Only 27% of aspiring teachers could pass the math tests. If you have any doubts why fuzzy math, everyday math, new math or whatever name the education schools come up with. Money is not going to solve this problem. Competition, alternative certifications and real world experienced teachers will have the greatest impact.
The [...]
The article from the Chicago Sun-Times is highlighting the need for Recess and other activities in Chicago Public Schools. In doing so they pointed out how the kids came up with a cost-free way to have after school programs to help the kids stay off the streets.
They asked parents to volunteer to lead after-school [...]
Thankfully, the 1-percent sales tax for school construction will not be on the ballot this November. Of course, the schools will regroup and try again. They always do and there is nothing the voters can do about it. The best we can do is continue to watch school spending and try to [...]
The South Town Star article stating Illinois funds 29 percent of public schools’ costs is disengenuous. This is an average across all schools in which some schools get the majority of their funding from the state and some get nearly zero. In addition, the property tax system that funds the majority of Illinois [...]
State Sen. Meeks is encouraging CPS students to skip school the first day and attempt to register at New Trier and other so called elite schools. This is a gimic that highlights the inequity in our current school funding model of funding bureaucratic districts leaving many children behind. Unfortunately, Sen. Meeks is missing the boat [...]
This is a great video showing the idiocy of arguments opposing funding the child instead of public government school bureaucracies. (Hat tip: Liberty is for me)
Does the Illinois Lottery pay for education? That is the question the Daily Herald answered a few days ago. [Emphasis Mine]
First, an answer. Yes, millions of dollars from losing Illinois Lottery tickets go to fund public education.
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The lottery began in 1974, but the money wasn’t specifically earmarked for education until 1985. That year, a new [...]
This report is from the Schott Foundation for Public Education and reported in EdWeek. [Emphasis mine]
Since 2004, the foundation has tracked the school performance of African-American boys. This year’s report, released last month in Chicago at the annual UNITY convention of minority journalists, shows that 53 percent of black males did not receive diplomas with [...]
This falls in the no surprise category. The small group of parents and teachers who came to the meetings recommended a referendum. See the stories about it in the following local papers:
News-Sun: Antioch group recommends elementary school referendum (Excerpt below)
Daily Herald: Antioch group tabs education goals
Antioch Review: Nav34 recommendations presented to board
[...]
The Democrats and Teachers Unions are trying to kill the Washington D.C. Opportunity scholarships. In effect they are Putting Children Last instead of first. Visit the WSJ for the full article. I am going to highlight the most important quotes and statements below.
Democrats in Congress have finally found a federal program they [...]
The Daily Herald has a report today on how much the district paid to get the Blue Ribbon Awards they received last November. The total costs was over $40,000.
What’s not mentioned is South Carolina-based Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence Inc. named the award winners after being paid $22,192 to assess seven District 46 schools. [...]
Grayslake Mayor Tim Perry and the Grayslake Board voted 5-0 this week against the passage of SB2288/HB750. [Emphasis mine]
Grayslake village board members voted 5-0 in favor of a resolution against the Senate proposal. The village’s position will be communicated to lawmakers in Springfield.
“If there is no guarantee there is permanent property tax relief involved, it’s [...]
“Reject ploy to hike taxes for education” is the title of a letter to the editor in the Daily Herald. [Emphasis mine]
State government thinks educating Illinois children is about money, not learning.
The Illinois State Board of Education regularly lowers the achievement bar so we can keep wishfully thinking no child’s being left [...]
The yearly effort by Illinois Legislators to raise your taxes under the guise of Education Reform has returned. this time it is under a new name SB2288. You can read the full bill and see its co-sponsors at the General Assembly website. The Senate Education Committee votes tomorrow, Wednesday afternoon on this [...]
Recently, the Daily Herald did a 10 piece story on School Finance in the State of Illinois.
Public schools’ revenue growth outpaces inflation
Chapter 2: Unequal state equalizer
Chapter 3: Suburban taxpayers’ heavy share
Chapter 4: 1 of every 2 education dollars stays in classroom
Chapter 5: Non-class costs weigh heavy on schools
Chapter 6: Administrator pay vs. teacher paySuper pay [...]
