Tim:

This is a great article and shows that the vast majority of students really want to succeed in school and live productive lives.

Here is a thought I'd like feedback on.

What about the credential system? If you look at tuition costs to get a teaching credential, the costs are too high and on par with other masters program. Why is it that someone with a masters degree that teaches as an adjunct at UCLA is forbidden to teach in High School or even middle school?

Another quesiton. Why is a scientist at Amgen in moleculer biology forbidden to teach biology in the public school system because they lack the credential?

I think we need to rethink the credential system completely and allow there to be some sort of equivalence system to encourage citizens who are experts in their respective fields to get involved in their community schools in a teaching function.

There should be some sort of expedited teaching credentialing system along with background checks to encourage even part time teaching like at the university level.

I also would like some feedback on a book I'm trying to get a hold of called, "Teachers as Owners" Here is a description of the book...

Bottom line: I don't think we have the best structure in place to create the best learning environments. I think its overfocused on command and control bureaucracy and too much labor versus administration orientation

"What if teachers were owners, not employees?" Teacher-ownership is a revolutionary way to put excitement and meaning back into the teaching profession and to revitalize public education.

This book demonstrates how being an owner rather than an employee can give teachers control of their professional activity, including full responsibility and accountability for creating and sustaining high performing learning communities. It presents examples of teacher-ownership in practice and provides practical models for those who would like to experience the professional satisfaction found in ownership.

Like doctors, lawyers, and other professionals, teachers have the same opportunity to work for themselves through ownership of professional partnerships. In a professional partnership the teachers are the leaders and decision-makers. They control their own work and their own relationships to students, including determining curriculum, setting the budget, choosing the level of technology available to students, determining their own salaries, selecting their colleagues, monitoring performance, and hiring administrators to work for them, not vice versa.

Bottom line: I don't think we have the best structure in place to create the best learning environments for students. I think its overfocused on command and control bureaucracy and too much labor versus administration orientation.

Scott

Scott,

That book sounds deep! You should write a book review about it. E-mail me about it.

It sounds like a perfect experiment for a charter school.

Brian:

I gotta get the book first, then I'll look at doing a book review.

What did you think of changing the credentialing system. Do you think its a little strange that scientists at JPL can't teach a High School physics class because they haven't gone through the credentialing process?

Scott

Ohhh, Tim, you really laid one on the table this time.

High schools are certainly not preparing kids for college, that’s for sure. For years, CSUN has published statistics that show that about 50% of the entering freshmen are deficient in English and math. These students end up having to take from 1 to 3 remedial classes before they are ready for college-level work.

It has to do with dumbing-down the curriculum to permit all students to meet the minimum level needed to graduate from high school. The requirements needed to graduate from most high schools, Simi schools included, will not qualify the students to gain admission to the better colleges, which is OK if parents understand that going in. But, of course, they don’t understand. Then there are shocked that their kid is not going to get into Berkeley. Look at the “high school exit exam” debacle. It was thought that rather than letting kids “just show up” to class and eventually graduate, that there ought to be value to a high school education. Businesses are demanding it. So a high school exit exam was developed. It seems that that was 6 or 7 years ago. I predicted to my wife then that it would never last, that parents would be storming the schools if their little darlings were denied a diploma. Well, implementation of the exam has been delayed once, and as of this writing, no student has been denied a diploma based on exam results.

Grade inflation has a lot to do with this also. Teachers know this. Parents want their kids to have a high GPA, so the schools accommodate that. What is now an “A” used to be a “B”. Ask any parent about their kid’s teachers – if the kid is getting a good grade in that class, the teacher is great; if the kid is getting a bad grade, the teacher is an idiot. It couldn’t possibly be the fact that the kid is not working hard enough. Yet in any class of 35 students, some are working hard enough to earn a good grade. The students have to learn to adapt to the teacher, not vice versa, just as the students will eventually have to adapt to the way their boss acts. But if a teacher “gives” a student a low grade, the parents will be right in there arguing for a high grade. And you know what, to avoid an argument sometimes the teacher gives in and changes the grade. Does that really do the student any good? Noooo! But when these same kids hit college, do mommy and daddy run to the college professor when they think the kid got the wrong grade?

