Standing between schools and progress in their improvement are many unresolved problems and questions. Examination of them is almost always an adult prerogative. But students are the ones who are most immediately affected by what happens in schools. Their voices deserve to be heard.
Read this, "School reform-issues, problems" at http://teacherweb.com/NY/Cunningham/Frederick/apt9.aspx
answer these questions
1. Which of these efforts seem to you best to promote student "education"? Why?
2. Secretary Duncan thinks we should consider lengthening the school day and the school year because "you're competing for jobs with kids in India and China." What does that statement suggest about what the secretary thinks is a major purpose of the schools? Do you agree? Why or why not?
3. Consider the points the president made about school improvement. How important do you think each one is? Why? Can you envision difficulties in making these improvements?
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I think that the goes to school for a few hours longer could help to promote student “education” many kids may not like it but in order to do have a good job in the future you need to have had a good education. By extending school more students would have more time to learn and to fully understand things. With the extra time teachers would have more class time to accomplish what they really needed to without worry of running out of time. Many students won’t like the idea now but this may benefit them in the future.
ReplyDeleteI think with the statement that Secretary Duncan makes he truly thinks that the purpose for school is to teach kids what they need to know to have a successful career. With this information they can get better jobs than people around the world. I don’t agree with what he says. It seems to me that Secretary Duncan wants to compete against other countries. It doesn’t seem that he wants the students to have a better job because they deserve it but because our country should compete against other countries. I think that if we were to add more time into the school day it should be because we want students to have better jobs in the long term so they can have a better life but not because the U.S. needs to compete against India and China. By saying this Secretary Duncan seems to only care about how everyone else in the world is doing.
I think that of the four statements that President Barrack Obama made on March 10 all of them would have their challenges in fulfilling them. Encouraging better standards and assessments for students and teachers would mean increasing the grades of all students in the U.S. This is an important statement that would also take a lot of effort and time. To make this statement work we would have to see that every school in the country scores would go up which would be difficult because there are so many schools in the country. President Obama also talked about rewarding outstanding teachers with merit pay. I think that this would help but what exactly would count as outstanding and also he would have to spend a lot of money on this. This is something that will also be a difficult task to accomplish. Adding more time to the school day is important and it won’t be as hard to do as some other things. The last thing that President Obama mentioned was providing every American with quality higher education I think that this is important but won’t be easy because of how many students there are. How can you guarantee every American to have quality education? This won’t be the easiest thing to do but it should be done.
In the article, the effort that seems to promote student education the most is extra months in school. Although, this will help students earn better jobs, it is hard for us to afford to pay educators for an extra two months a year. Going to school an extra two months may be a little harsh but has a great outcome in the longrun. The major reasons this helps is because the more students are in school, the less time they have to lose reatained information. Instead of 5 days a week, Senator Duncan wants school to span 7 days a week. More classwork means more studying for major tests and even miniscule ones. This could increase state test scores and help high school students on extremely important tests like the SAT's.High scores on tests mean more students being excepted into good schools. This could possibly mean more doctors and lawyers and help kids focus on school work.
ReplyDeleteIn the article, Duncan states "you're competing for jobs with kids in India and China".By reading this, I can infer that Duncan thinks that the main purpose of lengthening school days is to help American kids get a good job. When he says were competing with kids from China and India he means that kids in other countries are competing for American jobs, seeking a better future in America. I 100% agree with this statement.If getting and education isn't for getting a good job later in life, than what is it for? In my opinion the whole point of going to good schools is to recieve a good occupation. I agree because(contrary to popular belief)love does not make the world go 'round, money does. To make money you need jobs and to get a good job, you must recieve a good education.Senator Duncan's theory is important in understanding why jobs for Americans are so important.
President Obama's first point is somewhat important.He wants to encourage better standards in students and teachers. This is very important because without encouraging students and even teachers, they won't have enough "shove" to do their best in my opinion. The second statement is even more important. As stated earlier, money is what really makes the world go 'round and even teachers need money. Like small children, if educators know they will be rewarded, they will most likely do their best. The third statement has to do with reforming the school calendar and has somewhat inportance.As stated earlier, more school hours mean better jobs for kids in America. The final statement is about suplying Americans with a better quality education. This is very important and means less crime since more people will be educated instead of breaking the law. It means more money and more jobs for American citizens everywhere.All of these visions are important, but there may be some hurdles in fufilling them. There are so many different schools and students in America. What about students in private schools who aren't as controlled? With the merit pay situation, this would be helpful, but where would all this extra money come from? This could mean tax increases to pay educators. Reforming the school calendar is easy, but may be protested by teachers and students. Not every teacher /student wants to put in extra effort.These ideas are very important and if possible, most of them should be fufilled with consideration to educators and students alike.
Providing every American with a quality higher education is an effort that seems to be the best way to promote student "education." When you encourage better standards and assessments for students and teachers, that isn’t the general resolution but it is a good way to promote student "education". Assessments and test is just a way of review for the student so they would know what they have learned. Rewarding outstanding teachers with merit pay is simply a bribe. It is a bribe for teachers just to do better in their job which may be useless and a waste of money or can change the way teachers teach to be better. Reforming the school calendar and the length of the school day is a good way to promote student "education," but it is not the best way. This may only help students exceed their education abilities and it may also make students cry of hunger, and tiredness. When you provide every American with a quality higher education, this would be the best way to promote student education. This is because with higher education, you do not have to exceed school hours, you do not have to pay teachers extra money, and you do not have to make more and better assessments, even though all ideas are very persuasive.
