Is anyone going to talk about how easy it was for terrorists to acquire guns in the United States and that maybe having gun control is a good way to curb terrorism… 

“If news authorities are citing ONE unnamed source, they don’t have it. Used to be standard practice to wait for double confirmation of unnamed sources on stories this big. Another example of the problems with journalism in an era of 24 hour news cycles.”

Matt L

ppteach:

lilting-effects:

• it is not failing schools that are the cause of failing neighborhoods; when evaluating the public education system, instead, it becomes clear that failing neighborhoods that are the cause of failing schools: “dropout factories.”
• teacher tenure grants teachers job security with a steady salary by default after two years of experience. geoffrey canada best put this as “two years of breathing.” in other words, this means that all good teachers and all bad teachers are paid the same salary with complete job security.
• the worst school district is in washington d.c. michelle rhee, the former chancellor of washington d.c. public schools, quickly became unpopular by closing 23 schools and firing 36 principals. in 2010, she attempted to end teacher tenure by suggesting that teacher salary should be based on merit, thus, teachers that earned their salary would make more IF they earned it. this caused so much of a threat that teachers did not vote. this went to show, as she stated in the documentary, that it became clear this was about the adults, and thus, not the students.
• from the moment a child enters kindergarten in the public school system, they are tracked. this system was effective for the time it was created, but times have changed and i think it’s time to put an end to it. in a nutshell, the tracking system places a student on a path that will determine their classes (low to middle to advanced), and ultimately, their path in life choices and career. in five years, the tracking system superficially shows which students will drop out and which students will graduate and go to college. it is because of this system that the students in more need than others are overlooked and assumed the worst about; they become merely a percentage of the forgotten. again, this is in a nutshell.
• test scores for students in rich communities and poor communities have hardly changed over the last 30+ years. rich communities have higher test scores while poor communities have lower test scores. progressive educators have reached a hopeless understanding that this gap ceases to be closed, with the exception of KIPP schools.
• when struggling parents do all that they can for their children to get in better schools (even if it means a 45 minute train ride), charter schools (such as KIPP) serve this purpose. unfortunately, with the spaces being scarce and the demand being high (such as 10 spaces available with 50 applicants, 30 spaces available with 100 applicants, et cetera), parents enter their children in a lottery to get them into these schools.
• altogether, i think tenure and school zoning (which is ultimately based on race and money when you look at zoning maps) are the most threatening to the public education system.

And without job security, how do you keep good teachers?   Without a tenure and teacher’s union how do you prevent more experienced teachers from being let go solely due to budget issues and NOT because of poor job performance?   What are your sources that KIPP schools do better when they only serve SOME students while public schools take all students?  How do you propose to close the achievement gap directly linked to poverty without addressing the issue of poverty?  Can you speak to the state of education in the nation after only watching a documentary that focuses on one city, a documentary that has been proven to be filled with fallacies?

Critique the education system all you want.  I know changes need to be made, and so do most of my colleagues.  However, unless poverty, school funding, and the role of politicians in education is not addressed —- little will change.  Please, please do more research beyond what Waiting for Superman has spoon-fed you.

qft

(via positivelypersistentteach)