SOQ Examination
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5 responses to “SOQ Examination”
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Dick – congrats guy – this is the way that Conservatives USED TO BE – looking at things comprehensively and weighing in on each instead of the current jeremiad against public schools and government approaches to these issues in general.
The problem is the kids who have under-educated parents who not only lack the knowledge and skills to compete for decent jobs but they also lack a culture of valuing education.
Parents with College tend to get their kids on the education track from the time they first learn to communicate, talk, etc and it’s 24/7.
Kids of under-educated parents are often behind even before they hit kindergarten! That’s what all this pre-school discussion is about.
A poll last month in Maryland showed that they know the issue and 70% of them are willing to pay substantially higher taxes to address these issues.
I don’t think money is the sole differentiator – but the reality is that teachers that are “good” tend to have options as to where to work – and what level of difficulty of kids they are willing to take on and school systems will accommodate them to keep them from going to other schools. So the entry level teachers get thrown to the wolves. The ones that make it – get good but a lot of others are chewed up and spit out and in the mean time – kids who need higher level instruction are also victims.
The truth is that most teachers don’t want to teach these kids. It’s much harder work with a real possibility of damaging their career.
Can you change this without offering more money to the better teachers? But it takes more personnel like Para-teachers and those with Master Degrees in reading, math and writing for kids fall short on one or more of the 15 or so PALs criteria. You have to know which of the 15 the kid is behind on AND how to remediate and get them back on grade level.
The State does not require entry level teachers to know and understand and use PALS. As far as I know – it’s not even a standard for many school districts. The chances are at schools like Richmond – they are lucky to get minimally-qualified entry level teachers and I’m betting the attrition rate is high.
How can a school system with a reputation for high numbers of at-risk kids and known problems attract quality teachers?
Anyone who thinks private schools will take at-risk kids and be held to the same level of accountability as public schools is dreaming… so the real question is what exactly would the critics do besides complain about “mo money” and deficient SOL scores?
I’m good with constructive criticism and articulated reforms but not generalized condemnation of public schools and walking away.
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Dick, Thanks for the in-depth review of what goes into the VBOE’s proposal — much better than anything we’ve seen in the Mainstream Media. I like your approach of analyzing each line-item separately on its own merits. Furthermore, I share your skepticism regarding the value of many of the specific spending proposals.
In an ideal world, Virginia would concentrate spending on projects that will have the greatest educational Return on Investment. As far as I can see, the greatest ROI will go to the Virginia Educational Association, which will enjoy an expanded membership base after all these new positions are funded. It’s less clear what the ROI is for school students. As for taxpayers, there doesn’t seem to be much of an ROI at all.
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It strikes me that the absence of lots of comments on this detailed, persuasive post means that readers of this blog don’t fully understand these issues. And if they don’t, the GA surely won’t, in the time available. And if the effect of these recommendations is to “bake in” certain funding thus lowering the GA’s ability to play games with it, then they are probably doomed anyway.
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This is most important post in a long while. Hope to get to it soon.
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[…] This amount would be in addition to the $950 needed to finance the proposed changes in the SOQ proposed earlier by the Board of Education. (I summarized the policy changes in the SOQ being proposed by the Board of Education in an earlier post.) […]
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