ReplyDeleteSecretary Duncan thinks we should consider lengthening the school day and the school year because we are competing for jobs with kids in India and China. I definitely disagree with Secretary Duncan because I feel that he doesn’t want to do this for schools, but he wants to do it for competition. He feels that we are competing for jobs in China and India against kids. I realized that he wants to do this to win the competition and make America the best industrial place.
I think that all of the points that President Barrack Obama said are very important, and moving. Thus, making them also difficult. Encouraging better standards and assessments for students and teachers would mean increasing student’s grades. You would have to study hard and Secretary Duncan may not be able to provide us time to study because he wants to make school longer and harder. Rewarding outstanding teachers with merit pay means that we would have to cut down any activities. The schools are already on budget cuts because of the economy and we would like to overcome that situation. Reforming the school calendar and the length of the school day may make students cry of hunger, and tiredness because of how long school is. They wouldn’t have time for their family or outdoor activities at all. When you provide every American with a quality higher education, this may also cost a great amount of money. You also cannot give every American quality education.
In this article, Secretary Duncan states that he thinks that schools should be extended fully. He feels that school hours should be longer, school should be open six days a week, and eleven months a year. In my opinion, the best method for promoting student “education” is by lengthening school hours. By having longer school hours, each subject is longer. This allows a teacher to accomplish more learning with her students everyday. By making school work six days a week for eleven months, students will feel pressured and tired. If school is extended, I think that more students will dropout. Only the ones with real ambition will be able to stay in school and receive a highly qualified education.
ReplyDeleteSecretary Duncan assumes that it is necessary to create a longer school year because “You're competing for jobs with kids from India and China." When Secretary Duncan says this, he means that we must work hard for important jobs because we have competition. In order for us to be ahead in the competition, we must receive an education. Therefore, schools should be open longer for us to be able to receive this proper education. I don’t agree with Secretary Duncan. Yes, students must work hard for their future, but learning without a proper break will cause students to be more tired and annoyed with their studies. I think that the students who work hard during the year greatly appreciate the two months they have to relax.
The first point that President Barack Obama made is important. Both teachers and students should be motivated to do their best. I feel that the second point is less important than the first. Teachers should be rewarded for their hard work, but it is mostly bribing. I think that the third point is just as important as the first. The only way the schedule should be reformed is lengthening school hours. Not lengthening days or months. The fourth point is connected to the third point. By lengthening school hours, students are provided with longer education. This promotes them to learn longer and receive a better education.
I believe that the best effort to promote student "Education", is to increse the school hours. I believe this will help more, because is you increase the amount of school days, or the number of months in one school year, students may not be as excited to learn. Learning is important, but increasing the amount of school days or months, students may not have enough free time to enogh themselves, or to just have a break.
ReplyDeleteSeceretary Duncan believes that school days, hours, and months should be increased, because we are competing for "Jobs with kids in India, and China". I do not believe this statement, because I believe that he is not doing this for our better future, but instead he is doing this, so th U.S. will look like the better industrial country. With these current school hours, people have graduated college, and have had success in finding successful jobs in the U.S.
I believe that the first point that President Obama made is important. By giving better standards, and assesments for both students and teachers, will make them work harder to be able to obtain good grades, and for teachers to keep their jobs. I believe that the second point is less important. teachers should not be given rewards to do the job that they wanted to have, i should be the near opposite. I believe that changin the school calendar is not right. by doing this, schools would have to pay more to the teachers for working more hours, and they would have to cut some activities, and privaleges they give. i believe the final point is important, but will be a difficult task to complee. since their are so many students, it may costs billions of dollars, and alot of devotion to the task. Motivation, and a will to succeed these goals, are needed to complete this difficult job.
I believe that lengthening school hours and amount of months spent in school is utterly ridiculous. It won't raise students' grades, it'll just make them fall lower. No child likes to be stuck in a stuffy building all day learning, they have to have some space to breath! Having to be forced to stay longer in school will just make kids mad, and tired. They just won't be able to do good! So, I think that simply raising standards will do the trick. The majority of kids don't study enough, or do homework when assigned to, and this results in poor test grades or failing classes. If the standards are raised for test grades or just overall performance in school though, students just won't have any choice but to study and work hard, failing classes are on the bottom of the list of goals for students!
ReplyDeleteI believe that secretary Duncan thinks that overall school averages and performances are like competitions. "Whichever school has the highest rating is the best!" is probably what's going on in his mind. I highly disagree with him. It's not a race or a competition, it's an education. It might just be the most important thing that any child or young adult has going on in his or her life! Us students are the ones who'll have to deal with the major problems of the world in the future, it'll be our responsibility, so instead of seeing which school's most successful, I think it's time secretary Duncan starts worrying about the education of each and every student.
I think that all the things that President Obama mentioned for school improvement were very important. Encouraging better standards and assessments for students and teachers is a very good idea in my opinion, as I stated in my first answer. If the standards are raised, students will have no other option than to work extremely hard. Rewarding outstanding teachers with merit pay is slightly less important to me, but I think that this may encourage teachers to work harder and do their best at being a good teacher, which students will love. Reforming the school calendar and the length of the school day is, as I also stated in my first answer, pretty unreasonable to me, but I do have to say that I sort of see a logical reason for this. The longer the school day the more the kids can learn, right? Providing every American with a quality higher education sounds just perfect to me! Education is extremely important, and it's just as important that every student gets the highest quality education as well. They'll be more inspired to do good in school that way! I think that improving schools this way will not be too difficult, it may take some time, but it definitely is doable.
