Jun 22, 2006
What is it with High School
There has been so much controversy over what works and what doesn’t. Our students are failing and leave it to the “experts” to figure out why. I came across an article “Dropping out is hard to do” in the Center for School Reform newsletter. I liked the ideas it put forth about developing relationships with students, making education more meaningful, encouraging rigor, early detection of students at risk, and most importantly improving the culture of our school to improve disengagement issues with our children. I feel we are constantly laying blame on home lives, poverty, and other contributing factors to our students failure in school. They do contribute and that is why we need to challenge ourselves to go through our own “industrial revolution” to look at education differently. Has anyone asked the kids??? If they do are they taken seriously?
I could not agree with you more. There needs to be a revolution in education. We need to look at creating linkage with other community groups and to get parents on our side. We must focus on the school day and after school but do it in a way that is cost effective.
Great work!!
I totally agree with you. I’ve read “Lord of the Flies” and firmly believe that students shouldn’t have choices.
What???
I agree that we need to make our students education more “meaningful and encouraging.” I believe that the reason we need to make education this way is because of their home lives. I feel that many students don’t get the encouragement at home that they should, so we need to do enough for both home and school. Although that does not mean that we can’t encourage parents to give some support. Every little bit of help can make a difference no matter where it comes from.
I agree and disagree. I do feel that there needs to be some responsibility placed on the student. As much as we need to know what the students like and dislike; know and don’t know, they need to own up to the fact that THEY are responsible for their education. Students need to want to learn.
I feel that students will be engaged more in their learning if we start teaching to their new technologies of Ipods, text messaging languages, and video phones caputuring every idea. This is the way our students are learning in today’s world. teachers needed to change the way they think and get on board with the way today’s students are learning. Students need to be prepeared for today’s world markets.
To comment on “Kim’s” blog, the key I think is getting kids to get over “fads” and have some self control. If the student is unable on their own “self-police” the the effective of technology for education is minimized. Back in the day, microfiche was good technology, but you couldn’t “chat” with people. The social draw temptation with todays technology and the lack of self control is too much for many.
Wow,
If someone could solve this dilemma things would be so much better for so many. While the issues that are hurting our educational system are complex many experts try to institute quick fixes that are going to save the day. There is no fail safe methodology that works for every student. There are students that come from disfunctional enviromants yet are successful while other students have substantial support and encouragement yet are not successful. I don’t think the answer is found by asking the students but I do think their input is necessary to help to find a solution.
I think that even just a little student input would go a long way. Studies show that the “factory” model of schooling doesn’t work, so why stick with it. Now, more than ever, students need to see some relevance in what we are doing in school. Student input, along with teacher input, would help shape the way that learning needs to go.
This may sound crazy, and I’d certainly be curious to see what students felt about this idea, but here goes… I had this idea for the education system. It obviously needs revamping, and a lot of the problems stem from home life issues, which could be addressed with more concentrated social action efforts on the part of the school and community. Anyway, that aside, I had an idea that we could have a variety of schools (like magnet schools) for students to choose from. Students would have to earn a certain amount of points to attend the school of their choice. The points system would be based on a variety of factors, such as grades, behavior, home involvement, after-school activity involvement, etc. This way, students who struggled academically or students with uninvolved parents would still be able to earn points. The choice would motivate students to do their best and would make them eager to be in a place they had chosen rather than a place they were forced to be. Schools would be tailored to the students who attended them. For example, students with higher points could attend a school with more privileges. Students with lesser points due to lack of motivation or poor behavior would have to attend a strict school with few privileges. They might be required to complete community service. This way, we’re putting the choice and the motivation back in the hands of students.
I was at a meeting where they were talking about generating a list to identify kids that were failing certain “core” classes and developing a plan to concentrate on those particular kids and help them be able to be more effective in their classes to get them to to better.
I think that might be a way of identifying those that need more mentoring and relationship building with. Sort of the idea of encouraging these students to take “ownership” of their own progress.
However, their is always the problem of resources. Who exactly is going to “shadow” these kids? Who is going to follow up with them? And for how long?
I certainly don’t have the answers.
Going along with Louis, our school district is doing the same thing. They are taking all students that are in the 2004 cohort. They are tracking these students and really making an extra effort to get these students through. The only reason this list came about is because we are trying to get off the state list. Why does it take this long?? Students should be focused on from the beginning. I think that there are too much going on in schools that students often come last. All the other issues push forward and students get lost in the shuffle. All students need to come forward and be the main focus!!
Spend some time with a HS principal and you will see you are on target. Most of their day is spent managing the building and issues. Would it be helpful if we had smaller learning communities for our students.