82 percent of US schools may be labeled 'failing'

82 percent of US schools may be labeled 'failing'

www.google.com

An estimated 82 percent of U.S. schools could be labeled as "failing" under the nation's No Child Left Behind Act this year, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Wednesday.

The Department of Education estimates the number of schools not meeting targets will skyrocket from 37 to 82 percent in 2011 because states are toughening their standards to meet the requirements of the law. The schools will face sanctions ranging from offering tutoring to closing their doors.

(visit the link for the full news article)

It is simply not that difficult to educate kids. The level of incompetence in the running of our nation's schools is an absolute disgrace and it is 80% the fault of the school administration at the federal, state and local levels, combined with the teacher's unions. The remaining 20% goes to the parents.

What do kids learn in school? They learn about diversity, they learn about racial and sexual minorities. They learn about native cultures. They have mainstreamed handicapped kids in class taking an inordinant amount of teacher time.

What don't they learn in school? Art, music, civics, advanced math, US history, world history, philosophy, logic.

They absolutely don't learn how to think. They may learn how to memorize, but not how to think.

I went to an inner-city public high school in the 70's and we had all of that instruction. I actually got an education that prepared me for college. What has changed?

What has changed is that the schools have gone from places to educate kids to being laboratories of social experimentation. They have been restricted from discipline, from driving some basic conformance (other than ideological) to any mores and standards, they have been prevented from keeping kids back a grade if they can not master the content. They have become defacto k-12 daycare centers.

They have become factories that are more concerned with dolling out free lunches and keeping kids off the street than places to provide an education.

It is almost conceivable that the entire establishment is failing on purpose to create generations of ignorant citizens, easier to manipulate by the elites.

It is not that hard to educate kids.

www.google.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Well, the obvious answer is to throw more money at the problem.
(sorry, the sarcasm key got stuck on my computer)

While children are learning about their two mommies and the proper way to put on a condom, the Dept. of Education and Teachers Union will be padding their pay checks and bonuses, and crying how they need to increase their poor budgets while painting conservatives as evil people for not caring about the children.
But it's funny. Whenever the conservatives want to cut a budget, the first thing liberals target to cut is money for schools.

Thats what happens when you put you livelihood into the hands of the government...

Besides, what a worthless statistic! Does that mean 'there May be 82%, but 80% is most likely, or 60% is more likely'? For that matter, i could say that 'US schools may have educated 18% of students properly' but we all know that is not true, but it is possible that some mal-informed columnist could have a misguided train of though in conjunction with some flaky evidence, and come to this conclusion. This 'statistic' offers absolutely No information, and should not be considered as such.

Reason: There are at least 3 degrees of uncertainty...
1. "An estimated 82 percent"
2. "could be labeled"
3. No Child Left Behind Act (result of someone's interpretation)

Suggestion: Lets look to countries that have successful edu systems (Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Switzerland)

Use your brains!

reply to post by dolphinfan


Take a look at all the failing school here in the UK!
[List of failing schools
The education system in the country really is disgusting.

I found that this article from the guardian summed up the British views on education completely.
It's no longer about teaching children anymore...it's about gaining marks to be the best school in the county, getting the best OFSTED reports, best attendance records, the list goes on.

In a speech in Kirklees, west Yorkshire, he also vowed to fire exam markers who awarded pupils points for writing only "f*ck off" on their papers. "As prime minister, I'd have two words for people like that and, yes, one of them does begin with an 'f': you're fired."

Link to article

Shut the Department of Education down. We can thank Jimmy Carter for that mess.

If it is shut down, then the states can start taking a more proactive approach to education without all the blanket rules and regulations that do nothing but hurt and hold back some school systems and their needs.

reply to post by TomServo


If you think it is a worthless statistic, speak with a public school teacher. They will absolutely be able to tell you if their school is going to hit the standard. Now you may question as to whether the standard is appropriate and that is legitimate, but to suggest that they can not get a reasonable estimate as to whether or not the schools will fail is inaccurate.

Now the standards include things that are not specifically academic in nature, such as narrowing the gaps between minorities and whites, which on its face is not academic. For example, if a school has a 20% minority population and 70% of the white students meet the academic standards and only 2% of the minorities do, the school will get a failing mark in that component of the standard. The same is the case for non-English speaking students (who should not be in a mainstreamed public school system in the first place).

You may also argue that this focus on simply passing a test creates a perverse model where teachers teach to a test rather than develop creative lessons that might more effectively engage students. I think there is some merit to that as well. You do need a standard however.

Look at the reports on how many employeers feel that they are getting high school grads who can't perform necessary skills and the statistics from colleges who have significant percentages of freshman in remedial classes because they have come to college unprepared.

I'm shocked and offended.

Those numbers cant be right. It's more like 98%.

CLEARLY the government can't handle their job. CLEARLY they do not know what to teach because they don't want to admit they're wrong. The government has been running amuck for too long without the slightest clue about reality. This is reality:

www.youtube.com...

www.youtube.com...

reply to post by dolphinfan


Awesome find! This gives us a great idea as to how inefficient our government programs really are...maybe you could bring more attention to your local area, family and friends? I do around my parts...

By all means then, let's continue to support the unions without any concessions whatsoever....let's keep tenure strong so we make sure no teacher gets fired.....after all, the current system seems to be working JUST fine.

Imagine please that you are the manager of a department within a company. The senior manager says -- Joe...82% of your staff didn't perform to our standards. Only 18% of your team succeeded in meeting our goals.

Do you think you would get a raise at the end of the year????