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ReplyDeleteThe effort that seemed to promote the best for student education is to give a $44 billion share in economic stimulus. This will encourage the teachers to make sure that children are paying close attention. Since money now means a lot in the economy, teachers will work harder and try to get their student’s to work harder if there is more of an income. If teachers pay more attention to their students and have more of a reason to do this, then maybe they will be able to get children to learn better. Why should teachers work hard to get students who treat them like they are nothing for such a little pay? Many teachers would agree with this, and maybe if they got larger incomes they would try more to get students to listen.
ReplyDeleteSecretary Duncan says that we are competing with the children who have more time in school, and less time having fun. He believes that these children in India and China have a better chance of getting fantastic jobs. This statement, “you're competing for jobs with kids in India and China,” suggests that Duncan thinks that the major purpose of school is for kids to go to school for long periods of time so that they will get more of an education. It also suggests, that he believes children in the United States do not have the intelligence to get excellent jobs when they grow up. I don’t agree with Secretary Duncan because many people who grew up in the United States have become extremely important parts to our country. For example all of our presidents, they went to school and grew up to be leaders of our nation. Or even Secretary Duncan himself; he went to school, learned from teachers, and became what he is today. So why should he say that we are not as good as any other country.
President Obama had announced a large number of points in improvements for schools. Each one of these points were extremely important. Obama was mainly stating that children had the most power of how well they learned in school. If the students did not pay attention or listen to the teacher, it was not the teachers’ fault that they weren’t learning. The president also states that students must be responsible and study and try their best. Teachers and parents had to also try to encourage their children to do better. I don’t think there will be many difficulties in making these improvements. All children have to do is try harder and think that they can do it. They must have encouragement and people who care for them and help them strive to achieve these goals and do better to. That is not that hard to do though.
Encouraging better standards and assessments for students and teachers to me seem best to promote “education.” Certain students don’t want to try very hard but still meet the standards of the school. In some cases that standard may be too low and there may be nothing to work for. If the standards and assessments are raised, students may work harder, at least to achieve those guidelines. Then, the graduation rate may go up and progress will be made.
ReplyDeleteSecretary Duncan thinks that the major purpose of schools is for students to be able to compete with other schools. He wants Americans to get all jobs instead of people from other nations. He thinks so because he wants everyone to think America is the best country. His statement suggests that he only cares about the well being and superiority of America. I disagree with this because it shouldn’t be about beating the different nations for jobs, it should be about getting jobs to help the society. Countries shouldn’t compete with each other; they should help each other with their different advantages and discoveries.
The president made points about school’s improvement that are very important. By encouraging students, rewarding teachers, reforming the school calendar, and providing high quality education, kids will have a greater chance of succeeding in life. Kids will be motivated to learn and teachers will be happy to teach. Joel Klein, the NYC Schools Chancellor, says that the number of high school graduates has already increased by 70%. However, these improvements may be difficult to achieve. Students may not want to work for higher standards or change the school calendar. However, if the government doesn’t make changes very fast, the students may be willing to try.
I think increasing the amount of school days is terrible. students need time to do homework or projects, which some students depend on the weekends for. This will most likely increase mental problems, obesity, suicides, and dropout rates.Merely encouraging students and increasing education levels a bit will do the trick. Basing most of the percentage on tests will help a little to say the least. Homework is merely a review, which some kids don't like to do. Increasing how much test grades affect students' grades is almost like forcing them to study and review.
ReplyDeleteI think that this shows that Senator Duncan thinks that the main purpose of schools is to show that longer periods of time in school will increase the education of kids. Unfotunately, he thinks the amount of time we stay in school now is not enough. That is not true. We usually spend a lot of time from our day doing homework about a month and half into the school year by seventh grade, sometimes even on weekends (but not this early). We don't stop and go off topic if we feel like it. If the amount of education is not enough then how are so many great people made here, how is this country so successful?
I think Encouragement is the most important point made in President Obama's speech. Without any encouragement there would be no success. No one goes for what they don't want if they aren't forced to. Outstanding teachers meant to be paid more because that shows that they want this job. They don't view it as a job but a career. These teachers should be shown how much they're needed and appreciated. Students wouldn't notice a higher quality educationas soon as they enter school for the first time. This will be proven difficult. Encouraging people will not even affect them sometimes. If the students have little or no background in something they are learning that year beacause of the new education policy, well that isn't going to increase education to some people. Increasing the amount of money given to teachers could cause inflation problems because there could be so many.
Secretary Duncan stated many ways of making the United States into a more educated country. I agree with most ideas that he had spoke about, but they weren't the best. Secretary Duncan proclaims that expanding school days is the best suggestion to allow kids to do better than they should. This would, indeed help students, but it doesn't matter how long the days are. If the Secretary wants to promote the education among the students, he could as well make the teaching quality progress. By means of rewarding more on the current teaching schedule, teachers are more motivated to do their job.
ReplyDeleteWhen Secretary Duncan says "You're competing with kids from India and China", it only shows how Duncan wants the United States to stay on top of of the standards, just like our country represents power in other areas. This statement shows that he has high expectations for the students. Secretary Duncan is correct when he talks about ways for schools to make improvements. School is the place where students prepare to be successful adults in the future so we are able to better live our lives and serve our country. If you perform poorly in school, you could be at a disadvantage.
