Somebody has to teach the bottom 5%ile. That falls to the public schools now.
The public schools have the mandate to teach all commers. That drives their funding around my neck of the woods. Private schools can say "We're full, go away".
Around here, the ones you'd want to go to for academics reasons do. The local parish schools, which don't require testing are usually behind the curve in academics.
But if MY taxes are paying for the school choice bill, I'll scream like mad if they go to indoctrinate students. Most churches kick in some subsidy for their school. EIther directly with funds, or indirectly with shared resources or facilities.
Don't let the teachers in my district find out about that. My kid's 2nd grade teacher earns about $26k/year. She works on school work most nights, including Sundays. About the only things being off in the summer in Indiana is good for is de-tasseling or working at county and state fairs.
All this school talk reminds me. Gotta work on a rocket launch for the school.
This example comes from my highschool experience in 1980-1983. There was only one high school in the district. two way video wasn't really possible then. Could be now.
I thought "sit still land shut up" was operfected by the private school system?
As a professional who develops systems which MUST past government tests for acceptance my thought on this is QUIT WHINNING! Every other organization which must pass acceptance testing has addapted to develop products which DO pass the test, AND are well made by standards not measured by testing. There might be lots of dumb things in education but NOT requiring students to demonstrate measurable skills to graduate/advance would be the dumbest.
You tie the shock cord around the motor mount and thread it up through a slot cut in the forward mounting ring. That places it in an excellent location to be immoliated by the ejection charge.
Everybody here should go out and find an elementary school for an annual demo launch. If the school has a gung-ho teacher or two, you might even get a rocketry program established. If not, the teachers will still love to have someone come in and entertain their kids for an hour or so while actually peaking scientific interest of a few of them.
Here in the granola state (I AM in Kalifornia), though I've done rocket launches for the past several years, this year I was unable to do so.
First, bear in mind that I do a pretty large presentation, complete with handouts, discussion of the Apollo program, a video, hands-on models, etc., and then complete it with a rocket launch (including an Estes Saturn V, etc.). I'm well enough known by the fire department for this that they help me out, waive the fee, etc., and they know I conduct a safe launch.
This year, however, the school district decided that I could not conduct the launch unless I provided them with a certificate of insurance that named the district as a 'named insured'. This, despite the fact that I gave them copies of my NAR card, the NAR insurance policy, AND my homeowners policy, under which I have a SEPARATE UMBRELLA LIABILITY for $1,000,000 that I pay extra for, etc., etc.
Because I was not doing this as part of an NAR section (and frankly, I live far enough away that I honestly would not want to impose on the section officers, because they volunteer a tremendous amount of time to the community already), I couldn't get an insurance certificate from the NAR, and my policy holder wanted to charge me a couple of hundred bucks for such a 'certificate'. This stupid 'certificate' wouldn't make me any more or less liable, but that's apparently how the game is played.
End result? I can no longer conduct rocket launches for the school district. Oh, by the way, I'm actively involved as an officer in the school PTA, am the 'civilian parent advisor' on the budget committee, etc., so it's not like I'm just some unknown to them (especially as the principals, teacher, etc., in the past have been highly complimentary about the past presentations).
So, while I'm doing my damnedest to try and bring rocketry to kids in school, the problem is that the school is fighting AGAINST us.
BTW, I asked the NAR board to consider allowing individual 'insurance certificates' at the last board meeting, but I don't know if anything ever came of that...
Did you know there is a whole nother world out there that does not have to "pass government tests for acceptance"? It is called the citizenry and the commercial world. Not to mention ROTW.
Why should children's educations be subject to ANY government defined, administered, and enforced tests at all? These are PEOPLE who will ADJUST to the situation test or no test. Perhaps alot more efficiently without all the many arbitrary requirements placed on the civil activity of education by an overzealoius government.
There's a difference between giving kids tests in their classes to see which have them have learned the material in those classes, and ranking the "performance of schools" on how well what they have taught conforms to some arbitrary government specification.
The California education bureaucracy seems to set great store by the latter process - I don't perceive it as doing anything positive for the actual quality of education here.
It's either 182 or 184. Up until a few years ago, it was 180 even.
