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Thursday, February 23, 2012
Journal Entry #2 (Due March 1)
A Reflection on Public Education in Louisiana. In your own words summarize the main issues surrounding public education in Louisiana. How does this relate to private education in Louisiana? Why does this matter? Who are the heroes in the story of Louisiana education? Who are the villains? What would be best for the students? What would be best for the state? If you were the governor what would you do (would education be a priority and how would you address the issues)?
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Louisiana public education comes nowhere close to par, ranking in the bottom percentile if not the absolute worst in almost all areas of education standards. Claims can be made about teacher salary, the demographics of Louisianans, and lack of state funding. Although all of these factors contribute to the downfall of Louisiana education, I feel the main issue surrounding public education in Louisiana is lack of standards. From the top to bottom, education system lacks accountability and quality that other state’s posses. As seen in “Left Behind” school boards such as New Orleans are corrupt and political, not quite working to improve and better Louisiana’s current failures. Our teachers are not held to an acceptable level, it is quite easy to attain teaching certification and very hard to lose teaching license. Even at its most basic level, students are not being held responsible and accountable for their education, either. Systems, especially education, are only as strong as their leaders; if the people up top seem to fail, then the whole system fails.
ReplyDeleteI am not as aware of Louisiana’s private school performances in comparison to public school. But the Herbert report shows historically private schools were created on the student’s budget and therefore they are more likely to take responsibility for their education (i.e. try harder because they are paying for it). Although possibly better than public, I can imagine the politics and standards of private education in Louisiana are not the same in comparison to other states. The comparison of public vs private arguments matters to the future of Louisiana’s education insomuch that leadership needs to figure out what works and what does not work in our systems and begin to make changes.
In Louisiana education, the heroes have yet to appear in full throttle. They are the community leaders, teachers, students, administration, and school board members who are in the system to educate and better Louisiana for the long run. They are not looking for quick fixes or shortcuts but true change for all. The villains are the groups of the same people who are not looking for long-term solutions, but selfishly in it for money or easy job. What students need are teachers and schools who care. Not those that pass them along to get rid of them and meet standards but people who truly believe in students and their potential. Not easy teachers, but rigorous ones who will push students to their limits. For the state, although it will take years to do and implement, Louisiana needs new standards for both its teachers and students. We need to believe we can do more and actually try to do it. As governor, education would certainly be top priority. Without our educational system, our economic and essentially state system fails. I would begin to raise standards and hire better-qualified teachers, fire teachers who repeatedly do not make the mark. Once teachers become certified and acceptable, maybe they can begin to produce qualified students.
The main problems surrounding Louisiana’s public education system are those involving accountability, teacher effectiveness, generalized curriculum and efforts, and inadequate standards. In the case of private education, access to more money opens more to doors to opportunities like better teachers, better supplies, more effective discipline, and countless other opportunities. However, the limited funds provided for public educational institutions not just in Louisiana but nationally prevent many of these schools from providing the basic education that anyone needs in order to become a functional and successful member of society and therefore adding the social, cultural and economic capital needed to build a strong community. This discrepancy is especially noteworthy in Louisiana because such a small percentage of the state’s populace is able to provide a private education for themselves or their families. For the obscene portion of the state living in government-sanctioned poverty, public education becomes the only option and in Louisiana especially, does not provide what it needs to in order to end the cycle of gross economic and class inequality.
ReplyDeleteIt can be said that the heroes of Louisiana education are the teachers and administrators that are committed to the success off their students and their school. In a culture that is all too famous for corruption, teachers that work for the sake of the state’s betterment are heroes within the system, while those that simply perpetuate the less than adequate conditions and standards of a dying system are effectively villains in the fight to improve not only Louisiana’s education but its state-wide success in general. Additionally, those that have earned the state’s corrupt population are villains that continue to hinder the success of the schools. Because of corrupt leaders at all levels, Louisiana’s ability to receive increased funds from government at higher levels and other sources of revenue is majorly decreased. This corruption feeds into a general feeling of apathy that exists at every level in the state and nation- from individual families to federal institutions.