The first statement made by President Obama is important because by raising the standards and assessments, that will encourage students to work harder than before for higher grades. The second statement is just as important because teachers get paid for their effort and how successful the students are. Teachers should get consideration for working extra hard. Teachers should also get extra pay if the students show outstanding performance. The third point involves a lot of factors, the budgets, the staffing, the teacher labor contracts, and the quality of teaching. Again, a longer school day and lengthier school calendar are not a sure bet for success. Another issue with this is that students may be too tired or too stressed out from the continuous work. The last statement gives encouragement to those who cannot afford beyond high schools. This sounds like a promise that the government will support individuals who have the desire to continue their education, but need help to do so. A quality higher education will be something that we all would love to have.
Out of all the efforts that Secretary Duncan said, the best effort to promote student “education” is to extend the school day by a few hours. This will both help the kids and the teachers. It could benefit the teachers because they could cover more information that they need to teach and it could benefit the kids because this gives them more time to understand the topic that they are learning. The last hour could even be a period where the kids do homework, so they don’t struggle at home or a free period so the kids could relax and take their minds off of school work. I think that Secretary Duncan mainly wants kids to understand that this is not a joke. This is why he is stressing about extending the days, hours, and months.
ReplyDeleteThe statement "you're competing for jobs with kids in India and China.” suggests that Secretary Duncan thinks that school is for all kids to try to be better than others. Also, as the population grows, we have larger amounts of people to compete with. I agree with him. I agree because everyone should do the best they could in whatever they do. According to the economy, it is much harder to get a good job that earns you a lot of money and you have to have a great education to get a good job.
Point 1, in the schools, both teachers and students should be encouraged to do their best in anything that they do. Point 2, all teachers should try to do a good job teaching. If you offer outstanding teachers a merit pay, they might do a good job for a while and then take advantage of it. The principle doesn’t know exactly if the teacher is a good teacher by the results of the kids’ tests. The teacher might just give and easy good score. A smart way that a teacher could get a merit pay is that he/she could work overtime or tutor on the weekends. All teachers need money and they try to earn as much as possible. Point 3, by reforming the school calendar and the length of the school day, not only the cost will go up, but it would get much harder on the children’s part. Because school is getting harder, more kids are getting depression and dropping out. Some people don’t understand that you need to let kids be kids. Some people believe that if the kids get at least 30 minutes of running around or playing with friends, this would benefit their school work. Point 4, every American child should have a quality higher education. As stated in the passage, “You're competing for jobs with kids from India and China.”, as the population grows, you have more competition to compete with. You have to get a good education to get a good job, and every hardworking American deserves one.
Placing a "highly qualified" teacher in every classroom, and raising academic standards will promote better education for students. Students need a teacher that is appropriately educated and motivated. If highly educated and motivated teachers were placed in every classroom, kids would more likely respect the learning process and have a greater ambition to learn. In Moscow, universities do not have open book tests. In Japan, cheat sheets with formulas to refer to on a test is not allowed. In China, students take oral and written exams. Students used to memorize math formulas but today, everyone is allowed to use a calculator. Short cuts like these have made kids lazy. It is a joint effort between the school, child and his/her family to best promote education. Teachers can teach but the student must be willing to learn. Students may have a desire to learn, but the schools must provide the necessary tools.
ReplyDeleteSecretary Duncan feels that extending the school day and school year will give us the edge to compete with kids in China and India. Students in Japan have a longer school day and they don’t get two consecutive months off like we do in the summer. However, I do not agree with Secretary Duncan. I do not believe that more hours in school equate to greater learning. I do believe that we need to learn our basic math, reading and writing, but a well rounded education is more important. We need to learn how to socialize, adapt, problem solve, and also compromise. We learn these skills through activities outside of the regular school day. Some kids go to sports activities, which teaches them teamwork and acceptance of victory/defeat. Other activities are art/music related which teaches them how pieces fit to form the big picture. Maybe not everyone wants to compete with the kids in India or China. Not everyone wants to be a Chief. In olden day China, kids with specific abilities were taken to boarding schools to fully develop their skills. There were academies for athletes, musicians, etc. Not everyone is cut out to do math, reading or writing. Maybe kids with specific abilities should be matched up to specialized training instead of higher education.
I do not believe that extending the school day/year is necessary. Time to unwind is essential. Just like sleep is necessary for the body to repair itself, time to relax and to refresh the mind is necessary after a 6.5 hour school day. I do feel teachers should be rewarded accordingly for outstanding performance beyond expectations, just like companies reward employees with year-end bonuses based on merit. Money is a motivational factor. Better standards and assessments for students and teachers are definitely important because without guidelines, how do we know where we stand, and where we want to strive to improve. Whose standards are we talking about? Should we compare ourselves to China’s or India’s standards? It may work for them, but will it work for us? How hungry are we to excel? We are in a position where we already have all we need or want. What more is there to strive for? Perhaps kids in China or India are more hungry to excel because they want what we already have, “The American Dream.” Maybe that is our downfall. I think the most important element of President Obama’s speech in improving our education system, is making sure that everyone gets a “quality higher education.” Equally important, is that we desire to succeed in whatever studies we choose. To be proud and do the best of our abilities whether we are the CEO or a waiter. When things are set in stone for such a long period of time, change comes with friction. We want better standards, but how much is enough? We want to reward teachers with merit pay, extend school hours, provide everyone with quality education, but where will the money come from, and at whose expense? It all goes back to us. If we want to learn, we will find a way, even if it is outside the school system.
I think that the best way to promote student education is rewarding outstanding teachers with merit pay. Extra pay will motivate teachers to work with students more effectively. For example, when I was in a private school, the best teachers received merit pay which enabled them to provide an outstanding quality of education. Therefore, the students received better scores on standardized assessments causing the school’s assessment grade to be higher.
