http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/education/14child.html

Quote :

"And while the proposals call for vigorous interventions in failing schools, they would also reward top performers and lessen federal interference in tens of thousands of reasonably well-run schools in the middle. President Obama’s plan would replace the No Child law’s requirement that every American child reach proficiency in reading and math, which administration officials have called utopian, with a new national target that may be even harder to achieve: that all students should graduate from high school prepared for college and a career."

That last bit seems pie-in-the-sky, but the overall changes seem to allow for more flexibility for local administrators and teachers to make adjustments, without the paranoid fear of losing their funding wholesale.

I guess we'll have to wait and see what the full blueprint looks like, then see how congress mangles it.

[Edited on March 13, 2010 at 5:14 PM. Reason : ]

3/13/2010 5:13:16 PM

no child left behind was one of bush's biggest failures. that shit is broke beyond repair

obama's plan is even worse if that's the case re: college...now if they're talking being ready for college OR a career with vocational/service industries, then that's a little better.

i'm getting sick of this shit that people push around thinking everyone can be better than a career janitor. that's just not true

it's like annapolis hig school with kids from 7 projects setting a goal for all seniors to take AP classes

[Edited on March 13, 2010 at 5:27 PM. Reason : .]

3/13/2010 5:24:16 PM

^ how is it like that?

And what aspects of NCLB that made it a failure are similar to the new plan?

3/13/2010 5:25:54 PM

ugh... COLLEGE IS NOT FOR EVERYONE, AND THAT IS OK!!!

some people EXCEL in trades and frankly are better off going straight into them after school.

3/13/2010 5:38:05 PM

^ the new rules look like they are more inline with that philosophy than the old NCLB rules.

3/13/2010 5:43:10 PM

Some people are just not college material and that's OK!

3/13/2010 6:12:24 PM

The college track being forced down every student's throat in high school is one of the reasons we are getting dropouts, etc.


enroll students in auto tech and other trades in high school and get them ready to do well and make money as soon as they graduate high school instead of pushing them to make a D in physics, sending them to college, watching them flunk out, and wasting several productive years going back to learn a trade they should have picked up in high school.

3/13/2010 6:33:28 PM

What Smath said.


We teachers marvel at the retard-idealism of those in charge of education.

3/13/2010 6:59:15 PM

Quote :

"Last month, President Obama said that his No Child blueprint would require states to adopt “college- and career-ready standards” to qualify for $14 billion Title I program, and that new sources of federal money would be provided to states as competitive grants, rather than through per-pupil formulas."

The way this line is written seems like it should be read as 2 distinct items: college-ready standards and career-ready standards

but it's not clear to me

3/13/2010 7:16:11 PM

If the plan was made by people with any sort of sense at all, we can interpret it as calling for preparation for 1. college-bound high schoolers and 2. career (tech) bound high schoolers.

3/13/2010 7:25:31 PM

Quote :

"enroll students in auto tech and other trades in high school and get them ready to do well and make money as soon as they graduate high school instead of pushing them to make a D in physics, sending them to college, watching them flunk out, and wasting several productive years going back to learn a trade they should have picked up in high school."

a fucking men

3/13/2010 8:54:20 PM

Quote :

"The college track being forced down every student's throat in high school is one of the reasons we are getting dropouts, etc. enroll students in auto tech and other trades in high school and get them ready to do well and make money as soon as they graduate high school instead of pushing them to make a D in physics, sending them to college, watching them flunk out, and wasting several productive years going back to learn a trade they should have picked up in high school."

This.


Also this may be the first soapbox thread in history where everyone agrees on a major point.

3/13/2010 8:57:40 PM

not only has it done that, but it has created this mentality that you must go to college and now ba degrees are worthless. learning a trade is completely respectable and we need skilled tradesman in the workforce, vocational education just makes sense.

3/13/2010 9:07:15 PM

^^ Someone call Bev Purdue. Tell her that the Soap Box has spoken.


Srsly, though. It's amazing how detached from reality politicians can become.

3/13/2010 9:11:57 PM

bttt for Supplanter

3/15/2010 6:52:49 PM

only because moron will never be mean to me again. RIGHT?

2/23/2011 5:26:41 PM

Quote :

"the No Child law’s requirement that every American child reach proficiency in reading and math, which administration officials have called utopian"

2/23/2011 5:50:15 PM

^^ i’m never mean to you… you’re one of my favorite posters outside of TSB actually

But, i asked this be bumped so i could post this…

http://www.slate.com/id/2286200/

The far left Obama admin continues to trample states rights embrace states rights by letting state rulings on gay marriage stand at the federal level.

Maybe this is hinting at a step towards a broader federal policy, but Obama is “still struggling with gay marriage [until his second term]."

2/23/2011 8:22:57 PM

^ congratulations that has nothing to do with schools...

2/23/2011 10:23:57 PM

It has to do with “less federal intrfrnce” though (at least as I have spun it).

2/23/2011 11:02:32 PM

while I applaud this move (^^^) as gay marriage (or marriage at all) is in no way a federal government issue, he is far from fully (or halfly, for a lack of a better, actual word) in favor of states rights.

and in the end, any state law banning gay marriage should be taken to courts and shot down in a fire anyways.

2/24/2011 7:32:31 AM

I dont see any problem with revoking federal funds from failing schools. If you want to go all states rights and have your state mandated shitty education system thats fine, do it without my tax dollars. The fed can give that shit back to me if you aren't gonna use it right.

2/24/2011 9:43:04 AM

the one federal agency actually capable of helping the poor and they've decided "educating kids? whoa, that shits tough. we give up, but you can keep the money"

i mean holy fucking shit.

We aren't even talking about having kids graduate high school with college credits, we're talking about giving them the most basic of tools to do anything with their lives.

And these fuckers are saying thats "utopian"?

god damn.

socialists bitch and bitch and bitch about helping the poor and the needy but when it comes to giving them actual help? heh, fuck that. too hard. lets just give them money from people i personally dislike.

2/24/2011 9:50:12 AM

educating kids who don't care to educate themselves is very tough. a 6 year old learning how to read is not going to understand that education is the key to avoiding a life of poverty. hell, a 17 year old high school dropout won't realize that most of the time. if a kid is not naturally inclined to learn on his/her own, or doesn't have parents/guardians/role models who stress the importance of school, kids are not particularly likely to excel

it is utopian in this sense to believe that you can reach every child. it's very, very sad that this is the case, but you just can't force an education onto every child

[Edited on February 24, 2011 at 10:21 AM. Reason : .]

2/24/2011 10:18:03 AM

buuuump

2/25/2011 5:08:25 PM