For students, an individualized approach in terms of education would work best. Teachers must tailor learning to specific communities and students in a way that can help ensure better results. Unfortunately, this solution is hard to compare with those that are possible on the state level. This is because success on standardized tests and “across-the-board” rhetoric are the kinds of things that states and countries look to for success in education. The balance between the two is what is needed in Louisiana to restore hope in a failing system. If I were governor, education would be one of my first priorities because it is the systemic cause of so many subsequent problems (increased violence, cyclical poverty, lack of social capital within communities, just to name a few). However, I would try to approach the problem by first “thinking as a state” as Ravitch calls it. I would try to see what measures could be taken generally to improve schools over a period of time and would reject insensible ‘fix-all’ solutions that ignore the intricacies of the problems within the system as a whole. After observations were made about the state’s education crisis as a whole, I would look to specific communities in order to find the different causes of different issues and use that as a starting point to tailor to the educational needs of them individually. These ideas of action would be just the beginning of a very long and involved process of systemic change.
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DeleteI think one of the primary issues facing LA public education is the attitude among many people that education isn’t entirely necessary to get by. Just as an example, much formal education is not really necessary to have job as a roughneck working on an oil rig. I don’t even think someone would necessarily need a high school diploma. And the salary for that type of work (although the work is awful) is easily livable. The question that a lot of people face is why do I need education if what I learn is not important for me to make money? Unfortunately, this attitude isn’t way off base. It doesn’t really matter if you understand grammar and arithmetic as long as someone is signing your paychecks and you’re putting food on the table. This attitude, however, is only the tip of the iceberg, and rife bureaucratic corrupt influence has a lot to do with poor public education.
ReplyDeletePrivate education is really good, which is also a crippling factor to public education. While it is expensive to go to a private school, for a lot of people it’s an easy sacrifice to make. Not much has changed about Catholics being good educators. With such a huge Catholic population, many kids go to Catholic school because their parents are Catholic and because Catholic schools are, in a broad sense, usually better than their public counterparts. Not to mention south Louisiana Catholics tend to control south Louisiana money, and that money goes to Catholic schools, not public. Corruption at the top and the higher quality of Catholic schools lends itself to public school quality getting ignored, and things like vouchers getting put into place. Thankfully our governor isn’t a rich Catholic guy with school-aged kids… Oh wait nevermind that isn’t true at all. At least he doesn’t support irrational voucher programs… Oh wait that isn’t true either. But anyway, I’m not here to criticize him. But throughout the history of LA education, the heroes have been the parochial schools who have cared enough about education to make it important, and the villains have been government officials who haven’t done anything to make LA public education worth very much in poverty-stricken areas. Students would be best if they had teachers who cared about teaching them. Teachers would care about teaching if society and the government cared about what teachers do. I certainly value and respect teachers immensely, but I can’t speak for the government’s feelings about education. However, I think the data doesn’t lie about the government actually feels. Being consistently in the bottom 5 in education speaks for itself (the unofficial LA motto is “thank God for Mississippi…”).
If I were governor, I would make education a priority. Dumping money into LA public education keeps Louisianians in their own state, and their kids grow up to be productive and well-educated members of society. And it happens to follow that productive and well-educated residents of a state with good public education will stay in that state, and in a sort of positive feedback loop, LA will spiral away from the image of being corrupt and stupid with each successive generation.
Education in Louisiana does not compare to that of other states. As a student of Louisiana education for over twelve years, I thought I was receiving a superb education until I saw the diversity when I reached college. I agree that there is an economic barrier creating a stand still on any progress the government may promise. This is visible in the New Orleans school board. Fortunately, my parents could afford to send me to a private school that has a reputation for producing successful students. However, those who could not afford private school were faced with a difficult decision. What became more important, putting food on the table or sending your child to a good school so that he or she may become successful? It is a repetitive, ongoing cycle. If one is unable to receive the proper education needed to reach the minimum standards of America, how will they be able to carry a socially acceptable job to provide for their family? Parents should not have to worry about letting their child’s future suffer because of the lack of interest and funding in the school system. Now granted, there are a few good public schools in the state; however, they are in parts of the state where predominately wealthy and middle class citizens occupy.
ReplyDeleteI believe the heroes in the school system are the teachers who are passionate about helping their students succeed. They are aware that the resources they are provided with are out of their control, and they do the best with what they have. The teachers in public schools bear the brunt of it all and also teach life lessons, for they may be the only light of hope in some students’ lives. The villains of course are the government and school board leaders whose children are happily succeeding in private schools where their last name and financial status bear their grades. These leaders are not concerned with the rest of the students who cannot afford private schools; they make decisions on what may benefit them. That is why public schools are lacking new technology, up-to-date textbooks, and supplies for their students. Technology is moving fast and our Louisiana school system is not keeping up.
