I remember how it was -- JR
Charter schools’ common sense ask of NY state Legislature
A pro-charter school rally in City Hall Park Wednesday served as a reminder of yet another thing Albany isn’t doing: letting more kids attend good schools.
The Legislature refuses to lift the cap that prevents more charters from opening in New York City, though enrollment in charters has jumped 9% these last two years even as Department of Education schools keep losing kids by the tens of thousands. The best chance to do it is now, as part of the budget due April 1.
With 50,000 kids stuck on the waitlist for a charter seat, “it is unconscionable in these past two years in particular that we would not do everything possible to make sure that our kids and our families have the best possible education choices,” notes Crystal McQueen Taylor from StudentsFirstNY.
The smallest fix would be to revive the dozen-plus “zombie” charters, issued in past years but no longer active, so that schools ready to open could do so. That’s “just a different way to count charters as the number of schools operated,” argues James Merriman, CEO of the New York City Charter School Center.
Better still, end the special cap on charters in New York City, and let Gotham use some of the 70-plus charters still available under the main cap in the rest of the state.
Best of all would be to do away with the cap entirely: It was set up when charters were experimental; now that they’ve succeeded so thoroughly, the only reason to keep it is the lobbying of the teachers unions that dominate the regular public schools.
If the Legislature refuses to at least lift the cap, it’s a clear sign lawmakers just don’t care about the kids.
https://nypost.com/2022/03/18/charter-schools-common-sense-ask-of-state-legislature/
*********************************************Auckland University student who admitted raping student allowed to keep studying
A student who a university proctor agreed had twice raped and physically assaulted another student was given a written reprimand and allowed to keep studying.
The victim complained to the University of Auckland about the two sexual assaults, as well as several other attacks including her rapist covering her face with a pillow so she couldn't breathe when she confronted him.
The university proctor accepted it happened, reprimanded the man and told him not to contact the woman. But eight months after her complaint he is still studying at the university.
However, the woman had to quit her studies and return to her home country after becoming severely depressed.
Only last week did the university tell the woman via letter the man would have to face a disciplinary committee over his actions - one day after the Herald on Sunday started asking questions.
In that letter the university admitted to a failure in its disciplinary procedures, saying the proctor did not have the power to resolve such a serious case and it should have been referred to the university's discipline committee.
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Australia: Pandemic lockdowns have widened the wealth gap in our schools
Less intelligent students need more help to achieve so reducing that help has serious consequences. Highly intelligent students by contrast do well in any system. And intelligence is both hereditary and a major precursor to wealth. So private schools on average have smarter kids with richer parents
A learning gap between rich and poor students is widening as literacy and numeracy tests reveal schools in disadvantaged suburbs have fallen behind during the pandemic lockdowns.
Educators have warned of higher dropout rates and social scarring without intervention to help students from poorer families catch up on their lost learning.
Fresh NAPLAN data, to be published on Wednesday, reveals patches of poor performance in suburbs blighted by high unemployment, poverty or large numbers of students whose parents don’t speak English.
Australian Education Union president Correna Haythorpe warned that many students from disadvantaged backgrounds were being “left behind’’.
“These deep-rooted education inequities have widened in recent years because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the Morrison government has done nothing to address them,’’ she said.
Across Australia, the average NAPLAN score for year 9 reading fell by 4.5 points to 577, while writing scores rose by 1.8 points to 551, between 2019 and 2021. Numeracy performance dropped by an average of 4.6 points to 588.
At Chifley College’s Mt Druitt campus in western Sydney, where three out of four students live in the poorest 25 per cent of households and half speak a foreign language, the year 9 writing results fell by 18 points, while writing scores dropped 35 points.
Bucking the trend is Sydney Adventist School in Auburn, in Sydney’s multicultural western suburbs, where old-school teaching methods have driven success.
Despite 80 per cent of children being from non-English speaking families, the school lifted the reading and writing scores for year 3 students in 2021. The school’s deputy principal, Jenny Hahnel, said the school expected high academic standards from students, whose migrant parents value education and respect teachers.
The school uses “explicit teaching’’, providing clear instruction until each student has mastered the content of a lesson.
Reading is based on phonics, and children learn their times tables, as well as hands-on learning such as measuring objects in the playground for maths. “Explicit teaching focuses on a lot of repetition,’’ Ms Hahnel said.
“Every day we start the lesson revisiting content we’ve already taught. We’re consistently checking for understanding during the lesson, and we focus on student engagement.
“You’ll never see a child sitting at a desk and not knowing what to do. Not one child went backwards during Covid.’’
The Smith Family, a charity that is helping 58,000 disadvantaged children attend school through its Learning for Life sponsorship program, warned that more children had fallen behind as a result of lockdowns.
Anton Leschen, the charity’s Victorian general manager, said he knew of a single parent home schooling seven children, using one smartphone with a cracked screen and limited data.
“Living in disadvantage is a matter of chaos and survival,’’ he said. “Access to digital resources is always a major issue.’’
Mr Leschen called for targeted learning support for children who had fallen behind at school. “Some of them are very bright and hardworking,’’ he said. “Others have arrived at school with low initial literacy and cognitive and social skills. They’re not write-offs, but targeted support and help to catch up is all the more necessary.’’
At Kurnai College in Morwell, in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, reading scores dropped by 38 points, writing by 43 points and numeracy by 17 points. On the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, half the students attending Western Port Secondary College live in the poorest 25 per cent of households.
Year 9 students’ NAPLAN results dropped 15 points for reading, 56 points for writing and 15 points for numeracy.
Punchbowl Boys’ High School in NSW enrols 72 per cent of its students from the poorest households – virtually all from a non-English speaking background. Its results in year 9 fell by 19 points for reading and 23 points for numeracy, but rose six points for writing.
At Durack, one of Brisbane’s poorest suburbs, Glenala State High School’s year 9 students performed 10 points lower in 2021 than the crop of year 9s in 2019, before the start of the pandemic.
Writing scores fell 15 points and numeracy scores 19 points.
Australian Secondary Principals’ Association president Andrew Pierpoint said many poorer families could not afford computers or tablets for home schooling and online lessons.
“They might have a phone shared between siblings,’’ he said.
“The students have to read a document and type on a phone.’’
Mr Pierpoint said the pandemic had made the gap between poor and wealthy students “wider than we’ve ever seen before’’.
He called for more funding for the most disadvantaged schools. “Some schools need more money because life keeps running over the top of them, and it’s not the kids’ fault,’’ he said. “We need to address this as a nation.’’
Australian Primary Principals’ Association president Malcolm Elliott said many students had struggled when their parents could not help with home schooling, provide technology or pay for tutoring.
“Some of the maths that children get sent home with can look very complex for parents,’’ he said.
NSW Teachers’ Federation senior vice-president Amber Flohm said 3000 students had dropped out of school in 2020 and “never returned’.
“Students with disability or who are learning English are heavily reliant on face-to-face interaction,’’ she said. “English as an additional language is not something that lends itself to remote learning and teaching.’’
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My other blogs: Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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