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gregorylee

I'd rather be napping!!
My wife is seriously contemplating enrolling our two in a charter school "Mosaica". I have read some good things and some bad things on the Internet. I was wondering if anyone here had any experience/feelings on the matter (I am sure that Thump will be chiming in on this).
 
I guess I'd need to know why you're considering a charter school. Do your kids have needs that you do not feel are met at public schools? Is yours a poor school system? Personality conflicts? Class sizes?


I'll start my 5th year teaching in a public school tomorrow. So far about 20 of my students have moved on to a charter school. All but 2 or 3 have returned in the first or second quarter of the same year they left. Of course I'm defensive towards the idea that voucher driven (guess who I'm voting for) education is a good idea. Ask any military man on here if they think that privatizing the Armed Forces is a good idea.
 
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Well CB,

My Dad's been teaching for about 35+ years, my wife is very strong willed. I feel that we can give it a chance and see what happens before we make a final judgement but I thought I would ask and see what some of you people thought first (not that it would change the mind but maybe go in a little more educated).
 
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Well Mili, that's my point. Some things just don't fit the "for profit" model.

Charter schools are freaking scary. They don't have the same standards as public schools. Just one quick example. Had a former co-worker leave our building to go work at a charter school. She went on and on about how great is was, but she quit after Christmas break. A few other teachers bailed out in November and she was the only CERTIFIED teacher on board...the others were replaced by HS graduates with no educational background whatsoever. Before someone gets all riled up about how they could do better than a certified teacher, sure, it's possible. But a staff of 14? 20?
Gregorylee, I'm really not trying to be a dick. By now it just comes naturally. :)
I just don't want your kids to lose a year of education that they may never get back.
 
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There was an article Sunday in the Indianapolis Star regarding the fact that test scores measured at charter schools were typically lower than those of the public schools.

Personally I think you have to compare the charter school to the public school or private school in your area. I'm sure they are different depending on where you live.
 
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I am a teacher at a Catholic school-and am thus in favor of vouchers. That said, I have not heard many good things about the charter schools in Dayton and Cincinnati. They are constantly being closed by the state and/or themselves, due to low enrollment and poor teacher training/standards. I think a lot of these schools are driven by shysters who are glomming on to the opportunities offered by the voucher programs. In addition to the poor teaching, your children will probably not have the same athletic or out of school-field trip,etc. opportunities that they would have at a quality public, or Catholic school. If you are truly disenchanted w/ the public schools in your area, I would definitely suggest that you check out the parochial schools in your area.
BTW-if you click on that NEA site, don't be surprised if your computer gets infected w/ a John Kerry virus- http://www.techfocus.org/comments.php?id=4377&catid=12!!!!!
 
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For those interested - this looks like an experiment worth tracking:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/education/05charter.html?_r=1&ref=education

June 5, 2009

Next Test: Value of $125,000-a-Year Teachers

By ELISSA GOOTMAN
So what kind of teachers could a school get if it paid them $125,000 a year?

An accomplished violist who infuses her music lessons with the neuroscience of why one needs to practice, and creatively worded instructions like, "Pass the melody gently, as if it were a bowl of Jell-O!"
A self-described ?explorer? from Arizona who spent three decades honing her craft at public, private, urban and rural schools.

Two with Ivy League degrees. And Joe Carbone, a phys ed teacher, who has the most unusual r?sum? of the bunch, having worked as Kobe Bryant?s personal trainer.

"Developed Kobe from 185 lbs. to 225 lbs. of pure muscle over eight years," it reads.

They are members of an eight-teacher dream team, lured to an innovative charter school that will open in Washington Heights in September with salaries that would make most teachers drop their chalk and swoon; $125,000 is nearly twice as much as the average New York City public school teacher earns, and about two and a half times as much as the national average for teacher salaries. They also will be eligible for bonuses, based on schoolwide performance, of up to $25,000 in the second year.

The school, called the Equity Project, is premised on the theory that excellent teachers - and not revolutionary technology, talented principals or small class size - are the critical ingredient for success. Experts hope it could offer a window into some of the most pressing and elusive questions in education: Is a collection of superb teachers enough to make a great school? Are six-figure salaries the way to get them? And just what makes a teacher great?

The school's founder, Zeke M. Vanderhoek, 32, a Yale graduate who founded a test prep company, has been grappling with just these issues. Over the past 15 months he conducted a nationwide search that was almost the American Idol of education - minus the popular vote, but complete with hometown visits (Mr. Vanderhoek crisscrossed the country to observe the top 35 applicants in their natural habitats) and misty-eyed fans (like the principal who got so emotional recommending Casey Ash that, Mr. Vanderhoek recalled, she was "basically crying on the phone with me, saying what a treasure he was...