It would be best for the students and the state if Louisiana took education seriously, and I know this is easier said than done, but also provided major funding to improve the system. If public schools in Louisiana were acceptable then parents can use the six thousand dollars they spend on education and use it toward other factors than can benefit the state. Also, if education was up to par we would have a better future in our reach. Our generation would be educated and able to run areas of our government, work in our hospitals, and teach our children to be successful. Louisiana would be put on the map and known for their education rather than the corrupt government.
Public education in Louisiana sucks.
ReplyDeleteThough I am not from Louisiana, it is easy for even an outsider to see that the public education system in this state is extremely wanting. I myself went to public school in another state, and to be completely honest, I had NO IDEA how bad public education was in the rest of the Southern states. For example, a friend of mine transferred to my high school from Mississippi. His mother told me a story about how she was telling her friends about the school he was now attending. They were shocked when they found out it was a public school, and were worried for him. I was shocked when I found out how dire the public education crisis is.
The main issues, I think, are lack of organization. The public schools in this state are simply unorganized, and they are also underfunded. They are not equipped with the tools necessary for children to learn. Teachers are not engaging with their students, as the tenure system is definitely in need of work, and those that do have to pay out of pocket for school supplies. It is a wonder if students even get textbooks.
Another problem, I think, is the push to "boost test scores, boost test scores." Test scores will not be boosted unless real learning is occurring, and this does not happen if a teacher is required to recite to their students what they need to know for the LEAP test.
Why does this matter? The problems in Louisiana, including poor health care, poverty, a high birth rate - they all stem from a lack of education. 1 in 4 Louisiana adults cannot read. This is a problem.
If I were governor, I would focus primarily on education, because an improvement in education would improve the rest of the state immensely. Primarily, what I would focus on is the students, but I would also focus on the parents and teachers. All of these are important players in the education system, and they all play a very important role. High-poverty schools do not exactly create a positive learning environment. Instead, I would focus on creating a "mix" of students and teachers in the schools. Research has shown that such diversity improves performance. The students learn from each other just as they learn from the teachers.
Another thing I would focus on would be working to improve the schools we already have. I feel that many people are very fixed on charter schools. I watched the film "Waiting for Superman," which was very pro-charter school. Yes, I think charter schools are a good idea, but I very much dislike the fact that one has to get lucky to gain admittance. "Waiting for Superman" was SAD. We need to improve the current schools, instead of focusing on making a bunch of new ones that only admit a small percentage of the students in a district.
In fourth grade, I had an ancient teacher who at one point made us watch “Oklahoma” because none of us, at nine-year-olds, had seen it. We also learned how to spell Czechoslovakia. I’m pretty sure this was during math class. All education has its quirks, and I’m actually pretty sure I learned more from that musical than I would have if we stuck to whatever math lesson we were supposed to have that day. Point being, our teacher didn’t care because he was transferring to a private school at the end of the semester. He had some sort of more secure spot teaching at Our Lady of something or other than at Tchefuncta Middle School.
ReplyDeleteThere’s something about the social gap between public and private schools, no matter if the public schools are in a generally affluent area or not, that sets everything up for division. For high school, I was in South Carolina, where the system is not set up to favor private schools. We had one tiny private school in my town that operated from first through twelfth grade, and if you attended, you were obviously rich, but it wasn’t that the public schools were poor enough to warrant a private school that claimed better education. Basically everyone went to public school, and I watched some of my private school friends end up at exactly the same public, in-state universities as everyone else, the ones their parents sent them to private school to avoid.
So that’s one problem. The private schools that monopolize the more wealthy kids so the less affluent are dumped into a system no one with any clout cares about. I guess it all boils back down to money. There’s never quite enough to go around, and when that happens, it goes to those who complain loudest and in the most organized manner. AKA, the white suburban mothers. I suppose the heroes will be eventually whoever stands up for public schools. The families who send their children to public schools in attempts to prove this can help. As a governor, I suppose I’d attempt to divert more funding to public education. This is easy to say from the position of an idealistic college student, so I can’t really say what I’d be able to accomplish. But the problem and its solution is always the money.
The Louisiana public education system has more problems than bragging points. The public schools here are so riddled with corruption and political nonsense that very little learning can be done.There are problems with the quality of teachers, faculty, school buildings, material taught, and well really most everything. As a result, most children either attend private school or have difficulty succeeding. I have been told many valedictorians from the Baton Rouge public education system have trouble getting into college. That's pretty bad.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I myself am not from Louisiana. I attended two public high schools and one private high school in Texas. The town I came from had one small private school with an average class size of about 20. The kids who went there were either rich kids whose parents wanted them to have a Christian education or kids whom would not have been able to thrive at a public school. While I certainly had teachers more degrees and we learned a lot of information, it seemed like much of the information was still dumbed down for the children who were the slowest. The school itself was in an old church that wasn't in the best shape. I'm sure many private schools are great but I got a better education at public school.
My public school was very different. The schools I attended had class sized of 400 and 600. Both schools were beautiful and new (one had just been remodeled and the other was a new school). Both school were very competitive. Kids worked hard to succeed in both academics and extraciriculars.
For me, having other activities to be involved in made a huge difference. I played tennis and lacrosse, competed in academic and art competitions, was a member of National Honors Society, and was very involved in Student Council. In fact, I seriously question whether or not I would have graduated had I not been involved in these activities. I had a lot of family issues going on and was really struggling. I went to school because I looked forward to these other things I was involved in.
This is one place I seriously feel the Louisiana school system lacks. Arts, sports, and other extraciriculars are often seen as something not needed and cut as soon as budgets fall short. This is one major change I would make to schools here. Kids need to be happy, involved, and passionate about something. Once they are, there school work will improve too.
That being said, the public schools I attended were by no means perfect. I loved that I was able to be more involved and that more classes were offered in a large public school rather than a small private one. However, I really was not challenged enough academically. I never had to work for my grades and as a result, the transition to college was rather bumpy. In excellent public schools, test scores still drive the information taught. (Even in AP classes, it is really all about passing a test.) Kids who were above average were able to slide by easily, because the standards were low. The only reason to try was to be ranked high in the class. Teachers often dumbed down the classes for the below average students, even with classes divided into honors and regular.
I don't see many true villains in the school system, mostly just ignorant people afraid of change. The heros are the kids who overcome the poor school system and succeed, the teachers and faculty who care, and those trying to change the school system.
If were governor, I would make school attendance optional. School should be an opportunity not a obligation. It is silly to try and force kids to learn if they do not care. I would change the way class rooms are set up to allow for more independently driven learning and to work with different learning speeds and styles. I would change the process required to become and remain a teacher, as well as the evaluation methods for salaries. I would also increase student and parent input as well as student governments and extracirucular activities offered. Of course, this is all easier said than done...
Public education is one of the many problems that face Louisiana, although this problem serves as the root of almost all other problems. Without sufficient public education, a welfare state continues to subside in poverty, a growing achievement gap and an insufficient, untrained workforce. However, in order to address these problems, we must address the many problems that exist within the public education system itself, including teacher tenure policies that lead to systemic unaccountability, testing that deduces the profession of teaching and potential of students, and a lack of funding to attract quality teachers, purchase school supplies, and maintain a stimulating educational environment.
ReplyDeleteAs such in Louisiana, public education is not the only option – given the state’s Catholic heritage, many communities began establishing parochial schools in the 1950s in order to avoid the pandemic of integration (such a scary thought to sit and learn next to somebody of a different heritage and sometimes socioeconomic status). Parochial schools were widely established with the underlying condition that not all students can attend because their parents can’t afford the tuition on top of their already paid property taxes which fund the public schools. Keeping in mind the history of the Ursuline nuns and Jesuit priests that opened schools in colonial New Orleans, parochial schools have produced many successes in the history of Louisiana. However, the purpose of these twentieth century schools misconstrued the purpose of education – for people to learn, without reservation or prejudice to their physical or mental diversity, and to prepare for the workforce or further education for the overall betterment of themselves and society. Unless you’re a Rick Santorum supporter in the 2012 GOP nomination race; in that case, everybody including your candidate is a snob.
The heroes in the history of Louisiana education are these Ursuline nuns and Jesuit priests. They proved that race, class and even gender are distinctions that should not be considered in education because of their success with all of these kinds of students. Furthermore, the villains of the system of Louisiana public education are those who supported the Catholic education “just because” back in the middle of the century when so much change scared them.
As far as what is best for the students and the state, I cannot determine that alone. I can simply make recommendations. Governor Jindal’s voucher program may be poorly intended in some opinions. However, if looking at the history of the Ursulines and Jesuits, I suggest that it may not be a poor option. In the greater spectrum, there must be experiments to every system. With the combination of the Recovery School District, charter schools and the voucher program for parents to send their schools to better parochial schools, I think we will soon find a solution to the public education issued in this state.
However, the teaching must be just that – teaching, not regurgitating information for the analysis of some lonesome person in Baton Rouge to pour over scantrons and blue books. The evaluation of these programs must be the result of something else, such as school ratings and teacher reform. Consistent policies over a long period of time are what dictate the success of a program. The workforce of 2020 will be a product of this educational reform. We are beginning to make a true investment in this state if education is fundamentally reformed and carried out in a meaningful, people-oriented manner.
Let me start this journal out by saying that I do not know much about public schools firsthand. I have gone to Catholic schools my whole life up until college. However, my mom was a public school teacher (now she’s a school counselor) and my sister also teaches in a public school. Because my mom works on the Westbank and my sister teaches in Baton Rouge, I can definitely see the difference in those pubic schools just within Louisiana. When I was choosing a high school in New Orleans, public schools never even crossed my mind. It was just an environment I did not feel I could flourish in as a student. However, Baton Rouge is a different story. The public schools here do not seem as far off the margin for me as the ones in New Orleans did.
ReplyDeleteI do think it is a travesty that some students have no other choice but public schools, and the schools just let them down time and time again. However, I am not going to throw all the blame on the teachers. I happen to know plenty of teachers who work extremely hard to change the lives of their students. Being an education major, I can see that some people look down on my major because it seems “easy.” Maybe once upon a time, it was easy. But now, it is definitely a challenge. That is why I do not believe that is easy to become a teacher and to stay a teacher. In today’s society, being just a teacher is seen as not enough. Now, education majors are urged to specialize and get more education than just a bachelor’s degree. Now I know that there are inherently some bad teachers to blame somewhere, but that does not just ring true in public schools. I think that for the most part, teachers are working hard and are making schools better.
I think a huge problem that is not addressed enough is the lack of parent involvement in students’ lives. Teachers can teach things in class, but when they come home they need someone who can help them and keep them on task at a young age. It is a sad truth that many parents do not care how their kids are doing in school and parent-teacher conferences mean nothing to them. But even though these parents are clearly missing the mark, the teacher is the one who really sees the consequences. Parents who are not involved in their child’s life at a young age hinder that child for life because bad habits are formed in elementary school. I think we should focus less on blaming solely teachers and more on realizing that there are more pressing problems with the Louisiana school system.
Although public education in Louisiana is much worse than private education, the public education in some states is equal to, if not more preferable, than private education. Therefore, I believe that the problem is not limited to the issue of public versus private education. The flaws of the education system are more evident in Louisiana’s public education system, but they are still present in Louisiana’s private education system. It would be easy to blame teachers, saying that they are unqualified, lazy, ineffective, etc., but I am not doing that. I believe that the system we have in place gives teachers an impossible task: they must find ways to transfer foreign information into about 30 students’ (or whatever the class size may be) uniquely functioning brains with the care of a one-on-one tutoring session but also the speed of whatever curriculum has been put in place by someone who is in no way informed of the students’ intellectual capacity.
ReplyDeleteThe undeniable fact that the education system has yet to find a way to account for is that everyone learns best in a different way. Therefore, the more students that are in a classroom, the less likely it is that the teacher can activate each student’s understanding of the content. Some people will blame this on the teachers, but even the best teachers cannot find ways to make a multitude of students understand complicated material. I’m sure they could if they spent time with the students working individually, but unfortunately, there are not enough teachers to be able to work that closely with students. For example, in baseball, if a hitting coach had to teach 30 players how to hit well all at once, many of those players would likely struggle due to the lack of individual attention. If the coach were to work with each player individually, success rates would obviously go up dramatically. Although that example may seem painfully obvious, I believe that that situation is closer to the reality that teachers face in most situations than most people think. Teaching someone to hit a tiny baseball 400 feet may seem harder than teaching someone how to solve equations or read books, but I do not believe that is the case.
