Saturday, September 03, 2005

SOME INTERESTING FACTS AND FIGURES ABOUT U.S. SCHOOLS

From the CSM. The conclusions I see: There are more teachers per pupil than ever but whites have still left the public schools in droves

September: It's a time for memorizing locker combinations, cracking open new textbooks, attending parent/ teacher conferences, and generally getting back into the swing of another academic year. It's also a time to step back and look at overarching educational trends, as the Associated Press recently did in compiling some notable comparisons using statistics drawn from national averages and percentages at public schools across the US. A sampling:

Student/teacher ratio
1960: 25.8 to 1
1980: 18.7 to 1
2002: 16.1 to 1

Teacher pay
1995: $36,675
2000: $41,807
2005: $47,750

Enrollment by school level
Elementary: 439
Middle: 617
High school: 760

Racial/ethnic distribution
1973
White: 78.1%
Minority: 21.9%


2003
White: 58.3%
Minority: 41.7%

Kindergarten enrollment (full-day)
1973: 20%
2003: 65%





TEACHERS GETTING DUMBER IN AUSTRALIA TOO

The age and academic prowess of students entering teaching courses has been questioned by the authority charged with policing the profession. Queensland's Board of Teacher Registration has called for an investigation into requirements to enter teaching courses and the quality of educators produced. The concerns of the independent statutory board were raised in its submission to a federal parliamentary inquiry into teacher training throughout Australia. ...

The board said it was aware of criticisms of universities for not setting a high enough benchmark for entry to teacher courses. "We believe there is a need for research in this area, looking specifically at whether there are links between specific requirements for entry to teacher education programs and the quality of teachers prepared within those programs, both upon graduation and over time," it said. The board singled out tertiary entrance scores as one area the research needed to focus on.

In its inquiry submission, the State Government voiced similar concerns, saying minimum academic standards may be needed rather than simply filling university quotas. Additional criteria for selecting students for teaching courses should also be considered, the Government said. In March, The Courier-Mail revealed that entry levels to some teaching courses had dropped to allow in the lowest third of high school graduates. One examples was Central Queensland University's primary and secondary teaching degrees where an OP17 was required, in a band scale where an OP1 was the highest and OP25 the lowest.

The issues raised by the board are similar to those mentioned by Federal Education Minister Brendan Nelson. In February, Dr Nelson denounced some teaching schools as "quasi-sociology departments".

More here

***************************

For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.

The NEA and similar unions worldwide believe that children should be thoroughly indoctrinated with Green/Left, feminist/homosexual ideology but the "3 R's" are something that kids should just be allowed to "discover"


Comments? Email me here. For times when blogger.com is playing up, there is a mirror of this site (viewable even in China!) here

***************************

No comments: