Texas Education Agency announces takeover of the Houston ISD - 3/15/2023

[seeker_two]

Good luck with that!
If you find a list of State employee salaries, a very large portion of the 100 highest paid are in the "education" industry.

.....none of which are teachers or anyone directly involved with academics.

 

[Coiled]

Correct, hence my "education" industry and why I think the TEA will not go away.

 

[TXAZ]

I taught Physics at a relatively affluent, well funded public school district in DFW. High SAT’s and National Merit Scholars.
We had few problems compared to the larger districts. Many teachers came from large districts where a D or F could only be given if the student committed mass murder on camera in class, and the principal and an administrator approved.

Realize that social promotion is a virtual requirement in districts like HISD in order to continue state funding. So what happens whe an employer interviews these HS graduates for good entry level jobs? Hey! These grads have chemistry, physics, algebra, geometry and elementary analysis. They graduated in the top 1/2. Great says the employer. And they are minority. Even better!
But the kid can’t multiply 2 numbers without a calculator, doesn’t know Newton’s 1st law, can’t read and understand basic instructions,
etc…
So these kids who could really use a break are kicked to the curb because the district AND their parents failed them. Who wants to hire them? Not many employers.

How do you solve the problem?
Small districts only. Vouchers for all. All compete for students and funding. No social promotion.
Accountability at all levels, especially legislative. (You wouldn’t believe the bullshit legislators make teachers do )
Increase teaching salaries. Encourage/ require parental involvement.

 

[Coiled]

I taught Physics at a relatively affluent, well funded public school district in DFW.

What does that mean? What happened to the Robin Hood $$$ reallocation of many years ago?

 

[mm54943]

I just hate that teachers take the blame for everything. I mean you could put every experienced, high graded teacher from a nicer district such as Katy ISD into a HS like Wheatley (the school that's being mentioned the most for subpar scores) and I guarantee you it wouldn't do a damn thing to improve it. I want to know when parents are going to be held accountable.

 

[Sasquatch]

I just hate that teachers take the blame for everything. I mean you could put every experienced, high graded teacher from a nicer district such as Katy ISD into a HS like Wheatley (the school that's being mentioned the most for subpar scores) and I guarantee you it wouldn't do a damn thing to improve it. I want to know when parents are going to be held accountable.

Parents play a big part, but teachers do as well. Its supposed to be a partnership to educate kids. Kids are at school 6-8 hours / day, and if the parents work, they *might* get 2 hours of actual useful time - beyond making dinner and taking care of household chores (if they do such) before sending the kids to bed or going to bed themselves to get up and do the same shit over and over.

I'd really like to see the demographics of the average Houston ISD student's household - how many have two parents at home, how many of those have a stay at home parent able to help focus the kids, or parents who work but have schedules conducive to the educational needs at home of their kids, and how many are single parent households, how many of those have a working single parent vs welfare, how many of those have multiple kids... something tells me there's a lot of single parent households, and a lot probably have multiple kids and the parents have just given up, if they even tried to begin with.

You then have to look at administration, enforcement of policies, disicplinary issues, etc. A school can do well academically, but still be an unsafe for students, and the kids facing instability or being targetted by their peers won't be performing well.

If there is no discipline or accountability for one's actions, the kids will get out of control, and the teachers will have a hell of a time trying to rein them in. That shit comes from the administration, not the teachers. They set the tone, and if the admin lets kids get away with shit, the kids will keep pushing and you lose control.

You still need to be able to recruit good teachers though - and that means fair compensation, which a lot of districts don't do well, especially with experienced teachers.

How much turn over does Katy ISD, Klein ISD, Cy-Fair ISD, or Tomball ISD have versus Houston ISD? HISD is at or above 12% - I'd bet that the others aren't even half that, and there's probably good reasons, and compensation being just one.

 

[TXAZ]

There have been a few magnet schools in inner citlies that have done well. But it is the exception .