In conclusion, I think the main issue with education is not the quality of the teachers we have. I believe the problem is that we give teachers too much on their plates to handle. If classes were smaller and more teachers were available, learning and teaching would come quicker and much more naturally, giving students the best possible learning environment for success.
I believe that the underlying problem of Louisiana education is government official’s habit to turn their heads and not address obvious problems that are deteriorating public education. These issues, which have been ignored for much too long, are a cycle of bad decisions which lead to more problems which people keep neglecting, thinking that someone else will eventually fix them.
ReplyDeleteIt begins with our corrupt government, which happens to have the history of the most corrupt state in the USA. High officials steal money, which gives lower officials reason to believe that it is fine for them to steal money also. Soon a massive amount of money is disappearing. Therefore, to fix the problem, Louisiana legalizes gambling only on the account that most of the tax money goes directly to the public schools. If this were actually true, I think it would have made much more of an impact on the schooling system. We are already a poor state to begin with, having a 17.3 percent poverty rate which is higher than national average (13%). The poverty subject brings us to the welfare issue.
Welfare is a great thing if it is not abused. Where I am from, welfare absolutely has an effect on the public schools. Welfare in most of North Louisiana is not what most people perceive. These families have been receiving welfare for generation after generation. People receive welfare; they get used to earning money without working. They like this lifestyle. They pass these ideas down to their children. These children go to school, but drop out early because of pregnancy or drugs, but they are still receiving welfare. No need for education. In their eyes, more babies equal more money from welfare. Now, there are several children under, usually, a single mother.
This family situation leads to many behavioral and learning problems. Most of these children have no reason to learn, no will to learn, no manners, and no respect for teachers. It does not help at all that teachers’ rights to punish children’s behavior are very limited now. Teachers spend more time telling children to hush, than teaching them a math lesson. This also brings up the problem of teacher-student ratio. I have heard many cases where teenagers are passed just to get them out of school because they are too much of a problem. Many of the teenagers in the public school where I live are reading at a first grade level, and that remains so when they graduate.
As grew up, I watched the public school go from decent to absolutely unacceptable. This has affected the town immensely. Anyone who can moves or sends their children to private school. I attended both private and public school in Louisiana, and both were horrible; public being the worst.
If I were governor, I would fire a lot of people. I would hold people accountable for where state money is going. I would also fire many teachers, and I would work to get rid of the tenure rule for teachers. I believe the effects of tenure are related to the effects of welfare. If you are not scared you will lose your job or money, then where is the motivation to excel? Unfortunately most people do not have this sense to better their community, which is why rules need to be implemented to evaluate teacher, principal, superintendent, and government official’s performance. I think that the public schools need an equal distribution of wealthy to poor population. I would work very hard to reduce welfare, and increase the standards one has to obtain it. For instance, I would definitely have a drug test to be able to receive welfare. I would also try to boost the economy and create jobs.
This may not be the solution for all of Louisiana. This is just what is the obvious problem in the area where I'm from.
The state of Louisiana public schools and the school system as a whole has been falling apart for decades. The numbers in nearly every statistical category back-up this rather pessimistic claim. While some problems facing LA education are symptomatic of the entire country; there are some unique issues that our state faces. In my opinion the most pressing and important of these is the incredibly high drop-out rate. Nearly one out of every three LA high school students drops out. No need to expand on how significant this number is; instead I’ll simply say that before we set-out on making any grand changes to the system we need to first figure out how to at least keep students in the system. I was lucky enough to attend a private high school and a public high school. In relation to drop-out rate its not even comparable. During my time at the private school I noticed that the concept of dropping out rarely crossed most of my classmate’s minds. Not everyone planned on attending college and not everyone made the grades necessary to graduate on time, but the idea of simply stopping just was not accepted in that culture. What I believe this shows is a large disconnect between expectations and resources. At the private school we were expected to graduate because we had the resources to do so. In most LA public you are expected to drop-out because you don’t have the resources to finish.
ReplyDeleteWhile it would be easy to place the blame at the foot of one individual or governing body, the mess of the school system is simply far to complex. It is for this reason that I do not believe there are any true “villains” (except for those who openly use the system in a corrupt manner). Just as it has taken years and countless individuals to make this problem, it will take years and many individuals to solve it. If we want to see “heroes” in the system then we have to begin to take a stand at every level.