ReplyDeleteSecretary Duncan thinks we should consider lengthening the school day and the school year because "you're competing for jobs with kids in India and China". This statement suggests that better education will help the students to get better jobs than the kids from India and China. I agree that better education will make the students more compatible on the international job market. However, I disagree that longer school hours is the right way to achieve it. Based on my school experience I see that the teachers have enough hours to present and explain topics. Longer hours will tire the students and the majority will not be able to pay attention to school work and absorb new information at the end of the day.
I think that improving standards and assessments for students and teachers is an excellent idea but it may be difficult to bring about. This will take a lot of work and time. I believe that giving merit pay to outstanding performances is extremely important because money is a powerful motivator, especially in a time of recession. Providing every American with a quality higher education is another important idea which will also take a lot of planning, time, and financial investment. I feel that the idea of lengthening school time and extending the school calendar is absurd. First of all, the long school day will be difficult for students to endure and they may loose interest to learning and concentration. Second, the quality of education should not depend on the time spent in school, but it should rather rely on the teaching methods and educational materials.
I believe that the best effort to promote student “education” is to increase the number of school days. I believe that this will help more because some students don’t learn or understand the topic that they are learning within a couple of minutes in class and I think that the more the teachers talk about the subject, the better the students’ knowledge of the topic will get. During an extra day or two in school, teachers should let their students have a study hall, so that way they can have more time to study and learn. It’s better to know what you are learning than to learn nothing at all, fail, and probably not get far ahead in the future.
ReplyDeleteSecretary Arne Duncan thinks that the students’ amount of knowledge and how much they excel is all a competition against the students in India and China. He also believes that those students in India and China will get a better chance of getting jobs that pay lots of money. I agree with Secretary Duncan that students should have extended days of school, but not every week. If students spend half of their lives doing schoolwork and homework, then they’ll never know what’s happening around them. Plus, if there is school every day, then when will the students have the chance to spend time with their loved ones? So in general I agree with what Secretary Duncan thinks about the major purpose of the schools, but I also believe that the idea might need some adjustments.
Some of the points that President Obama made about school improvements were (1) encouraging better standards and assessments for students and teachers, (2) compensating teachers, which do outstanding jobs, with a raise or a merit pay, (3) changing the school calendar and the length of the school day, and (4) providing every American with a quality higher education. I believe that each and every point is very important because these points will tell students that school is not a joke and then there will be a higher amount of pressure on them. I could definitely envision difficulties in making these improvements. It may take a while for the economy to increase, so that way outstanding teachers could get merit pays and so that students in the future can get paid for their own jobs. Also, if every American will get a quality higher education, then in the future more people will want high paying jobs and since they will or might get their degrees, less high- paying jobs will be available and it would be very hard to get all of the money for almost all of the people in the world.
Of all the efforts, extending the day of school times seems best to promote education. Of course, many students wouldn't enjoy having to stay at school longer, but by far it would be better than longer period of school days. Teachers would continue on with their lessons, moving on quickly and getting more things covered. The students could ask questions that they didn't understood, something that they usually don't have time to do. At the end, students would still be able to enjoy their holidays, vacations, etc. Staying at school for a while longer still gets the job done while allowing children to have their free time aswell. If we extended school days, children will become not as excited and will become less concerned about their school work. More days at school may cause more stress, and most likely won't improve standards at all.
ReplyDeleteSecretary Duncan thinks we should expand the school year because as said, "you're competing for jobs with kids in India and China." This suggests that Duncan believes that having more education such as a longer school year will help us become successful and have better jobs in the future. I disagree with Duncan because although it would be helpful, in my opinion extending the school hours would be much easier. Staying at school for longer period of days still won’t help children, as it will most likely make them less motivated to learn.
Encouraging better standards and assessments for students and teachers is important as it can motivate them to work harder and achieve better grades. Rewarding teachers with merit pay wouldn’t be such a good idea to as it’s the teacher’s job to work hard and to teach children’s sufficiently in the first place and seems more of a bribery to work harder. A longer school day wouldn’t be good neither because as mentioned before, will make kids less motivated to work. The last one is important, because people would get a better education and jobs. The only problem is, these would cost a hefty amount of money to do all this.
Providing every student with a high quality education is the best way to promote student education. When you encourage better standards and assessments for students, you believe that every student tries to meet those standards and pass the assessments but not every student may be trying. Most students don’t care about the standards that are set for them and the assessments don’t matter to them either. When you reward “outstanding” teachers with merit pay, that doesn’t work well either. The government will be losing money and everyone’s definition of outstanding it different. It might even be the teacher. The students might be the reason for the high grades. If the government will lengthen the school calendar and the length of the school day can stress the kids out. The kids might not be able to catch up with the work, the parents might not be happy about it and dropout rates could increase due to the fact that kids have too much work on their shoulders and no time to rest. Making all of these points happen will have a difficulty in itself. One difficulty with doing some of these is that most people wouldn’t agree with the government. The parents wouldn’t want their child to go to school so often because then they wouldn’t have time to spend with the family. Rewarding the teachers would be very difficult considering the fact that the economy is already terrible. Also, the government might have a totally different idea of what an outstanding teacher is. Encouraging standards and assessments may be difficult due to the fact that every student has different standards and if the standards are too high, then some students may fall behind. Assessments are only reviews for kids so many assessments are not needed. Providing students with a high quality education might be the most satisfactory way to promote student education.