IMO, teachers aren't paid nearly enough. Making teacher pay comp with private-sector jobs would improve teachers, schools and education. I also think it would limit the importance and influence of teachers' unions which allow some truly bad teachers to slide for years because of their tenure.
 
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MililaniBuckeye;52472; said:
There were efforts to unionize the military in late-1975/early-1976. Fortunately that didn't come to fruition.

so youd have to pay them ot when they reach their killing quota? or would they just stop sit down and play cards?

mid war strike, picket and demand a new cba?

[quote='BusNative;147854;3]For those interested - this looks like an experiment worth tracking:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/education/05charter.html?_r=1&ref=education



IMO, teachers aren't paid nearly enough. Making teacher pay comp with private-sector jobs would improve teachers, schools and education. I also think it would limit the importance and influence of teachers' unions which allow some truly bad teachers to slide for years because of their tenure.[/quote]

who could afford that? its nothing more than a high powered private school (with some govt subsidy for kids). what kind of teachers could you get? well similar to college profs id guess...
 
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Off the top of my head? People that might otherwise go into consulting, finance, law or medicine...
no doubt. thats what im saying. youd likely have a similar caliber of teaching to that in college. (ie multiple degrees, etc). adjuncts, etc.

not that their arent capable people in edu, i do however feel the freedom of women to truely enter the workforce has had a positive effect their and a negative impact on education. 50 years ago the best and brightest women were teachers or nurses. you had teachers and nurses of top flight caliber. today they are titans of industry, drs, scientists, etc.
 
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Crump's brother;52478; said:
Well Mili, that's my point. Some things just don't fit the "for profit" model.

Charter schools are freaking scary. They don't have the same standards as public schools. Just one quick example. Had a former co-worker leave our building to go work at a charter school. She went on and on about how great is was, but she quit after Christmas break. A few other teachers bailed out in November and she was the only CERTIFIED teacher on board...the others were replaced by HS graduates with no educational background whatsoever. Before someone gets all riled up about how they could do better than a certified teacher, sure, it's possible. But a staff of 14? 20?
Gregorylee, I'm really not trying to be a dick. By now it just comes naturally. :)
I just don't want your kids to lose a year of education that they may never get back.
This post is pretty much spot on. There are a FEW charter schools-like the one run by the UD Dept. of Education that are excellent. However, 90% of these schools are an absolute mess-finances a shambles, teachers benefits not being paid, very unqualified teachers teaching,etc. I would be very careful before putting your kids in a charter school-talk to staff members outside of the open house, former students/their families,etc.
This subject brings up a pet peeve of mine-people always scream about how "anyone can teach better than so and so"-and, in the case of that particular teacher, they are probably 100% correct. However, the situation in many urban districts is a chicken and egg thing-which comes first-good teachers leaving b/c of knucklehead students, or kids not learning b/c of knucklehead teachers-b/c the good teachers don't want to teach there? I suspect it is a mix-most people I have talked to about innder city HS-junior highs might be a different story-have said that you can learn just fine, it's just that 60% of the student body isn't in school. The honors classes are just fine-teaching and learning-wise.
 
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jimotis4heisman;1478586; said:
no doubt. thats what im saying. youd likely have a similar caliber of teaching to that in college. (ie multiple degrees, etc). adjuncts, etc.

not that their arent capable people in edu, i do however feel the freedom of women to truely enter the workforce has had a positive effect their and a negative impact on education. 50 years ago the best and brightest women were teachers or nurses. you had teachers and nurses of top flight caliber. today they are titans of industry, drs, scientists, etc.

You don't need to be Madame Curie or Sally Ride to teach elementary school effectively. You need to be organized, creative artistically/decorating, and genuinely caring for the kids. Unless one is a complete moron, the techniques for teaching math and reading are easily learned and transferred to the children. I really doubt the average female elementary school teacher in 1955 was greatly different-or better-than the average female elementary school teacher in 2009.
In HS, it is a problem, for teachers of both sexes, when the instuctor received a degree in science education or math education or social studies education, and really does not know their stuff at the level they should.
As far as why people don't go into education-the main reason I have had kids tell me is "I wouldn't want to deal with us!!!" A lot of people have a deep seated fear/dislike/scorn for teenagers, and it transfers over to education-and not wanting to have anything to do with it. Personally, I would rather deal with teenagers than a bunch of cubicle drones. As a teacher, I have a lot more complaints about administrators and fellow faculty members than I have about students.
 
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stxbuck;1478651; said:
You don't need to be Madame Curie or Sally Ride to teach elementary school effectively. You need to be organized, creative artistically/decorating, and genuinely caring for the kids. Unless one is a complete moron, the techniques for teaching math and reading are easily learned and transferred to the children.

Says the out-of-work teacher. Even Thump can keep a teaching job. :slappy:
 
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