I’ve lived in Louisiana for less than a year and I’ve already seen how bad the public education system is. Obviously the main problem is funding. Many schools don’t even get enough money to buy updated textbooks. The lack of funds also leads to teacher layoffs, cutting programs like athletics or fine arts, minimal supplies for students, and inadequate facilities. However, the financial problem can’t be improved without extensive government involvement and years of legislation that won’t help drastically.
ReplyDeleteThe other main problem I can think of is the material being learned. Being in AP classes at a good public school in Texas, the most common phrase I hear is “teach to the test.” AP teachers design their curriculums strictly so we can get higher scores on the AP test. In the non-advanced classes, “teach to the test” meant the TAKS test, which is very similar to the LEAP test. The problem with education is that we’re only learning what we’ll be tested on. Students don’t gain enough knowledge of other topics because they won’t be on the test. School boards needs to adjust the curriculum in order for teachers to expand educational topics. But that’s still not a guarantee, though, because a lot of teachers teach off the designated curriculum. While I disagree with teaching to the test, I do feel it is necessary for students to have the ability to pass standardized tests. In states with great public education, standardized tests are a prevalent indicator of intelligence. Students need to know how to pass these tests if they want to reach certain levels of higher education.
Private school education is significantly better than public schools, and I believe funding is the main reason. With money, they can do essentially anything they want, including teaching a different curriculum. As well as helping improve test scores, teachers can help students expand their knowledge beyond those tests. Private institutions will always be around and it’s a person’s right to send their children to those schools if they can afford it. It’s more important to focus on what public schools need to improve on rather than envy the advantages of private schools.
In Louisiana education, the heroes are definitely the teachers. They have one of the hardest jobs I can imagine and they get paid very little. Nearly every teacher I know would give up free time to help a student or their own money to buy supplies. The villains in education are government officials. Education isn’t their main focus (and I’m not saying it should be) but it does need more attention. The inadequate school system is negatively impacting a majority of teenagers and young adults in Louisiana, but they are our future. What’s best for the students is a better education, but that might not be best for the state in the short run. I haven’t lived here long enough to know all of the problems facing Louisiana, but there are probably some immediate things that should be focused on, like crime rates. In hindsight, education will prove to be extremely important. Students are the future. If they don’t get the proper education they deserve and need, it will have an adverse effect on the state.
I am definitely not qualified to make any decisions about the importance of education relative to the rest of the problems faced by Louisiana. I know that it is a major problem, though. If I were a governor, given everything I know and the importance I place on a proper education, I would do everything in my power to increase funding for schools and provide a better education for students. However, that would require tax increases or budget cuts in other government-run jobs. I would need a lot more information before I could say what I would legislate regarding education. All I know is that it needs to be improved immediately.
Currently, the situation concerning Louisiana education is dire. Luckily, we are not in last place, for which we thank Mississippi. However, it is a grave disappointment that a state that used to lead the nation in education has fallen so far. While this failure is a complex matter, I would say that, in general terms, economics are to blame for this.
ReplyDeleteWhen we think of the economic problems in public schools, the most obvious problem is that schools do not have enough textbooks or supplies for students. How are students supposed to learn without available material? How are teachers supposed to get kids excited about learning if there is not any supplies available, much less paper and board markers. Interestingly enough, another economic problems concerning Louisiana schools, namely New Orleans, is the school board. In New Orleans, one of the worst school districts in the nation, if not the worst, the board was found to be giving contracts to companies that would benefit the board members or their families, thus not keeping the children’s best interest in mind.
What is most upsetting about Louisiana public education is the comparison to private education. Private institutions in the same city as public schools suffering from budget cuts and violence provide safe environments for students so that they can reach their Ivy League dreams, if the price is right. The differences between the public and private sectors of education further instill the economic and racial gaps throughout the city of New Orleans and the rest of the state.
If the public school students were to receive half the benefits that private school students receive, the city would benefit as a whole. Education is linked to crime rates, weight, and get a secure, comfortably paying job. The smarter a population, the better the community functions. This would be especially beneficial to New Orleans, a city with the highest murder rate in the developed world.
I think the problem in Louisiana is not that we do not know what we are doing; it is that we do not have the means to achieve our goals. Education is expensive, and getting the best and brightest in education to come to Louisiana is a difficult task, not to mention the thousands of other problems that the state has. However, I would like to see a proactive approach to our state’s problems. Hopefully, the unintended consequences of investing in education over other social programs would aid the state.
