Little Jimmy was really ticked when he learned the fashionable "dog collar" he was wearing would explode if he got more than 30 feet from the school playground.

no fair i wana epic dog collor and those ear tags are sexy

HEY DEVON
HAH! It's all about the bling.

The way I read the link, the "system" was designed primarily by gulag--uh, gubmint skrool oligarchs--uh, administrators to get their hands on Porkulus money.

They're some ambitious scoundrels. Whatever happened to simple old grade inflation?

Perpetually lowering the bar of expectations prepares children only for a life in limbo.

Hey, maybe State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox could pull a few strings and get you one early, Devon! I wouldn't put it past them to actually tag kids with trackers in order to get federal funds.

Good article. It is suspiciously honest:

"Despite 15 years of effort and many millions of dollars spent, the student information system appears to be miles away from where it needs to be to track individual student progress which would be a key component of the new evaluation process."

"Unfortunately, teachers and principals often de-emphasize science, partly because of the strong focus on reading and mathematics, where distinct accountability consequences are in place, and partly because many elementary and middle school teachers lack strong content knowledge in the sciences"

That's one of the most honest descriptions of the failure of education I have ever read. Just about the only thing they missed is asking whether the kids actually want to learn what they are peddling.

Now if they were SHOCK collars and the teachers could use them to enforce discipline....

... never gonna happen.

Forget the collars and ear tags for the kids - they need to put them on the school administrators and the politicians (shock collars - yeah!)

For the last 30 years, MORE MONEY has been the cry of "educators". And for 30 years, school performance has dropped. So the obvious answer is MORE MONEY!

I remember a time not too long ago (ok like 30 years ago) that there were consequences for failure and bad behavior. When I was in school, the principle was to be feared as much for what he could do to my scholastic career (keep me back a grade) as he was for what he could do to my backside (paddle with holes in it). Rules were enforced.

Now, Little Johnny is coddled, given time to "boost his self esteem" (like that is important to the management at American Airlines,) is allowed to pass a class as long as he shows up sometimes, and a passing grade on an assignment is now an "E".

We teachers are treated as the bad guys by the students (I wurked hard on dat paper I copeed from my BFF n speling n grammer is like u no da computerz prob), the parents (Pass him or we will a: sue, b: shoot you c: both), the media (The teacher are overpaid undertrained money pit diggers).

And we wonder where people like Obama came from...

Alas, everyone here has posted everything I was going to post.

I asked my wife the other day "If the public schools are so bad, can a township vote to not be part of a public school district and send the township's students to private schools".

Back in the 50s and early 60's, my township didn't have a high school, so the township contracted with a couple of other school districts to send our students there.

It turns out here in Minnesota, since the 70's townships have to be part of a public school district, while the state has been forcing consolidations of smaller districts, so a township cannot opt out, nor can they actually form there own district unless they have large populations.

In cities, a lot of students flee from public schools to parochial schools and in some cases charter schools, but I've yet to see a non-parochial, private school.

So what's it going to take before we start seeing private academies or schools as an alternative to third-rate public schools run by morons?

Agree with almost everyone! We will have a problem with this until we have choice and competition in schools and break the Teachers Unions. Too many good teachers are held back, while our kids suffer from lousy teachers being protected from being drummed out. Administrators too! Unions are for the teachers and not the kids. It would be a kids union other wise. Getting rid of these BS unions is not going to happen soon. This is a big big problem that is one of many associated with Gov. Service Unions. The school systems and their administrators make me sick, quite frankly.

JL

Kudos to you if you're a conscientious, dedicated, & qualified teacher. You're too rare a bird.

I think you're overwhelmingly right about the lack of parenting--but aside from one network & a few papers, it seems like the media pretty much tow the NEA line.

I'd like to comment on where Obama came from, but in that respect, I really feel sorry for the guy. What was that joke about Clinton?

It takes a village to raise a child, but it only takes two assertive women to really mess him up. (One is sufficient if she's a radical "progressive.")