ReplyDeleteI believe that secretary Duncan’s statement proves that he doesn’t really care about the education of the students. He only cares about the country taking the jobs and having a higher education than the other countries. This is all a big game and competition for him. I strongly disagree with him because the thought of our futures being a huge joke to the government sickens me. Secretary Duncan doesn’t care enough about the future of the students to figure out what he said will be seen by individuals as a negative remark. Our education is a way out of a bad economy and that is the only way Secretary Duncan sees education. He doesn’t see education from the student’s perspective and this is why he wants to lengthen the school calendar. He won’t understand how this affects the students and it won’t matter to Secretary Duncan as long as it boosts our economy or comes through as a benefit to his competition.
I believe that lengthening school hours and the school year is not a good way for students to learn. The students will be tired and annoyed by the long hours. There work would suffer in quality because they would be less productive after the long day. The students would be even more stressed out and probably give up on the rigorous work. Because classes will have longer hours, the teachers will be able to teach more; therefore, more homework would be assigned. Many students are falling behind because of today’s education system. If teachers have more time to give students more work and teach them more in just one day, then the students would have less time to do homework, study and prepare for school for the next day. However, if we were to find a better way to help kids learn and do better in school, it would be to increase the amount of work kids do without increasing the length of school. Students would learn more, but still have just enough time to complete the work. Those who do strive to get a better education and a sufficient job would do the extra work and their learning capacity would increase.
ReplyDeleteWhat Secretary Duncan had said was a very competitive statement. He seems to believe that if you are the best then you will beat out everyone else and get a better job. That is somewhat true, but he forgot to mention that not all kids have the potential to be the best. Secretary Duncan said they we were competing with kids from China and India. Students can’t just get good grades because they want to “win” a better job. They have to actually learn the material and have time to do the work. Students shouldn’t rush through their work just to get ahead if they don’t even understand what they rushed through. It will eventually catch up with them and they will fall behind. If they understand the material in the beginning they won’t have to relearn it and spend more time to understand it at the end. In conclusion, the less of a competition it is, the better grades a child will get because he will have more time to actually get the work done right.
I believe that some of the points President Obama made were very important but others weren’t as important. His first point was to encourage better standards and assessments for students and teachers. This would force kids to work harder and get better grades. His second point didn’t seem to be too important. Rewarding outstanding teachers with a merit pay is a good intention, but it doesn’t mean the teacher’s teaching ability will increase. Obama’s third point was to increase the school year, school hours, and days of school. This would be completely unreasonable. First of all, students would have less time to do homework and study for the next day of school. Homework and tests are a big part of a student’s grade and if the student can’t do the work or prepare for the tests in enough time, the student’s grades would decrease and give the school a lower average. Increasing the school hours and school year would also increase the suicide rate in schools because the students would have even more stress and pressure put on them. The last point he made was to provide every American with a higher quality education. That is a very good goal because then each student gets the chance to understand the material and learn more, but it is very harder to achieve that goal. To make sure each individual American gets a quality education, each student must have an individual teacher for them. Most teachers have about 30 students in their class and they must teach them all at once so it is harder to reach one student’s specific needs.
Well educated people are important for the prosperity of our country in the future. For this reason we need to have a high level of education. This is why this article plays a significant role in identifying the efforts to promote student education. To exceed the standards in learning, we need to learn from well educated teachers who were able to pass the competency exams. Lengthening of the school day will give teachers more time to explain to the students who didn’t understand the topic well enough. Although, the students will not be able to retain too much information. By the end of the long day the students’ mental ability to understand the new topic will diminish. It will also decrease the amount of time being spent on homework and on independent studies. Instead of lengthening the day and the school year, the teachers should intensify learning. Then the government will not need to spend extra tax money on expanding the school hours. Instead they will be able to “honor” the best teachers for providing an outstanding education.
ReplyDeleteSecretary Duncan believes that the main purpose of schools is to prepare the students for high competitive job hunting in their future life. As Secretary Duncan had said, they should be able to compete for jobs with kids in India and in China. I partially agree with Mr. Duncan. Yes, our school education should prepare us for high standard college education and eventually for a job. But it is not the only purpose for education. We need to become open minded, broadly intelligent people. We need to learn how to be creative and to be able to find resolution for many scientific problems that the world faces. And in this matter we don’t need to compete with people from other countries but work together to improve the world.
President Obama made significant points about school improvement. I believe that encouraging better standards and assessments for students and teachers is important. Although it is not easy to evaluate the quality of education. Just by using the increasing number of people who were able to graduate from the high schools we can jump to a conclusion that school education improved. As Professor Ravitch mentioned, not all the graduates were able to satisfy the admission criteria for college. Everyone has to put in their best efforts into their work to achieve the best results. Teachers have to practice their skills because constantly new information is being found and most of the time it should be taught. For example, the new technologies, such as computers, allow teachers to share with their students’ new information in a more efficient way. Also, students should learn not only from their teachers, but study on their own as well. Students around America should have the same possibility to get a proper education. It will not be easy to achieve because knowledgeable teachers from urban areas would probably not wish to move to a rural area to work there. Rewarding the teachers for their outstanding job should be considered as well. The only question to ask is, based on what evidence should someone be considered the exceptional teacher? I don’t think that reforming the school calendar and lengthening of the school day should be universal for all students. Those who are not able to learn enough information during the regular school hours may be required to stay longer at school for learning. It will also prevent children from inappropriate behavior because they will not have enough time to fool around. More motivated students can use the time from school for extra curricular activities, homework and self education. So reforming/improving the school education is a challenge, it is not easy to perform, but it should be done for prosperity of our generation.