Now, Scott, you’ve put on the table the idea of teacher-ownership. It is certainly an interesting idea. I would like to see some data from a district that has tried this, or even a pilot program. But public education is big business, and anyone who thinks otherwise is naive. It’s about public employee unions (both teachers and administrators) and the sale of books.

So, parents are getting exactly what they want – high school “graduates” with high GPA’s, but without any true learning. But as I have said before, there are more parents who can quote a high school team’s win-loss record than can quote the requirements to gain admission to the UC system. And that’s the way it will stay. Sad, but true.

Jerre:

As a former student athlete, I would like to point out a few things regarding parent involvement in high school sports. I am confused as to whether you are saying that you wish parents were as involved in the academic programs as the sports programs.

I want to point out that its really important not discount the level of involvement of parents in high school sports programs and that this does often drip over into academics. School districts have instituted "no grades, no play". Parents who want their kids to excel in sports tend to take an active role in academics.

Statistically speaking, kids in sports have higher grades than kids in the general population. A lot of kids that play sports at the high school level want to play college, so they take colle prep work or AP. Sports and competition are good things and if this is the only area where parents feel they can relate to their kids, I think it's a good thing.

The question I have, is what avenues do parents in the academic world have to be a part of the process that are similiar to high school sports?

It seems two people want me to get more facts on that particular book. Maybe, we can start a book club.

Right now, I've been reading all the college football mags to see if anyone can beat SC and what the various conferences are going to look like for the fall. I'll see if I can get a hold of that book.

Scott

Scott,

I like your idea about a book club.

My ideas on teacher credentialing? It is funny that Bill Clinton couldn't teach ( with few exceptions) a class on government.

But look at the reqs and tell me which ones you would eliminate.

CBEST ( basic skills in reading, writing, and math.) should the spanish teacher or gym, or social studies teacher have to pass the math section? The test wasn't too tough but it was part of the process.

Theory classes. They are not about the subject you teach, but how to teach. Teaching is not just giving out info, if it was then students would just be assigned to read books.

Health and computer classes? I was required to take a computer class where I was shown how to send e-mail! What a waste. But should it be waived by exam?

I wouldn't mind alternate credentials as long as the compentcies were still met.

Brian

Brian:

This isn't all the requirements to become credentialed, is it? I went to the CLU program to see if I could get credentialed while I worked at my bank. I was told that I had to be prepared to quit my job and student teach to get my credential. When your paying for a home in Simi Valley, not working is kind of a non-starter.

I decided to get my masters degree instead.

Here is a list of books I've read in the last few months.

1) Why Unions Matter, Michael D. Yates
2) First Among Equals: The Supreme Court in American Life. Kenneth Starr
3) Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think; George Lakoff. ( A good psychological assesment of the language and values of both liberals and conservatives.)
4) Boy Genius: Karl Rove, the archetect of George W. Bush's Remarkable Political Triumphs
5) America the Vulnerable: How Our Government is Failing to Protect us from Terrorism. Steve Flynn
6) Right Nation: Conservative Power in America
7) Winning the Future, Newt Gingrich.
8) Churchill: Sebastian Haffner

Here is what I'm reading now. (Besides the college football magazines)

1) Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation, Hugh Hewitt.

2) Stick your Neck Out: A Street Smart Guide to Creating Change in Your Community and Beyond, John Graham.

3) How Wars are Won: The 13 Rules of War from Ancient Greece to the War on Terror. Bevin Alexander.

Feel free to send me titles as I always love a good book.

Scott

Scott,

Two of my favorite books (one old, one new)

Countdown to Terror: The Top-Secret Information that Could Prevent the Next Terrorist Attack on America... and How the CIA has Ignored it

By Congressman Curt Weldon

And...

