Public education has no friends on the right. None. If any right-side politician shows any interest in public education, his or her interest is most likely show for the voters. If you can't be good; look good sort of thing. If a right-side politician votes for money into public education, it is surely money that a private company can tap into, such as the private tutoring companies that tap into federal money set aside to help students who are not achieving in school. I cannot get paid to tutor students unless I work, as a second job, for one of those companies.
I won't even address when right-side politicians are actively hostile to public education.
So that leaves responsibility for the public schools to the left. The problem is that the left doesn't, or can't, or won't agree on what it wants.
The Tutoring Room is a service diary for all kossacks who are engaged in education as a student, a teacher or someone important in a student's or teacher's life. Ask a question; it doesn't have to be about math. Answer a question; maybe you can rephrase a question so that everyone can consider it in a different way.
This diary series is allied with plf515's Daily Kos University series and cfk's Bookflurries:Bookchat series. They have agreed to offer tutoring services as well. If you have a diary series and would like to be allied in this education service, please let me know. I strongly recommend that all readers should visit both The Teachers' Lounge and Daily Kos University on Saturdays and Bookflurries on Tuesdays.
Yes, I have learned how to use blockquotes.
Here is what you want. Politicians aren't trying to change it. Voters aren't demanding that politicians change it. Therefore, it must be what you want. This is going to be written in broad strokes; if you want to be picky and declare an exception, I will shrug my shoulders.
By the end of eighth grade, students will be in classes with between thirty-five and forty-five other students. Their physical presence in the room, including student desk, will approach four-fifths of all floor space. The chalkboard has been replaced by the white board; chalk has been replaced by markers. There may be an overhead projector in the room; these are slowly being replaced by something called an Emo, which projects images (even from a computer) instead of just lights-up a written-on plastic sheet. An Emo, as you might expect, is very expensive.
If students live in California, they have to be provided with a textbook due to a court case. County departments of education check up on this at the beginning of each year.
And there is the teacher. The teacher is a college-graduate and may, or may not, have a Bachelor's degree in the subject of the class. The teacher is tasked to provide, at a minimum, one (1) full year of education to every student in the subject matter of the class. The success, or failure, of the teacher to do this is checked near the end of each school year by a single, multiple-choice test. The test is designed by a private company hired by, most likely, the state. The state has adopted a set of standards for each grade and each subject; the testing company is supposed to provide a test that measures student knowledge and ability based on the particular standards for the particular class.
If the student answers a certain percentage of the multiple-choice questions correctly, the student is labeled "Proficient" (or the higher "Advanced"). This is the goal, acme, of a year's worth of education; the student will demonstrate on a test that he or she is Proficient. Any score less than the required score for Proficient is, simply, not good enough. Whether or not a student has improved in a particular subject, whether or not a student has aptitude for a particular subject, whether or not a student can think about and discuss issues, ideas or concepts in a particular subject is irrelevant.
A teacher, given a class of students labeled Proficient from the previous year, is a success if he or she can maintain that Proficiency at the end of the school year.
A teacher, given a class of students who have not achieved the Proficient label, is a failure if the students only improve.
This is as if the students were playing AYSO soccer and some teams get the capable players and others don't. The capable-player teams tend to win, of course, and the coach is considered a good coach. The teams made up of players who can't or won't play tend to lose, of course. If the team pulls itself together, plays some good soccer if not winning soccer and some players develop an interest in the game and a desire to take it on in the next year, the coach is still a failure and so are the players because they did not win enough games.
This is what you want. I know this because left-side politicians promise that they support better, winning teams with better, winning coaches. The possibility of separate leagues is not considered. The possibility of playing without keeping standings is not considered. The possibility of changing what is considered "winning" is not discussed.
In the interest of providing an organized public education to every child in America (unless they opt out for private, parochial or home schooling), this is what exists.
Only what the left does about it will matter. The right wants it to fail.
What do you want?