I think that lengthening school hours can help students in school. They will not have to worry about not finishing the teacher's lesson or if they will not be able to learn more. They also won't think about questions like "How much more time is there?" or " How much longer until next period?". They won't have to worry about the time because they know that school hours are increased. They will also learn more and be able to know more in the future.
ReplyDeleteI think that Secretary Arne Duncan doesn't care about the students. He cares for how superior America will be so he wants to lengthen school time. Lengthening school time is fine but Arne Duncan just wants to compete against other countries. He says that we are competing for jobs against India and China. He doesn't care about the students but America's reputation.
President Obama said four points about school improvement. The first one point was encouraging better standards and assessments for students and teachers, which would help students, learn more than usual and exceed their expectations. The second one was compensating teachers, which do outstanding jobs, with a raise or a merit pay and that would make the teacher teach the students even better. The third point was changing the school calendar and the length of the school day and that would help the students learn more in the amount of one school day. The final point was providing every American with a quality higher education which would help Americans learn even faster and better. I think that all of President Obama's points are important.
Education is a very big deal in every single child's life. Education provides a healthy and succesful life and career. Without education, our world would be very unsuccesful and inexperienced. To make education more fun, children can make studying fun and give themselves a reward after they do their homework. Also, parents supporting children is very healthy in their child's life. Supporting them gives them the satisfaction and they won't be pressured to do well. All this effort is rewarding because children would have more interest in school if they made it fun and if they were being supported.
ReplyDeleteSecretary Duncan thinks that we should make the school day and school year longer. He thinks this because "we're competing for jobs with kids in India and China." By lengthng the school day and school year, children get a better and longer education. In the summer, children tend to forget alot of what they learned in school while they're on vacation, at camp, etc. What Duncan suggests is something NYC should take in consideration. But, I do not agree with him. I do not agree with him because children work extra hard in school and deserve a few months off. By lengthing the school day and school year, it adds a lot more pressure and that leads to high school even jounior high school dropouts. By lengthing the school day, that gives children less time to study, do homework and to socialize.
School improvement is a big issue now a days. Children are experimenting with new technologies and don't want to exercise (which leads to obesity) and they don't want to study. President Barack Obama made a speech the day before school started talking about how children should stay in school and always try their best and work hard. I think the most important point in Barack Obama's speech is to always stay in school. This is an important point because without education, you will not get anywhere in life. Sometimes, depending on your situation, it is difficult to work hard in school. I think this because children go through situations like they're parents divorce, fights with friends, etc.
The best effort that promotes student education was to raise the amount of time students spend at school. This is a good idea because students need to learn more and become more interested in school. Staying later would also help them smarter and more educated by practicing subjects for a longer period of time. This would also help students by keeping them in school and keeping them out of trouble. Raising time in schools would be the best effort that would promote student education.
ReplyDeleteThe statement that Senator Duncan made wasn’t very thoughtful. Senator Duncan probably thinks that the major purpose for schools is for students to learn more so they could have jobs. That is true but what about the schoolwork that us students already. After a long day of school, we come home and have to do more work. If we spend more time in school, we won’t have any more time for more activities such as sports, music, helping around the house, etc. by spending more time in school, we will have less time for doing homework and less time doing anything else. It wouldn’t be such a great idea adding all of this pressure to students who are already doing well.
The first point that President Barrack Obama made stated that better standards should be encouraged for students and teachers. This is important because if students and teachers try harder to get better grades, then they will have better grades and will be encouraged to learn more. The next point that our president made was to reward teachers with a merit pay. This is also important because if the teachers want a higher pay, then they will be encouraged to go teach more and teach more. The third point that President Obama made was to reform the school calendar and the length of the school day. This has little importance for the reasons stated before. The final point made was to provide every American with a quality higher education. This is the most important point made because every student needs a high education for the sake of everyone’s future. All of these decisions would be difficult to carry out, that’s why we must keep on trying to succeed. It is important that we carry out all of these points made by Barrack Obama because of the future of our country.
In my opinion, rewarding outstanding teachers with merit pay will promote student education the most. If the teachers will get more pay for teaching better, that may encourage them to become better teachers. They might start teaching children with more enthusiasm or simply doing the best they can do as a teacher. Especially considering the fact that our economy isnt so good right now, what teacher wouldnt want a greater payment?
ReplyDeleteI believe that extending school hours will not help us acomplish anything. No child wants to learn and do work for this long. If we do this, then kids will not be able to have a normal life. They wont have time to do the things they want to do. Of course, having an education is very important, but you are a child only once, and we have to let kids enjoy their childhood. What we really need is better teachers that push their students to do their best. We need to stimulate teachers to teach better, after all this is their job. Secretary Duncan stated "you're competing for jobs with kids in India and China." That is true. We are competing for jobs with kids from all over the world. But increasing school hours drasticly will not increase the knowledge of kids. They will just be unhappy and bored out of their minds.
President Obamas emphasized these ideas to improve shools; encouraging better standards and assessments for students and teachers, rewarding outstanding teachers with merit pay, reforming the school calendar and the length of the school day and providing every American with a higher quality education. I think that the only reasonable one that we can actually achieve is rewarding outstanding teachers with merit pay. Encouraging better standards and assessments for students and teachers wont change anything. if the standars are raised, children that do bad in school wont start miraculously understanding everything. They would fall even more behind. as or the reforming the school calendar and lengthening the school hours, our economy simply wont let us do that. The money given to schools has already decreased. We're are we going to get the money to pay the teachers for all their extra time? We also cant just snap our fingers and give every American high qualitye ducation. in order for us to do that, we need great teachers.
