Wisconsin is #1 in Public Education
A study released by the group Education Sector, an education policy think tank, has ranked Wisconsin #1............when it comes to circumventing the NO Child Left Behind education law.
Tom Still has more: http://www.wisopinion.com/index.iml?mdl=article.mdl&article=4376
The nutshell version is that the think tank is saying Wisconsin is "cooking the books" better than any other state. So I guess we got that going for us.
Quite frankly, I hope this is Wisconsin's way of humoring the federal government by supplying them with the numbers they want, while at the same time telling them to take their unfunded mandate and shove it. Because that's what I think of No Child Left Behind. It is an unfunded mandate handed down from the Bush Administration designed to make public schools look bad and give them an excuse to cut funding using the excuse of poor performance. It's a punishment based system full of abitrary "Adeqaute Yearly Progress" standards. And as schools fail to meet them, sanctions are imposed upon said schools.
No Child Left Behind is nothing more than another attempted assualt on public education by the Republicans. They want to increase the use of vouchers and increase the privatization of public schools.
I believe in the dedication of our public school officials and teachers. And we do have some problems with our education system. Funding our rural schools is probably the biggest problem. But there are other concerns, as Still adresses in his column:
Let’s drill into one federal standard: What constitutes a “highly qualified teacher”? The federal law gives states some flexibility in determining which teachers make the grade, but Wisconsin’s 99 percent “highly qualified” ranking caught the eye of Education Sector. While almost all classroom teachers nationally have bachelor’s degrees and most have state certification, a significant number of teachers lack specific knowledge of the academic subject they teach. This is particularly true in high-poverty schools and in math and science courses taught in the secondary grades. Is Wisconsin relying too much on traditional certification, the report asked?
In the past, that was probably true. But recent reforms promise to slowly improve the skills of teachers as they move through their careers.
Wisconsin has developed a three-tier licensing system for teachers that will transform the process from a renewal system based on additional college credits to a skills and knowledge process. Under the so-called PI 34 law, teachers now graduating from college must renew their licenses with Professional Development Plans. The plans don’t ignore existing state standards, but they’re based more in helping teachers learn their subject matter. The teacher must assemble a three-member review team made up of trained colleagues. The review team works with the educator while the project is under way and eventually decides whether the teacher has successfully completed the plan.
Most teachers are still grandfathered into the previous system, of course, and only three teachers have completed PI 34 certification statewide. But it may become the norm over time as more teachers try the new certification system and find it does something the old system didn’t do – make them a better teacher.
So that why I have little worry about what a think tank thinks of how Wisconsin goes about educating it's students. Wisconsin has proven that over the years we can handle educating our kids just fine. We don't need their mandates; we don't need their arbitrary "standards." Fund what you are responsible for funding, and then get out of our way.
Tom Still has more: http://www.wisopinion.com/index.iml?mdl=article.mdl&article=4376
The nutshell version is that the think tank is saying Wisconsin is "cooking the books" better than any other state. So I guess we got that going for us.
Quite frankly, I hope this is Wisconsin's way of humoring the federal government by supplying them with the numbers they want, while at the same time telling them to take their unfunded mandate and shove it. Because that's what I think of No Child Left Behind. It is an unfunded mandate handed down from the Bush Administration designed to make public schools look bad and give them an excuse to cut funding using the excuse of poor performance. It's a punishment based system full of abitrary "Adeqaute Yearly Progress" standards. And as schools fail to meet them, sanctions are imposed upon said schools.
No Child Left Behind is nothing more than another attempted assualt on public education by the Republicans. They want to increase the use of vouchers and increase the privatization of public schools.
I believe in the dedication of our public school officials and teachers. And we do have some problems with our education system. Funding our rural schools is probably the biggest problem. But there are other concerns, as Still adresses in his column:
Let’s drill into one federal standard: What constitutes a “highly qualified teacher”? The federal law gives states some flexibility in determining which teachers make the grade, but Wisconsin’s 99 percent “highly qualified” ranking caught the eye of Education Sector. While almost all classroom teachers nationally have bachelor’s degrees and most have state certification, a significant number of teachers lack specific knowledge of the academic subject they teach. This is particularly true in high-poverty schools and in math and science courses taught in the secondary grades. Is Wisconsin relying too much on traditional certification, the report asked?
In the past, that was probably true. But recent reforms promise to slowly improve the skills of teachers as they move through their careers.
Wisconsin has developed a three-tier licensing system for teachers that will transform the process from a renewal system based on additional college credits to a skills and knowledge process. Under the so-called PI 34 law, teachers now graduating from college must renew their licenses with Professional Development Plans. The plans don’t ignore existing state standards, but they’re based more in helping teachers learn their subject matter. The teacher must assemble a three-member review team made up of trained colleagues. The review team works with the educator while the project is under way and eventually decides whether the teacher has successfully completed the plan.
Most teachers are still grandfathered into the previous system, of course, and only three teachers have completed PI 34 certification statewide. But it may become the norm over time as more teachers try the new certification system and find it does something the old system didn’t do – make them a better teacher.
So that why I have little worry about what a think tank thinks of how Wisconsin goes about educating it's students. Wisconsin has proven that over the years we can handle educating our kids just fine. We don't need their mandates; we don't need their arbitrary "standards." Fund what you are responsible for funding, and then get out of our way.
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