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Bill would allow teachers to grade parents

I'm curious what people think of this. Granted, I'm not sure if any of the regulars on this site are teachers, but I still think it's worth discussions (some of us might know teachers, or had a teacher once in their lives).
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jeremy.jpgJeremy - 9551 Posts
01/26/2011 @ 05:46:01 PM
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My gut reaction. Surprised, I would have thought only a democrat could come up with something so stupid just for the sake of some feel goodery.
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l_ad719f619e5ad7f4b593814445bf63ec.jpgRUFiO1984 - 219 Posts
01/27/2011 @ 06:49:58 AM
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Soo... What happens if the parents DO get an unsatisfactory on the report card? Do they have to take a parenting class? Child get held back? Child get taken away by Social Services? or do they just get a talking to?

I think it is just stupid. Would the parents in return be able to grade the teachers on the criteria that they are teaching their child or the way they teach?
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newalex.jpgAlex - 3619 Posts
01/27/2011 @ 01:24:04 PM
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It would mostly be a waste of time. Not because parents aren't an important part of their kids education, but because this approach isn't likely to help much.

Interesting point though by one of the teachers when talking about how every wants to grade the teachers somehow based on their students performance, which isn't really fair if the teacher sends a kid home with homework and the parents never help the kid out or make him do his homework.
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jeremy.jpgJeremy - 9551 Posts
01/27/2011 @ 05:40:13 PM
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It would be a meaningless gesture on all sides. What would it change, and what would it be based on? Not only that, but lets say they come up with some sort of punishment, like the grades are public, so parents do take it seriously. That's potentially just going to make parents that care now care too much. Now you've got even more pressure on the kids, or mom and dad are basically going the kid's homework for him/her and the kid learns diddly.

It will just be a completely meaningless source of conflict.

If they want to do something involving parents they should use technology to close the loop. Make a service where parents can subscribe to where they can see, or get notified of, test/assignments due/etc, as well as progress. I don't see why in today's day and age report cards are the one mandatory (after the fact) way parents find out how their kid did. The teachers could even see how often the info is checked, and by whom.

The parent could be involved and the kid could just be lying about not having homework, and I refuse to believe there are any teachers champing at the bit to talk to 30 parents every few days about what's going on.

(And I'm sure I blew zero minds here. I don't even have to look to know something like this must exist, certainly at least in a piece here peice there format, we just need to bring it all together and push it, or make it mandatory. A system where I could pull out my cellphone and see everything Jeremy Jr has coming up this week would probaly take less of the teacher's time to set up than the time it takes for one parent to call and ask.)
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Jeremy messed with this 2 times, last at 01/27/2011 5:45:00 pm
jeremy.jpgJeremy - Cube Phenomenoligist
01/27/2011 @ 06:01:22 PM
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Alex Wrote - Today @ 01:24:04 PM
Interesting point though by one of the teachers when talking about how every wants to grade the teachers somehow based on their students performance, which isn't really fair if the teacher sends a kid home with homework and the parents never help the kid out or make him do his homework.


Meh, not really. At least not if you're talking about comparing teachers to each other, which they'd pretty much have to be doing. Unless someone is teaching a remedial class, in which case I don't this would apply anyway, the parental involvement factor is going to average out, especially if they look at it over a course of a few years.

If an area/school has two 5th grade teachers, and both classes are given the same standard test 3-4 years in a row, and one teacher consistently underperforms the other, chances are that it's something that teacher is or isn't doing. It's possible the teacher just got unlucky with a few more deadbeat parents than the other teacher. However you're talking about ~30 kids each, at random, every year. You can't get that unlucky.

Of course, you could argue that teacher might be doing a "better" job teaching, while the other just beats the test into the kid's heads, but that's beside the point. The parental involvement factor is really a non issue.

PITS?
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Jeremy messed with this 4 times, last at 01/27/2011 6:09:36 pm
scott.jpgScott - 6225 Posts
01/28/2011 @ 08:42:16 AM
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The location or type of community play into how involved parents mights be. You really can't compare a teacher at an intercity school with a teacher in some ritzy suburb and expect parental involvement to be consistently similar. So I think alex's point is a legitimate one.
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jeremy.jpgJeremy - Cube Phenomenoligist
01/28/2011 @ 09:38:41 AM
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Scott Wrote - Today @ 08:42:16 AM
The location or type of community play into how involved parents mights be. You really can't compare a teacher at an intercity school with a teacher in some ritzy suburb and expect parental involvement to be consistently similar. So I think alex's point is a legitimate one.


I agree in theory, which is why I said to compare them to teachers in the same area or school. Though I'm not really sure why the district spanning more than one city would put anyone at a disadvantage. emoticon

Edit: Though it is a fair point from the perspective of one parent who does nothing complaining about their kid not learning being the teacher's fault.
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Jeremy edited this 2 times, last at 01/28/2011 10:27:27 am
fry6beeu9.jpgJeremy - 9551 Posts
01/28/2011 @ 11:01:44 AM
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Also, since we're, kind of, on the subject of inner city schools, and the general idea of parents not being in the same "place": Should we really hold those parents to the same standards anyway? Comparing someone working 2 jobs to try and make ends meet to a well-to-do stay at home mom isn't fair either. Seems like this could easily just be something else to kick people when they're down.

Not to mention, while I don't question parents should care about their kid's education, is it really that unreasonable of a position to take that teachers should be mostly responsible for it? Homework is good for repetition, but a case could be made we're leaning too hard too early on the amount of school kids are expected to do on their own time.
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Jeremy perfected this 4 times, last at 01/28/2011 11:37:04 am
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