Teacher's+Lounge

The purpose of this page is to create a repository for teachers. Please add, edit or comment as you see fit.

President Obama has authored his "Race to the Top" education initiative.

The key issues are as follows:

The centerpiece of the Obama administration's education reform efforts is the $4.35 billion Race to the Top Fund, a national competition which will highlight and replicate effective education reform strategies in four significant areas:
 * Adopting internationally bench-marked standards and assessments that prepare students for success in college and the workplace;
 * Recruiting, Developing, Rewarding, and Retaining Effective Teachers and principals;
 * Building data systems that measure student success and inform teachers and principals how they can improve their practices; and
 * Turning around our lowest-performing schools.

Now these are admirable and necessary goals, but fall short of fixing a few key problems in class that effect how we teach.

One problem I have as a teacher of 11th and 12th grade high school students is the range of diversity I must attempt to bridge in a 50 minute session. I have kids who are algebra wizards and those that can't find the area of a square. I continually struggle to keep half the class from being bored and reteaching the other half simple algebra. I think inclusion has gone to far and diversity simply means a lowering of the bar for all. I agree with you because I also have a diverse classroom of learners and struggle almost every day with the same problems. The issue I have is with the competitiveness that these strategies employ. It is a race to the top not a way to teach students to be creative and collaborative. I am not a believer in assessments because many of my special education students do not do well on standardized assessment.

At the middle school level I see teachers who curve the test grade just to show administration that the student is succeeding. When considering determining grades for my students I put more weight on Homework assignments than tests. In my opinion, if the student is showing success and keeping up with the assignments, with or without help, then at least they are showing the effort and learning. Some students as well as myself are terrible test takers, and tests are not always a good indicator of success or failure.