Not informing mom and dad!

When dealing with students and confidentiality, I generally ask myself, "If I were his/her parent(s), would I want to know?" If yes, then parents are put in the loop with what is going on with their kid.

Apparently this is not the case in the state of Washington and its public high schools. In fact, it's worse than that - they are actually helping kids keep their parents in the dark. Click here to read the story but be prepared to be shocked.

Update: Here is the link to the local news coverage in Seattle.

The cost to educate

In the private/parochial school world, we have to constantly be aware of what we charge vs. the actual cost of education per student. Giving and donations must make up the difference if a gap exists between tuition income and cost of education (true for most Christian schools).

This video fascinates me. Basically it makes the case that the cost to educate a student at many public schools is twice what a Christian high school can do it for.

The NEA and their influence

I try and avoid major political opinions on this blog, but it probably is time for a follow-up post to a previous post about the National Education Association and their political ties. As the national attention is turned to focus on the ties between D.C. and unions, the spotlight will fall more and more on the NEA and their committment to the liberal agenda.

I recently discovered an interesting website, neaexposed.com, which takes the time to carefully make the case about the interests of the NEA and its ties to our public schools. It's tasteful and "pro-teacher," even though it is critical of the fundamental purpose(s) of the NEA. Enjoy.

The effects of the economy

It's a difficult time for parochial schools all over the country these days as famlies have less and less discretionary income for education. But a lax economy affects public school districts as well as tax revenue decreases. I was speculating with another teacher the other day as to what will be the biggest change to occur first in education due to lack of resources.

An article out of California suggests that class sizes will get bigger.

I also suspect that "specialists" will be phased out as well and teachers will be asked more and more to have the ability to teach a class with students that have a wide array of abilities. We'll see if that turns out to be true.

Kung Fu Lunacy

And now class, as a reward for your hard work and good behavior you get to:

Watch a rated R movie!!

Check out this story - lunacy at its finest.

No Bible verse banners at the football games . . .

Interesting story out of Georgia - read it here.

Makes me wonder why we don't have more Bible verse banners at our sporting events (just because we can).

Meeping

I wonder if they added it to their parent/student handbook . . . read here.

Scooping Fox News

OK - so I didn't actually do any actual investigative work . . . BUT, as you watch the TV coverage of the current national Safe and Drug Free Schools czar, Kevin Jennings, and his connections with homosexual and pedophilia activism, keep in mind that I blogged about him back in June. Scroll down to find that previous post (June 7).

Yikes.

Cancelling high school sports

Interesting array of articles lately in the news about high schools that are cancelling high school sports due to lack of funding and a down economy. Hard to know if a significant trend is developing, but Sports Illustrated saw it coming last year and thought enough about it to write an article.

If a true trend develops, I wonder if it could mean a movement toward private/parochial schools. We'll see.

Irony!?!

Did anyone else catch how Obama finished his address to the students of America today?

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

He mentioned God in school! Odds are that if he was a valedictorian at one of nation's public high schools, some principal would have made him take that out of his speech.

Beautiful irony.

Textbooks

Fox News has been on the "biased textbooks" trail lately - something that is hard to find definitive examples of but is generally believed by educators to be true.

I think some level of "bias" in textbooks should be expected: if the author of a textbook approaches the subject from a Christian worldview, I would expect that its tone and outlook to be different that a textbook written by avowed atheistic college professors. Duh. I've never found it to be a huge deal. It's far more important that a Christian teacher can spot anti-Christian bias and point it out to the students.

With that being said, some of the examples put forth in the following article are shocking - Jesus as a Palestinian is pretty bad. The promotion of Islam is true for most of the World History textbooks that I have seen.

Check out the clip of this special that ran a few days ago on Fox News:

Changing student grades

I have often wondered about an interesting dichotomy that exists in public education:

If student failures = "bad publicity" = less money to the school district, then what incentive exists for raising standards if more kids fail? Why not just artificially inflate student grades and claim academic excellence?

It seems that is becoming an issue in Chicago - check out this shocking article!

Here's an interesting bit from the article:

"It's in the culture of the schools,'' wrote one experienced high school teacher who raised numerous grades under pressure -- and said at least one was changed without his approval. "You can't completely be honest in grading students, otherwise the failure rate would be off the chart.''

WOW!

What about charter schools? - part II

Great article today in WorldMag.com about the fall of the urban Christian schools and its relationship with vouchers and charter schools. Here's my favorite paragraph from the article:

Bob Rogalski, a marketer for Christian schools with the Christian School Development Center, divides Christian school supporters into two groups that sometimes clash. The first—the "Stalwarts"—passionately believe in a Christian education that strengthens morals and theology. They run the church that runs the school and write prompt donation checks to support it. The "Seekers" are the Gen-X parents—spiritual but not religious, looking not for doctrine but accreditation, not for theology but textbooks, an education that will prepare their kids more for the job market than the afterlife. If they're out of money they'll go to a charter school instead, and the "Baptist" in the name just won't impress them.

Sounds like he read my previous post.

What about the charter schools?

I get asked on occasion this question: Has the rise of charter schools hurt enrollment at Christian schools?

For those families who are seeking a Christian education, charter schools usually aren't an option because they are still under control of a school district and inherently secular. But for families who are seeking a "non-public-school option," charter schools are appealing for two huge reasons:

1. They are run much like private and Christian schools with all the perks that that brings.
2. They are free.

So, I answer the question with . . . .yes.

Relating to #1 above - check out what is happening in Los Angeles HERE. The public school district is converting 250 schools to charter schools so they can be saved and managed better. I can't even think of good analogy to describe how shocking that is . . . .maybe I'll add one later.

More wackiness from California!

I'm back - pardon the summer layoff from blogging - school news is slow in the summer.

A woman who four and a half years ago was fired for playing a song in a public school that had the word "Christ"in it had her day in court today -I'll update the results soon. Here's the link to the story.