relationships

G. J. Olson: You are from a different world of education than some teachers out there. Tell you what; spend one month in the worst performing schools in Minneapolis or St. Paul, and then come back with a sequel to this and take off your rose colored glasses and leave your obvious arguments about education behind. Nobody is going to argue with your premises, your conclusions, but will argue the results. NCLB is a failure and will fall off the cliff in 2014. Michelle Rhee says it's the teachers' fault. Sorry, but ask the staff and students of the poorest schools in the state of Minnesota, whether they are rural or urban, and the truth will set you free. Everything you said, I cannot argue with. But "communication" is a band aid on a compound fracture and to pretend that it is the answer, is just perpetuating the real problems with education in America. Now, go stand over there in the corner, with Michelle Rhee and wait for superman.

comment229: I don't know where you are going. What are you saying when you say ask the staff members at the poorest schools? That efforts to improve teaching and learning are not worth it?

Well, for starters you would need communication. But in my experience only about 15% of teachers regularly update the parent portal in a timely manner. Teachers act as though parents are something they have to tolerate, and avoid communication as much as possible. And conferences are a joke with parents waiting in hours long lines to get 5 minutes with their kid's teachers in which the teacher spends the first 3 trying to remember who the kid is and the last 2 trying to find some scrap of paper with the kid's work on it from their huge pile of whatever assignment they scooped up on their way to conference night. Parents are actually very interested in partnering with teachers, but given the circumstances what can parents actually do?

Good Morning Blue...."That efforts to improve teaching and learning are not worth it?" Let me use an analogy; if your car has a flat tire, you don't fix it by going to the car wash. The people who have solutions and those that assault education in America, assume that the problem is with the teachers and the schools. Nothing could be further from the truth. Show me kids who want to go to school, want to learn, are prepared to learn, and I will show you great teachers. In this case, calling parents and making home visits are fine in the suburbs, but recently a teacher friend of mine made a home visit, and was greeted by the mother with a bottle of vodka in her hand. Those are the realities of education that no amount of money or teacher training is going to change. To answer your question directly, improving education and learning is not going be accomplished by GWB's signature legislature, NCLB, which ignores the facts of where the problems lie in education. We have a culture and societal breakdown at the lowest income levels in this country. We have downgraded education so badly that all it means to a growing percentage of parents, is a place that their kids can go to get three meals a day and no, you don't find that attitude in the suburbs to a great degree, but that is NOT where the problems are either.