Race to the Top Education

[TheMercenary]

The problem of wide variations in state standards has become more serious in recent years, as some states weakened their standards to avoid being penalized under the federal No Child Left Behind law. This time, the standards were developed by the states themselves, not the federal government. Last year, the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers convened English and math experts to put together benchmarks for each grade.

Texas and Alaska said they did not want to participate in developing the standards. And Virginia has made it known that it does not plan to adopt the standards.

Increasingly, national standards are seen as a way to ensure that children in all states will have access to a similar education — and that financially strapped state governments do not have to spend limited resources on developing their own standards and tests.

The quick adoption of common standards for what students should learn in English and math each year from kindergarten through high school is attributable in part to the Obama administration’s Race to the Top competition. States that adopt the standards by Aug. 2 win points in the competition for a share of the $3.4 billion to be awarded in September.

In the end it was really all about the money.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/ed...standards.html

[xoxoxoBruce]

No, the money was an incentive (bribe), to get their ass in gear. It was still about trying to improve the drop out rate, and graduate kids that don't sign their name with an X.

[TheMercenary]

Then why penalize states who don't adopt their standards?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Penalize? Nobody's getting less. The ones that work harder get an extra bonus. Isn't that the suppose to be the American way?

[TheMercenary]

Other states with different standards got no money. Only if they entered the Obama Game of Chance would they be rewarded if they won.

[skysidhe]

Refusing incentive money is losing. I don't know why any school district would choose not to upgrade standards.

They had no problem downgrading standards to get a pass with Bush's No Child Left Behind. Just saying,

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Other states with different standards got no money. Only if they entered the Obama Game of Chance would they be rewarded if they won.

No, other states with different standards got money, lots of federal money. What they didn't get, was a bonus for trying harder, because they didn't try harder. We've upped our standards, up yours.

[TheMercenary]

I see your point.... up yours too.

[Lamplighter]

Sometimes on links to documents, I'm willing to read it all, or at least skim through.
This link is beyond my current level of volunteer-ism, even for that single page (22).

Where are the Cliffnotes for that tome ?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Cliffnotes are the reason education is failing.

[Lamplighter]

I'm taken by how a news item or TV show pops up just when you're involved in some topic or other.

Given this thread, here's (another ?) article that seems to touch on all the issues
we hear about when it comes to education of children,
from how to teach them to qualifications and pay of teachers.

NY Times
Shanghai Schools’ Approach Pushes Students to Top of Tests

The Shanghai students performed well, experts say,
for the same reason students from other parts of Asia
— including South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong — do:
Their education systems are steeped in discipline,
rote learning and obsessive test preparation.

Public school students in Shanghai often remain at school until 4 p.m.,
watch very little television and are restricted by Chinese law from working before the age of 16.

“Very rarely do children in other countries receive academic training as intensive as our children do,”
said Sun Baohong, an authority on education at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

“So if the test is on math and science, there’s no doubt Chinese students will win the competition.”

And there are differences of opinion as to the "outcomes" of these teaching methods:

But many educators say China’s strength in education is also a weakness.
The nation’s education system is too test-oriented, schools here stifle creativity and
parental pressures often deprive children of the joys of childhood, they say.

“These are two sides of the same coin:
Chinese schools are very good at preparing their students for standardized tests,”
Jiang Xueqin, a deputy principal at Peking University High School in Beijing,
wrote in an opinion article published in The Wall Street Journal
shortly after the test results were announced.
“For that reason, they fail to prepare them for higher education and the knowledge economy.”

As to the teachers qualifications and pay...

In Shanghai, teachers are required to have a teaching certificate and
to undergo a minimum of 240 hours of training;
higher-level teachers can be required to have up to 540 hours of training.

There is a system of incentives and merit pay,
just like the systems in some parts of the United States.
“Within a teacher’s salary package, 70 percent is basic salary,” said Xiong Bingqi,
a professor of education at Shanghai Jiaotong University.
“The other 30 percent is called performance salary.”

[Shawnee123]

Garbage In Garbage Out:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/12/30/vir....html?hpt=Sbin