The best effort that promotes student education is to raise the amount of time students spend at school. Some students forget what they learned after school ends so lengthening it will make sure it stays in there head. This would also help them because they could actually learn it and practice it rather than getting a brief explanation . This can also keep students from doing drugs, drinking etc. Raising time in schools would be the best effort that would promote student education.Secretary Duncan thinks that we should make the school day and school year longer. He thinks this because "we're competing for jobs with kids in India and China." The senator forgets that every child gets homework if we stayed in school longer we have a free time to play sports or socialize with friends.By staying in school longer we would even have less time for homework. Adding more school would just put more pressure on children causing them to do worst.The first point that President Barrack Obama made was that better standards should be encouraged for students and teachers.This is important because if they are encouraged they will be more motivated to learn more. The next point the president made is that teachers should be rewarded with a merit pay. This is important because all most all teachers would work harder if they knew they were getting more money.The third point that the President made was to reform the school calendar and the length of the school day.This has very little importance as stated earlier.The final point made was to provide every American with a quality higher education. This is the most important out of all of them. This will effect the future of our generation because if we get a higher quality education we can grow up to be CEO etc.These are going to take some time to come into effect. We must all do are best and aim higher than we ever have before. It is important that these come into effect because they will change our America.
ReplyDeleteI think that offering extra school hours seems to be the best to promoting student education. If students were forced to attend school for a longer period of time than before, most of them would be outraged. Some of them might even purposely slack in school. It also might ruin some students’ schedules, since they have after-school activities. The pro’s of oferring extra school hours are that students might be provided with extra-credit if they choose to attend and at the same time they will be able to get more of an education. It’s not right for Secretary Duncan to force kids to attending school for longer hours, even if other countries do. If we want to compete with other countries than we can do it with sports and not with education.
ReplyDeleteI think that Secretary Duncan’s statement, “you're competing for jobs with kids in India and China” suggests that she thinks that our country should have the best educational program. It’s not wrong, but it’s not completely right either. There are officially 195 countries in the world and we can’t expect to be better than all of them. It’s true that kids in China and India attend school longer than us, but it doesn’t matter how long you attend school. What matters is how much you devote yourself to your studies.
I don’t think that the points the president made about school improvement are very important. For example, somehow I don’t find “Encouraging better standards and assessments for students and teachers” very promising. I don’t see how you can encourage students to do better in their work other than awarding them. Also, “Reforming the school calendar and the length of the day” will not sit well with students since, like I said, they well have to rearrange their schedules which can be very time consuming. I envision a lot of difficulties form students, teachers, and parents alike with these “improvements”.
1. I think providing every American with a quality higher education would be the best effort in promoting student education. Many people do not go college because they do not have enough money. Going to college allows you to have a better job and a comfortable life. If college was free in America like in other countries, it would improve our nation greatly. I think there would be a decrease in people below the poverty line, and there would be a better economy. That’s why providing Americans with a quality higher education is the best effort in promoting student education.
ReplyDelete2. Secretary Duncan thinks that the school day and school year should be lengthened
because today’s students will be competing for jobs with kids from India and china. Secretary Duncan saying this makes me think that he believes the major purpose of school is to get a good job in the future. I agree that it is a big reason of why you should go to school, but school is for much more than that. I think the major purpose of school is so that you can get through life. School gives you the ability to read, write, and gives you the social skills to get through daily adult life.
3. President Obama’s first point is encouraging better standards and assessments for students and teachers. This is very important, because it would keep just anyone from graduating or becoming a teacher. The difficulties would be less people graduating, and less people being qualified for a certain job. The second point is rewarding outstanding teachers with merit pay. This isn’t very important because teachers have been teaching without money rewards already. It would be difficult to do this because of the recession right now. The third point was reforming the school calendar and the school day. This isn’t very important because most kids are doing fine with the length of the school day now. The difficulties of doing this would be having to pay teachers more to work longer. The last point was providing every American with a higher quality education. This is very important because it would provide an education for the less fortunate. The difficulties would be the government and universities not making any money from their students.
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ReplyDeleteI think that if students go to school for a few more hours and extend the number of days and weeks in the school year, it will definitely be the greatest to help get students a better education. However, I believe that most of the students, if not all, would not like the idea and won’t understand how this will benefit them in the future. This will benefit them because a better education will lead toward a better job. By extending the time for students to learn, it will help them fully understand things. More time in class will allow students to ask more questions if they do not understand something. Teachers these days have a small amount of time in class and they rush to stay on track. This can affect the ways the students learn because it does not give them enough time to fully comprehend a topic or subject.
ReplyDeleteSecretary Duncan wants to extend the school year. He wants to do this so the students can better jobs when they grow up because we are “competing for jobs with kids in India and China.” I think that Secretary Duncan cares about our education and future, but it also seems that all he wants to do is compete with those kids from India and China. A better education leads to a better paying job and I think that Secretary Duncan really cares that students work hard so they can have a very good future.
I think that all the points President Barack Obama presented in his speech on March 10 are very important. Setting high standards for students and teachers will push them to try harder and work harder. If teachers do an outstanding job and they really change the students, it is a good idea to reward them. Then the teachers will continue to do this and hence, the students’ grades may improve. If the school calendar is reformed, and the school day is extended, then it would be better for the students. It will give more time for teachers to touch upon a topic instead of just rushing through it. It will also let students get ahead. A higher quality education is what every student needs. A good student with a good education leads to better workers as adults which will keep America strong and in tact.