One of the main issues plaguing public education in Louisiana stems from the amount of students enrolled in private schools. While there are no individual harms for children attending private school, it has major effects on the school systems of any given area. Personally, I have seen this trend manifest in the area where I attended high school. The Catholic schools in Lafayette performed well above the public schools in that area, but this was because their school population consisted of students from higher socioeconomic status and those schools had more parental involvement. The public schools were underfunded and as a result, more parents turned to private education for their children, which resulted in less tax money for the public school system.
ReplyDeleteThis does not necessarily make private schools the villains in Louisiana’s education crisis, but the emphasis on private education that has recently been made by Governor Jindal’s policies have had and will have very negative effects. The voucher system proposed exacerbates the current problem: tax money will follow underprivileged students to private schools instead of public schools, worsening the state of public schools. Moreover, private schools have the liberty to be selective with whom they admit, which leaves the most troubled students in underfunded public schools.
That the state and students would benefit from a better funded public school system goes without saying, but how that translates into politics is a fuzzy matter at best. Were I governor, I would focus less on private sector solutions to a public sector problem, and focus more on targeting underfunded schools. The problem should be addressed at the root: parents should not have to choose between their child’s quality of education and the quality of education in their area. Incentivizing public school is simple, if policy makers can raise the standards of public schools. A concentration on solid curriculum and better teaching and management would be a definite start in the right direction. According to Ravitch, most parents would prefer to send their children to public schools nearby, but only if they feel their children will receive a quality education. A more dedicated approach to luring and keeping good teachers in public schools would help solve this problem. There are many ways this can be done: by helping college graduates to become certified in teaching, raising teachers’ salaries, and a focus on keeping experienced teachers employed.
(sorry I wrote this a long time ago as well, but I just figured this blog thing out)
ReplyDeleteI have attended both public and private schools in Baton Rouge. And while public schools here in baton rouge are pretty bad, the number one school in baton rouge (ranking wise and test scores wise) is actually a public school. Baton Rouge magnet high and McKinley Gifted and Talented are both very schools and very much publicly funded (and very poorly funded I might add).
Many other states have very successful public education systems as well. What I am trying to say is that it is not impossible to have a flourishing public school system even though it might seem that way.
So then I ask myself, why hasn't it been done?
I have boiled the problem down to 3 things:
1) Money
2) Politics
3) Race
1) This is where private schools come in. In Baton Rouge alone parents spend 72,396,276 on private high school tuition (thats not including those expensive uniforms). I got this number by finding the tuition for these school and the average yearly attendance for the high school and doing the math.
What could 72,396,276 dollars added to EBR parish high schools do? Probably a lot
2) Politics, well yeah, nuff said. The school board in EBR parish is the most corrupt, dysfunctional thing I know of. And we do not even have a superintendent right now! we cannot keep one for longer than a year and no one of any quality is running right now anyway.
I just thought I'd add a little to the current thought process. I, of course, could have added and agreed with all the statements above me.
I think one of the major problems with Louisiana education is a lack of quality, specific standards. Today’s standards are vague, and leave teachers to decide what to teach on their own. This could be seen as an opportunity for teachers to create their own quality curriculum, but standardized testing has forced most schools to teach test-taking strategies instead of actual material. These poor standards, then, translate into poor lessons. History students, for example, won’t be taught specific historical incidents and their impacts. They will be taught how to narrow down answers on a multiple-choice test. There’s no way these students can compete with kids from more successful schools who were taught actual history. Poor standards have put Louisiana students at a disadvantage.
ReplyDeleteI think that more specific, higher quality standards should be implemented in Louisiana. But I also think the only way to do this is to do away with standardized testing entirely, because in order to do well on these tests (and prevent their schools from being shut down), some students actually DO need to be taught how to narrow down answers. (It’s sad that schools are forced to teach test-taking strategies instead of actual lessons, but I understand that there currently isn’t any other choice.)
The villains in this situation are the policy-makers who, for some reason, thought standardized tests were a really great idea. I don’t blame them for that – for having an idea, thinking it would work, and then setting it in motion. What I do blame them for is keeping that system going when it clearly (a visit to almost any public school in Louisiana is evidence enough) isn’t working.
The heroes are the teachers and principals, the ones in the schools actually trying to make a difference and teach students as much as they can before standardized tests come around and all attempts at educating students are thrown out the window to prepare for them.