Newark Public Schools get $100 million from Facebook creator on Oprah today — Page 3

tenure is not perfect it does protect bad teachers sometimes but I have seen bad teachers fired in my district. Tenure does protect good teachers. Before tenure and teachers unionizing, the disparity in pay between men and women was disgraceful and the arbitrary power of school boards to dismiss teachers and hire cheaper ones or raise class size without any resistance was endemic.

I am not attacking Charter Schools but The Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University, concludes that only 17% of charter schools have better test scores than traditional public schools, 46% had gains that were no different than their public counterparts, and 37% were significantly worse.So just like Public schools there are some bad Charter schools.

Also my students who are ESL students(K3 to 10th graders) in a low income urban district all passed their standardize tests. But my parent involvement was 100% and I conference with them 3 times a year and see them almost on a daily basis. I also have them come in to teach a lesson with me to their mainstream class about their culture. If parents are invested in their child's education their child will succeed.

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Updated On: 9/28/10 at 08:52 AM

You're 100% right - it's not about the TYPE of involvement. BUT - a parent that ignores phone calls, doesn't come in for IEP meetings, ignores calls from counselors and nurses etc -- THAT is a bad parent, regardless of situation. Of course there are levels of involvement, but I've seen (as I'm sure everyone here who is a teacher) many parents who are simply not involved AT ALL with their kids' schooling.

Is that the only factor? Honestly, I feel it depends on the age level of the kids. In middle school and below, without parental involvement kids will flounder. There are the rare exceptions, of course, but for the most part yes, parental involvement IS the key to success. By the time a kid gets to high school, they have the choice on their own whether or not to get involved in their own education. They have the ability to make that choice - though certainly it's not easier if their parents weren't pushing them from the beginning.

So no, it's not black and white: good parents = good students and vice versa, but fact is, there IS a correlation in most cases.

We've all come across situations where the school has done EVERYTHING - offered every program they have, spent countless hours on the child - and the parents either don't do enough to sign off on the help, or in some cases actually stand in the way of it.

It's unfortunate -- ideally every child would have a fair shake. Public education DOES give that to every child (or at least the good schools do). What causes failure in the good schools at least is more often than not determined by what's going on at home far more than what's going on in school.

I've been fortunate to work in a really good district., Most of our kids do well and come from good homes, but we've had our share of those that don't do well and those who have really rough home lives also. We still do everything we can for those kids. Sometimes, though, it's just not enough to override the troubles from home.

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In theory, charter schools can work. I won't argue that. The problem is there are so many failed ones that without proper management they become more of a drain than actual help. It's way too easy for charter schools to be scams.

I won't say public schools are perfect either and don't need help - they CERTAINLY do. I really believe that less regulation from the state, more parental involvement, more investment in curriculum from teachers (like they do in Finland) and more public support (as opposed to the demonizing of the profession) are all necessary for a better system.

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Interesting report from NBC Nightly News.
NBC video.