After having discussed this topic extensively, I would say that we managed to touch upon many aspects that served to, maybe not arrive at answers to all the controversy currently taking place, but definitely to embrace the all different standpoints. As a class, we all centered mainly on the topic of the release of teacher “ratings” that affected 18,000 educators in the city. Although I’d say that the public has a right to see all this information pertaining as to just how effective a teacher is – the information, in the first place, should be as accurate as possible and secondly, many more factors should be taken into consideration when determining just how effective a teacher is – not simply how many students they managed to past to the next grade level. These ratings recently released only compromise a portion of the teacher taskforce that exists in New York City and yet teachers everywhere are being unfairly stigmatized. The reports were also only prepared on data from years past, and some teachers have switched the subjects that they teach since then. This therefore raises the question as to just how accurate these ratings really are – in certain cases, the percentage of error is as high as 75%, and yet, some people are taking these “ratings” on face value and teachers are being unfairly judged from left to right. Not to mention the fact that the reports do not account for miscellaneous factors such the manner in which the student, as an individual, learns best or simply whether they had a bad test day. Why should we put so much weight on these recent ratings if they have been shown to not be as accurate as officials say they are? I believe we do need to have access to information like this BUT we definitely need to find a better and more accurate form of compiling such reports or of getting the information out (maybe a different way rather than reports).
With regards to the recent audit that the NYCDOE had and the controversy surrounding it, we digressed a little and instead touched upon issues of bigger magnitudes such as the different standards that exist for a high-school graduation diploma, not just in different schools, but also in different states and different countries and the influence and tolls that politics are having on our education. As pointed out in class, and a sub-topic of much concern, the value of our education is slowly decreasing. The most compelling piece of evidence can be seen with the regents and how they, over the years, are becoming more and more easier. But yet, politicians like Bloomberg, still the audacity to say that our educational system is blooming as more and more students are passing the regents than in years past. This is irony at its best. Whether our education is slowly going down because of the ambitions of politicians or whether it’s because we, as a society, want to appear as highly-cultivated and intellectual, one thing is for sure: we are only fooling and harming ourselves. Although this is what I personally think, it was pointed out the some of this is attributed to the fact that it is being done to try to get the society up to par and to get everyone to receive at least a high school education. But like I said, in today’s day and age, a high-school graduation diploma will not get you too far – even jobs we deem simple, such as being a mechanic, now require more expertise and education. These are only a few of the arguments that exist for both sides but there is an issue of greater concern here – the importance that is placed in education by both the government and the people. As far as I know, before, our government was spending more money on wars and other issues of importance than on the educational sector – more money on ways to kill off the opposition than on ways to improve the quality of education of the people. Although the Obama administration appears to be setting an incentive to improve the quality of education, to me at least, this said quite a lot. When have you seen the army holding bake sales to simply keep their programs running? To simply not have to cut the classes being offered by their institution? To simply not have to fire staff members? And even now, the educational systems (at least in NY) put regulations on bake sales…
Education is one of the most important topics that should be addressed constantly – not just because it’s the topic of a class discussion or because it’s the scene of controversy in recent news. Like I stated in class, I personally have always thought that the role of being a teacher is often downplayed. Teachers chose to take on the responsibility of preparing students for what lies ahead – they do it because they have decided to dedicate their lives to this. If we neglect this fact, and instead criticize them unjustly or simply take away the resources necessary for them to do their vocation, then how do we expect to have citizens that are ready for what lies ahead? The topic of education in general should be something that everyone is constantly on top of whether it be due to something minor such as changes in school policies (arrival/departure times, school lunch…etc) or something major like the recent sexual harassment scandals that have come to light.
P.S. : I did not discuss the sexual harassment controversies that have been of great concern here because I didn’t really feel we got a chance to thoroughly discuss this sub-topic. I might have been wrong about this but it doesn’t really matter as it definitely felt like we did a great job with the other two sub-topics.
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