High school graduates

I was just reading that U.S. High school graduates do not rank well with the rest of the world. In fact, they came in dead last out of 30 industrialized countries. Furthermore, many are saying that our graduates are on par as many other countries drop outs! What a sad indictment of our education system. Being a part of that system for over 20 years I am ashamed of how poorly we are doing. So what is the problem? Well, we need better teachers that's for sure. We need better curriculum because what we have is not working. We need less testing and more authentic assessments where there are consequences for failing (all other countries have "exit" exams that actually count for something). Finally, the students need to change their attitudes towards education. I can't tell you how many students we have that do not want to do any work at all no matter what the class is. It is staggering the amount of students we have who do not want to learn (which takes effort and discipline). So, how do we fix all that? I have no idea. If I did I would be on my way to making a whole lot of money.

What do you think?

Does school testing work?

I understand the need to make some kind of general assessment to see how schools are doing. We do need to measure how students are learning and progressing, but how much testing do we need to do though? I think we spend way too much time testing and not enough time teaching. We make to much of the test, and not enough about learning. It used to take a week to give the standardized test. Now it takes over a month and the time is increasing every year. In the long run, testing does nothing to help students learn. Maybe we should do less and less of it and spend more time teaching kids to read, write, and think?

What do you think?

Becoming a teacher today

Would I recommend that anyone become a teacher today? I am actually mixed on the answer to that question. It is true that teaching today is not a great career to go into. Talk to most teachers and they will tell you that it is a thankless job, with unending demands, horrible behaving students, and crazy parents. The pay in some states is fine, but in others it is still horrible. The benefits used to be great, but since Obamacare, they are expensive and mediocre. So why even think about teaching? The only reason is that you still get to make a positive impact on a few students. I have come across two ex students of mine over the last two days who still remember me fondly and were thankful for all I did for them. That's the only reason I still teach. If you want to become a teacher, the only reason is because you want to make a difference. You will, but it might not be as huge as you think. If you want to teach for any other reason, it's not worth the hard work, stress, working conditions, and a host of other negative aspects.

What do you think?