Sounds like private school teachers in Michigan. Believe me, with MI being the keystone of the NEA, they are paid extremely well here. If you adjust for COLA, MI teachers are the highest paid in the country....and I don't begrudge them that fact as long as they can demonstrate that they're doing their job. Unfortunately, I've seen too many 15 year old lesson plans to believe that they're all pulling their weight. Things have gotten better in my district. Thanks to some very lucrative retirement packages, we're getting some enthusiastic teachers again....just in time for my youngest as she gets ready for college in 2005.
Mark Simpson NAR 71503 Level II God Bless our peacekeepers
Starting salary for BAs here are in the high 30's, IIRC. Masters are paid for by the district
FWIW, I have 18 years experience
20 years plus masters in my district make >>$65k They also get "longevity" bonuses.
In my district, parent-teacher conferences are held during the day. We can't expect teachers to work OT here. ;-)
Sounds like there's a world of difference between teaching in CA and teaching in MI. I've yet to see one of our teachers drive to work in a whoopdie. While I believe that most start out with that idealistic bent, I don't see it in the older teachers here in MI. Having run for the school board and knowing the MEA union president as a result, I can tell you that the local MEA leadership are the most money-grubbing, petty bunch of non-professionals I've ever met. Sometime, I'll e-mail you some of the dirty tricks that they played in order to make sure that I wasn't elected because I campaigned on accountability, a dirty 14 letter word in their book.
Mark Simpson NAR 71503 Level II God Bless our peacekeepers
Tie 1 cm. loop in end of Kevlar thread, leave some thread hanging off the end, have long piece of thread (4x the length of old shock cord, at least) coming off the loop . Epoxy loop to wall of tube with thin gauze over top. 6 min. epoxy should be slow enough if you work quickly. Make sure you're down in the tube far enough that you're not interfering with the nose cone. Let dry. One more coating of 6 min. epoxy to make sure it is glued in well and smoothly. Let dry.
Stop using Estes shock cords. Worst thing in the world! Buy Kevlar for shock cords instead. (See URL at #1)
That reminds me - I have to make sure I'm stocked up on Kevlar. I'm going to start my Estes Orbital Transport this week.
Give me a break. Yours is a specious argument. You're making the assumption that the bottom 5% are being taught now. The facts don't bear that out. The public school system is currently failing to teach more than the bottom 5% now. Do you think that would be worse with schools of choice, if that choice included schools that were allowed to discipline bad actors? See above comments. You don't fix a broken wheel by using a broken jack.
Again, you can't fix a broken wheel with a broken jack. Part of the problem is unrealistic legislated demands.
Really? I don't know of many private schools that underperform public schools, with the exception of some Blue Ribbon Schools.
Nobody is holding a gun to your head saying that you have to send your kids to a parochial school. Lats time I looked, the Charter Schools being contemplated and implemented were secular.
Oh no, I can see it now. A mass influx of Hoosiers into MI schools. ;-)
I know that I come off as anti-teacher a lot of the time in my replies. I'm really not. I'm very much in favor of rewarding teachers that perform...and firing those that don't. It's the latter belief that kept me off the school board because the local union pumped thousands of dollars into my opponents campaign fund and had their ex-president run his campaign. I know that MI doesn't represent ALL teachers, but it is the only frame of reference that I have intimate knowledge of. It's refreshing to hear that what I see here isn't the norm.
Mark Simpson NAR 71503 Level II God Bless our peacekeepers
----- Original Message ----- From: "Kurt Kesler" Newsgroups: rec.models.rockets Sent: Monday, October 06, 2003 7:56 AM Subject: Re: off-topic: More BS in the Granola State
My wife is in her 4th year of teaching and is at the $26,250/yr. level. Granted, she has 2.5 months off in the summer, but she also works 8 to 4 with no free lunch break as the teachers have to watch study halls, the lunch room, etc.
It is worse that that. It is the one and only thing of importance because some bureaucrat can use those figures in an excel file. But the in-field education quality of graduating kids has been DECLINING over the years as all these techniques are more fully adopted and funds provided to target test related performance. Imagine that. funds targeted directly at improving test scores.
Flys in the face of test designers who supposedly design tests to measure contemperaneous performance.
Almost. It is imposed discipline (ala jail). Self-discipline and self-responsibility are culled out of kids early so they can be fully dependent on the suckling nipple of the NEA and the school rules and policies and the discipline of the proctor.
Funny how private schools do not need proctors masquerading as student age kids, metal detectors, a zero tolerance policy for cough drops and aspirin.
Maybe not so funny considering all the hardship manufactured in public schools over these and many, many, other rules.
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