The title of this post comes from the sign below. It is being displayed on a Grayslake business and is very timely.
There are many people complaining about how much there assessments have risen this year. They know this means their taxes will go up in the spring. I have heard many times [...]
Sorry for the light blogging. I have been on vacation and have now returned. I will be catching up over the coming weeks and will start with the Big Hollow School District.
The Big Hollow School District 38 has made it official, they are putting another referendum on the ballot. This time for [...]
Do suburban schools produce better educated students? According to most parents they do. However, the Wall Street Journal reports that a study by the Pacific Research Institute shows that suburban schools are Worse Than You Think (Hat tip: Extreme Wisdom) [Emphasis mine].
Conventional wisdom holds that upscale communities tend to have “good†schools, and parents [...]
While reading this weeks Carnival of Education I came across a post entitled, Unable to educate. As I read it, all I could think about was how we have become a blank check society. The hallmark of this society is that the government has a blank check they can use to take [...]
The Jacke Kent Cooke Foundation, along with Civic Enterprises, LLC released a report on Sept. 10 on the Achievement Trap: How America is Failing Millions of High-Achieving Students form Lower-income Families. You can read their Press Release and look at the entire Report. I have excerpts of both below along with my opinions. [...]
Reading is a gateway to open the imagination of the mind for children to explore other worlds, travel into the future and the past, learn our history, and learn lessons of life. During the summer teachers across the country hand out reading assignments to encourage students minds to expand, explore and learn. The [...]
The Committee on Education and Labor has released its’ discussion draft on the Title I changes for NCLB (Elementary and Secondary Education Act). You can view the summary if you don’t want to read the full draft.
A couple of quick items I noticed in the summary were the following [Emphasis mine]:
Multiple Indicators/Assessments [...]
I have had a commenter, Adam Casbarian, who claims to be a Big Hollow Schools District resident debating me on the situation at Big Hollow. I am moving this dialogue up to a full post for those who do not look back to older posts. First, he tried to answer myself and some [...]
I am honored to host the 132nd Carnival of Education. Carnivals are festive events with roller coasters, slides, games, and food. There is always something for everyone. You get to pick and choose according to your tastes. That is how I view the Carnival of Education; a place where all education [...]
We have all heard the hype about learning styles and how teachers have to identify and then teach each child according to their style of learning. Of course this is then joined with calls for lower class sizes and more money to fund it. The question though, is whether teaching with a particular [...]
To see what the Washington DC Schools can teach us lets first look at some of their financial data as outlined in the article from National Center for Education Statistics (NCES):
Spends $15,414 per student (Nation Average – $8,899)
Receives $2,383 per student in Federal Subsidies (National Average – $864)
Spends $1,869 per student on “capital outlaysâ€
Spends $1,464 [...]
We spend over $500 billion dollars in this country educating our children. Yet, it takes a fed up father to rewrite a textbook for kids to be taught properly. What are the companies who write curriculum doing? Who is actually writing the textbooks being used today? Where are all the educrats [...]
In an NEA cover story for July entitled “Can We Compete?â€, there are several comments I would like to discuss. The article is 6 pages long and rambles on, mostly about how testing is bad. [Emphasis mine]
The fear of competition is nothing new. In March 1958, a year after Russia launched Sputnik, the cover [...]
I recently sent a Letter to the Editor of the Herald News. It was published on July 18th. I wanted to post it here as well.
Parents, school district wrong
I found your July 8 story about the enrollment officer in the Plainfield School District to be very one-sided in favor of the school district. I [...]
In a recent study by the Friedman Foundation entitled “Disruptive Behavior: An Empirical Evaluation of School Misconduct and Market Accountability†the objective was to find out if Market Accountability was a good regulator of school conduct as compared to Bureaucratic Accountability used with our government school monopoly. (Hat tip: Extreme Wisdom)
I will [...]
