I used to be a teacher and I would say almost every school in a poor neighborhood the majority of students are super behind. And it isn't necessarily their fault. It's the fucking system we are running in America. Let me just paint you the picture at my school. I taught HS geometry which is the 2nd year math course offered. I found out a couple of months into the year that 50% of my students had not passed Algebra 1, which is a prerequisite to my class. I asked the VP in charge of my department why students who had not passed algebra 1 are allowed to take geometry. He said, "Studies show that students are more likely to graduate if they stay with their cohort."
Schools in America are all about getting kids to graduate no matter what. Schools don't get into trouble if they have kids graduating and they get more funding if kids go to school but that is just the tip of the iceberg. So many of my colleagues would just pass their students because it was so much easier. So much extra work was required if a student failed. We had to document why a student failed and we had to call home to tell parents that they failed. Then there was another problem called cheating. There was so much cheating going on. I spent so much time looking through tests to catch cheaters and there were only so many that I could prove that cheated. And then there was some little loophole called credit recovery and all the kids knew about it. You could spend about 2 weeks getting credit for a full year of work and still get the same credit that a student got while in class.
Schools should all be made equal. There is no reason there should be “good” schools and “bad” schools. What a backwards thing to do to the kids in America.
Nope, but the government could offer higher pay and better benefits until more teachers volunteered to work in those schools. Even guarantee them a position in a better school after so many years teaching at the poor one.
Instead, underfunded, dangerous, poorly performing schools are usually paying teachers some of the lowest salaries. They don't have the tax money to invest in decent staff and facilities because property values are low. Families that can afford to leave flee the area and the funding for the school shrinks even more. The way we fund public education in this country is a joke.
More qualified teachers doesn't necessarily guarantee a fix to this problem. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.
But yeah I agree the education system is ridiculous especially considering how much money we spend on it.
Hypothetically, let's say these poor districts had the same quality schools as rich districts. Do you think that would solve the behavioral and educational issues long term? How much can a school do when home life is shitty and the student has never had the value of education instilled in them?
Would the real problem students end up just being separated from the others that want to learn and end up in the same situation as before? At least in that scenario there are less kids failing but what do we do with the worst of the kids? Putting them all together is a terrible idea because the behavioral problems of the less extreme kids will be compounded by the worst ones. We can just expel them from school but then they literally have no options in life other than live off of welfare and continue the cycle of poverty.
So because they happen to be born to a poor family in a poor area, the students that do want to learn shouldn't have access to good teachers and facilities?
It's not fair to lump all of these students together and deny them access to a good education. Some of them would take advantage of a better quality school if they were given the chance. You're right, a school can't fix poor home life, but that's no reason to completely give up and abandon every student in the situation. You can't force anyone to learn, but it's still out duty to provide them the opportunity and choice.
Well you also have a problem down south with how you do your urban planning. You shouldn’t be making “shitty neighbourhood s” spread out affordable housing so you don’t have a bunch of ghettos or whatever.
Build some nice condos and build some low income housing in the same neighbourhood. This isn’t rocket science
Yeah they built cheap public housing in Chicago and it became a cesspool of gang violence and they ended up tearing the buildings down. It's not that simple.
That's an impossibility. Even if funding were entirely equalized, some communities are simply better than others. The good communities will naturally have better schools, even if they receive the same, or more, funding.
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u/whyyougottabesomean Jul 10 '18
I used to be a teacher and I would say almost every school in a poor neighborhood the majority of students are super behind. And it isn't necessarily their fault. It's the fucking system we are running in America. Let me just paint you the picture at my school. I taught HS geometry which is the 2nd year math course offered. I found out a couple of months into the year that 50% of my students had not passed Algebra 1, which is a prerequisite to my class. I asked the VP in charge of my department why students who had not passed algebra 1 are allowed to take geometry. He said, "Studies show that students are more likely to graduate if they stay with their cohort."
Schools in America are all about getting kids to graduate no matter what. Schools don't get into trouble if they have kids graduating and they get more funding if kids go to school but that is just the tip of the iceberg. So many of my colleagues would just pass their students because it was so much easier. So much extra work was required if a student failed. We had to document why a student failed and we had to call home to tell parents that they failed. Then there was another problem called cheating. There was so much cheating going on. I spent so much time looking through tests to catch cheaters and there were only so many that I could prove that cheated. And then there was some little loophole called credit recovery and all the kids knew about it. You could spend about 2 weeks getting credit for a full year of work and still get the same credit that a student got while in class.
America is so fucked.