Left Back: A Century of Battles over School Reform by Diane Ravitch

Check them out!

T

Scott,

no, i just listed a few reqs. Doesn't the police academy pay? Student teaching is not just 16 weeks of unpaid work, but on top of it, you have to pay for the units.

I like the george lakoff book.

Guns, germs and steel was quite good.

On my blog I have a contest related to Karl Rove. Go ahead and enter the winner gets lunch on me.

http://blogs.venturacountystar.com/vcs/dennert/

best of all, you don't need to believe he outed an undercover agent to win!

Brian

PS-Arleigh, Tim, Jerre, Scott I expect all of you to enter.

Scott:

I stand corrected. I need to realize that a significant number of parents do not have my same expectations. My kids have already finished high school. We choose a high school based on academics. Sports were a secondary concern. Getting into a top college was the end-game for high school.

I would like to see the statistics you cite where kids in sports have higher grades than kids in the general population. It is only participation in sports that keeps many kids in school. What are the minimum grade requirements needed to play on a sports team?

Yes, I wish parents were as involved in the academic programs as the sports programs. Choose a half dozen of your friends who have kids in sports and ask them the team’s win-loss record. Also ask them the school’s API score. Get back to the blog with the results.

Also, parental involvement can be demonstrated by how many show up at “back to school night” and how many attend “open house”. Ask the teachers for the attendance records. Two nights a year is easy vs. the number of games played both home and away.

Ahhh, so much for my ranting. Each of you, with your kids, will make your own best choices, based upon your own definition of the end-game. All I can say is make those choices based on the facts.

Jerre,

Here is one study. This one includes all extra-curricular activities such as band and community service, which may skew the data. This is from the American Psychological Association.

High school athletes get good grades, but are more drawn to alcohol and drugs, study suggests

Keeping high school students involved in sports is no cure for risky behavior, according to a new study.

Teens who play sports get better grades, but are also more likely to use alcohol and drugs, say psychologists Jacquelynne Eccles, PhD, of the University of Michigan, and Bonnie L. Barber, PhD, of the University of Arizona.

The study tracked 1,259 students for six years beginning in the 10th grade, to see how participation in sports and other extracurricular activities affects a wide range of positive and negative behaviors, including academic performance and substance abuse. About 46 percent of the girls and 67 percent of the boys in the sample participated in team sports as high school sophomores.

Students who participated in sports or other extracurricular activities—including band, drama, community service and church—had higher grades than students who participated in no activities and were more likely to enroll in college, Eccles and Barber found.

But compared with the other students in extracurricular activities, athletes were more likely to use drugs and alcohol, they learned.

The research did not identify the reasons that athletes were more likely to drink and use drugs.

But sports participation was not linked with other problem behaviors, such as truancy and dropping out of school.

'We often think drinking and other problem behaviors go together, and they certainly do in many children,' Eccles says.

'But not in all cases, and especially not in those who are also involved in positive activities,' she says.

The research is part of the ongoing Michigan Study of Adolescent Life Transitions, funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation and the W.T. Grant Foundation.

The findings will appear in a forthcoming article in the Journal of Adolescent Research.

—S. Sleek

I appreciate the research that you did and I believe the results. My individual datapoints of friends and relatives have different results, but it does not constitute a scientific study as the Michigan Study. I stand corrected.

I'll be gone for the next week, so I'll check in next Saturday for more from the blog.

Jerre

Jerre:

I think if you wanted to look at real problems in high school sports, how about performance enhancing drugs and teens. There is a growing problem on campuses with steroids and a lot of high school athletes are using GNC performance enhancers that are totally unregulated by the FDA. This indicates that the consumer doesn't even have all the information to find out more about these types of supplements.

We have yet to see the long terms effects of creatine and other enhancers when our youth hit adulthood.

Brian:

From your explaination above, would you support reforming the credentialing process to make it easier for more people to educate our youth?

Scott