AM News: Making School Harder (Esp. For 3rd Graders)

School is too easy, students report USA Today: Millions of kids simply don't find school very challenging, a new analysis of federal survey data suggests. ALSO:  Some states tie reading tests to grade promotion.

A School Fix Without a Fight WSJ: The Republican governor of Ohio, the Democratic mayor of Cleveland and the local teachers union have united to overhaul how teachers are hired, fired and paid, a rare example of cooperation in education that some critics warn could still face challenges in the implementation.

70 Students at Stuyvesant to Retake Exams After Cheating Case NYT:  At Stuyvesant High School, a prestigious New York public institution, a scandal involving the use of smartphones has left a blemish.

Finland Rethinks Factory-Style School Buildings EdWeek: Education watchers have dissected Finland’s educational leadership on international tests from practically every angle, but a new traveling exhibit at that nation’s embassy here suggests one more: that the buildings themselves support student achievement.

Record lottery sales boost money for Ohio schools AssociatedPress: A year of record-high sales for the Ohio Lottery means its highest payout yet for public schools: $771 million. Lottery sales in Ohio have increased for the past 11 years, with the previous record profit transfer of $748.8 million set in 1997, according to the lottery.

For Manufacturing Jobs, Workers Brush Up On Math NPR:  Today's manufacturing work requires a strong grasp of fractions, decimals and basic trigonometry — skills that many job applicants often lack. So colleges and nonprofits are stepping in to fill the skills gap with programs that combine manufacturing training with basic math and reading.

Andrew Cuomo, New York Governor, Signs Strict Measure Fighting Cyber Bullying In Schools Reuters: New York teachers who learn that a student has been bullied online will be required to report the incident to school administrators within one day, under a law signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday.

Comments

[Bruce]

Putting together the articles on Finnish schools and on the lack of challenge in ours, I am reminded once more of our opportunity to learn from abroad, particularly in regard to our underperfoming middle schools. The implicit message we too often send out, that schooling consists largely of jumping through hoops (tests) to be passed through and then forgotten, may well correlate with our adolescents' apparent lack of engagement in activities that we intend to be stimulating but that they too often reject in favour of the puerile. A recent article in the New Yorker that I've been reading, "Spoiling our kids rotten", reinforces the difficulties we Americans seem to be having with regard to the basic purpose of raising adolescents: helping them to mature.

[Sarah]

Re: Finnish schools - My mom's cousin is visiting from Portugal for a week, and what she's told me about school there is eye opening. Her son goes to school at 8:30ish and is there until 6 pm. They have regular classes until 3pm, at which point parents who need to take kids to appointments are welcome to do so. For the remaining three hours, the students pick what they want to learn, be it gym, a foreign language, etc. After talking to her son, it's obvious that he's thriving in his classroom environment. He actually misses the structure in the summer months, and parents love not having to worry about paying for or finding daycare and hoping the providers are decent. There may be a lot to learn from foreign schools and how they work.

[Sarah]

As for cyber bullying, I still have mixed feelings. There are definite incidents of online bullying, but my old high school took it too far. They suspended 40 kids this past year for comments that were made in private homes on Facebook regarding the school's new policy banning chicken fingers because of another student's phobia of chicken. The phobic student claimed to be terrified of chicken and his parents petitioned to have chicken removed from the menu. Other students protested on Facebook and it was called bullying and all were suspended for one to five days (one day for those who "liked" comments, three days for anyone who commented a complaint, and five days for the post's originator.) All students were told they could not speak of the incident because the "bullied" student didn't know this had happened. To me, that goes too far and attacks freedom of speech.

[Sarah]

Finally, there's far more to manufacturing jobs than just math. My dad works in manufacturing and they can't keep younger workers for more than a week or two. Every time, the trainee will say not being in front of a computer all day or not being able to access cell phones or Internet all day is too hard to deal with. My dad has 33 years experience, so he's often the one doing the training, and of the past 30 workers he's trained, only one has lasted. One appeared to be going strong and then he was caught sleeping on the job one day and then a week later caught on cameras coming in an hour late to work two days in a row. Each time, he said he'd "forgotten" to punch in, but cameras proved he'd come in an hour late, so he was fired.

There's just no strong work ethic with today's younger crowd.

[Babiey]

When I was in school, school was pretty challenging and fun. Whatever grade the students were in, they were taught on that level and also the teachers prepared us for the next grade or few grades. Honor students weren’t the only ones being taught the difficult subjects but so were the rest of the students. I was being taught 6th grade work in the 3rd grade. Not only did the information prepare me but also gave me a better understanding of the work I was being taught and I could help others too. I feel that now that times has changed, the economy are having issues, schools getting shut down, it’s having a real bad effect on education. Education isn’t really being taken seriously, the government would figure out conclusion to jobs or taxes before they would for education. education is very important but if the teaches are being laid off and funds are not being made out to the school education will become less and less important, fun, needed that it will disappear. I feel both parents and the society as a whole need to come up with a solution on making education challenge and allowing the students to learn.