's sakes, don't blame the failing education system, its failing policies, and its failing curriculum.

... because that would be too difficult to deal with.


It's much easier to just stick a bunch of band-aids on a gaping wound and point fingers.

originally posted by: CranialSponge

It's much easier to just stick a bunch of band-aids on a gaping wound and point fingers.

Government action 101.

a reply to: CranialSponge

Fix the education system? Why oh why would they change something that's fully working as intended?

I find that bandaids make people feel better, personally I hate them. I prefer scars.

a reply to: eisegesis

I hope they intend to grade "on the curve". A single parent working 2 jobs to support 4 kids, all with homework and expectant teachers, shouldn't be graded on the same criteria as a one child couple, with one stay at home parent, for example.

a reply to: BigScaryStrawman

Fix the education system? Why oh why would they change something that's fully working as intended?

A country full of illiterate burger flippers does not a strong economy make.

But you might have a point... maybe that's exactly what the 1% wants, so they can hoard it all for themselves.


What a great way to weed out the middle class.

Welcome to the 18th century.

a reply to: CranialSponge

That was, in fact, exactly my point

Except they want us as less than burger flippers, imo.

originally posted by: windword
a reply to: eisegesis

I hope they intend to grade "on the curve". A single parent working 2 jobs to support 4 kids, all with homework and expectant teachers, shouldn't be graded on the same criteria as a one child couple, with one stay at home parent, for example.

School should be responsible for the choices of the parents?

originally posted by: CranialSponge

But for gawd's sakes, don't blame the failing education system, its failing policies, and its failing curriculum.

... because that would be too difficult to deal with.

I'm actually very impressed with my public school system and the changes they've made toward better education.

Do you currently have kids in public school?

a reply to: Annee

Do you currently have kids in public school?

Not anymore, no.

The kids are grown up and out in the world now.

To be honest, I don't know of anyone who hasn't gone through the public education system up here in Canada.

Private schools aren't an overly common thing up here. Our public system works quite nicely in terms of kids getting a proper education in preparation for university and/or going out into the working world after graduation.

One of the biggest differences I've noticed between the Canadian and US public school systems is that Canada has a fairly standardized curriculum set for all schools across the country, no matter what public school you go to or where you live. There is no discrepency between poor areas, middle class areas, and wealthy areas. All kids in the country get the same quality of education no matter what background they come from.

Another words: There's none of this 'the rich kids get the better curriculum' while the poor kids get the 'hand-me-down history book from 1957' thing going on up here.

I'm not up to snuff with what all exactly is going wrong in the US public education system, but it's obviously failing miserably for you guys down there when more and more parents are opting for private or home schooling.... and entire public school districts are pumping out kids that are reading at an elementary level.

Something is seriously wrong.

originally posted by: CranialSponge

One of the biggest differences I've noticed between the Canadian and US public school systems is that Canada has a fairly standardized curriculum set for all schools across the country, no matter what public school you go to or where you live. There is no discrepency between poor areas, middle class areas, and wealthy areas. All kids in the country get the same quality of education no matter what background they come from..

Ahhhhh, that is a plus.

There's a big fight here about Common Core. I was against it (ignorance), but proven wrong as we work our way through 1st grade (and 10th grade).

It is a government encouraged program, but not mandatory. Some states (those that actually need it) have opted out under pressure from parents.

originally posted by: dreamingawake
Exactly who judges them the ones who want to lay blame on someone other than who is really responsible for their failing schools?

I've been in classes where the other students just clowned around. That drove away good teachers. Why did they clown around? Usually they hadn't done their homework and spent the time hanging around out on the streets. Blame the parents.

Another reason that good teachers left were the low salaries compared to other professions. In my city it was oil workers earning over £50K two weeks on/two weeks off. That was more than twice what teachers were earning, and it set the bar on the price of housing for everyone else.

We should go back to apprenticeships. Half of the world still does it, why not the USA? There should be an option for students to learn in school or do apprenticeships with parents who are eligible to teach their child a specialty.

Of course, back in old days, most who had a specialty or trade had their own business and it became a community thing. Now we have big corporations that have stepped in and if you are the in the top 10% you have a 1/1000th of a chance to be hired unless you're an engineer of some sort then your chances are quite high of getting paid 5K-10k per month. Even more so if you know the right people.

Put the power of helping our kids get ahead in life back into the hands of the people.

not every kid is a genius. some dont reach their potential until later in life. i was doing awful in school but now im well off. imagine that? how about a report card for the school? frig off.

a reply to: eisegesis

This is one of of those chicken or the egg questions.

All I know is that the curriculum should be fun and encourage learning no matter how unorthodox it is. For instance when I was in high school we had an English assignment where we had to write a children's book and read it to a class of second graders. My book was added to the school library and it was was one the proudest moments of my life.

Education should not be about 'turn to page 114' and leave it at that. Teachers should have free reign to teach as they wish but nowadays they are constricted by a Clusterfudge of rules and regulations.

As for the parents you are damned if you do and damned if you don't.

i always hear on parents who beat up their children and neglect them and they get low grades because of it.

If something like this were to go through, another bill should be introduced. One that would require both parents and students to grade teachers. Sorry, but in all honesty, tenure isn't an accurate reflection of ability