This is painful to watch. I think these people are products of our public school system. I am embarrassed for their sakes at how ignorant they are. I keep thinking our educational system made them this ignorant on purpose. It is easier to keep ignorant people as slaves. They just don't realize they are slaves, that is how ignorant they really are.

What do you expect, when you have far to many interventionists in the system? Had the plausible idea of education been a true source of interest, the government would not have put their politically correct, liberal sway on things, we wouldn't be having this discussion.

This country, and organizations within it were originally designed to embrace individualism. But because of politicians and not to mention, the activists ( whom by the way are a bunch of crazy nut jobs to begin with ), we have the educational system of today. Where teaching, its ok to be gay, or how to have sex in a meaningful way, rather than the history of the monetary system. Why not teach about relevant issues, like the gold standard, and the catastrophic events after removing that very standard. Or how bout the global wars of the past several centuries. Why not teach them about the Presidents, starting from #1 to present.

Would it be to much to ask to teach the children of today about the Roman empire? Wanna bring it down a notch? Fine, lets teach these kids math for petes sake! A while back, a local news agency in Nevada did a report on school systems in that state. In Las Vegas, there were sophomore high school students who had the reading level of a 7th grader! When asked, these students claimed that the system pushes the students through to the next grade, with no concern of actual status. ( Keep in mind this was coming from students, not some politician )

For far to long, the parents have been " weeded ' out of the system, and the government has taken the reigns because of complacency. Also because those fascists in power, wish to implement nationalism. And that my fellow ATS'ers is the key, the key to the ruination of this country! Fascism and nationalism!

reply to post by dolphinfan


Point well taken. I know there's a lot to an analysis like that. I'm simply frustrated by the vagueness of the statistic, and feel it's intended to be a scare tactic of sorts. I'm all for the teacher. Teachers are wonderful and are some of societies greatest contributors, but they aren't the ones with the problem...

For most of my education, I swear I learned nothing to help me with the real world. I didn't take a government class until 12th grade, or economics til 11th. I don't think I ever learned how to fill out a check, vote, or do my taxes. Algebra is helpful, but not as helpful as finding math problems we'd need to do in the real world and focus on those for a while. I took a math class in college "Math You Can Actually Use", in essence, it was for business & real life. Best thing ever.

Ron Paul had it right in his "Banned Interview on ABC", cut the government out of education. Let the private sector deal with it. They're doing a terrible job anyways.

Ron Paul - 2012

Every time I see articles such as this I am reminded how lucky I was to attend a private school from grades 6-12. And before anyone calls me rich my parents were poor my grandparents paid for the private schooling. Now I am debating whether or not to send my own kids to private school. I don't think homeschooling is the way to go, although I don't disparage those who go that route.

If any of you on ATS want a real education, a real " eye opener", then I suggest you take a moment in your busy schedules, and read :

The revolution, A manifesto by Ron Paul &
End the Fed by Ron Paul.

In the first, he discusses interventionism, in our schools, monetary system, military etc...and the clues he drops on you, are like bombs!


End the Fed......need I say more?

In my county we have up to 70% of the students that are in ELL (English Language Learner) programs in just one of our several schools. These are kids K-12 learning to speak English and we're paying for it at the cost of our childrens education and our tax dollars, we have some of the lowest test scores in the country and spend a billion dollars a yr in my state alone educating illegals. Why the #$% are we teaching kids in HS to speak English in America? No...nothing broke here....and they wonder why we're out of money for our schools and the kids are getting dumber...hello anybody out there?

reply to post by jjkenobi


While home schooling has some definate drawbacks, the statistics speak for themselves.

"1. In 1997, a study of 5,402 homeschool students from 1,657 families was released. It was entitled, "Strengths of Their Own: Home Schoolers Across America." The study demonstrated that homeschoolers, on the average, out-performed their counterparts in the public schools by 30 to 37 percentile points in all subjects."

"Another important finding of Strengths of Their Own was that the race of the student does not make any difference. There was no significant difference between minority and white homeschooled students. For example, in grades K-12, both white and minority students scored, on the average, in the 87th percentile. In math, whites scored in the 82nd percentile while minorities scored in the 77th percentile. In the public schools, however, there is a sharp contrast. White public school eighth grade students, nationally scored the 58th percentile in math and the 57th percentile in reading. Black eighth grade students, on the other hand, scored on the average at the 24th percentile in math and the 28th percentile in reading. Hispanics scored at the 29th percentile in math and the 28th percentile in reading. iii"


www.hslda.org...

If you speak with someone who does home school they will tell you that they spend 3-4 hours a day on academics. Many have their kids take a musical instrument and do that an hour or so a day as well. The socialization is problematic, but they typically get around that through sports, dance, etc.

reply to post by dolphinfan


homeschooling and socialization (institutionalization) are usually said in the same sentence but that does not make it true, the social skills of kids in schools is disgusting I dont know what it is but it seems being in a group of ignorance gives kids and their parents and excuse not to think for themselves.

the only problem I have with socialization is explaining to my 8yr old why that person just said I am a bad parent and you should be in school or in church.

I would not let my kids hang out with any of the kids in school because of their bad influence why would I want them doing anything with those kids ever...
you find good families and you make an effort to do Diff. things, we do more now than we ever could if she had a schedule at school to keep.
I guarantee my daughter is much more active with her day than any kid in school just because of the time wasted in school.

whats sad is that people are so brainwashed by the media that they will say "our school system is horrible it must be changed" what can we do???
in the same conversation when they ask where your kid goes to school they go all sheep eyed with nothing to say...