Today Show....School supply list

[patsal]

You may also remember that nobody is forcing you or any other teacher to take the job. I'm sure the private sector would love to add knowledgable, degreed staff to their workforce.

I've never had a problem with what I thought were my ethical obligations, but I don't think many of today's teacher's are prepared (or financially able) to put that much back into the classroom. That is why so many ask for help, by creating a list of needs for the classroom. To this day my list of supplies is very small--paper, pen and highlighter--they are available in my room to borrow if you need them. Not every teacher can afford to keep supplies for all the students he or she services.

 

[palavra]

We could choose to afford to send our kids to private school. We don't. Why? The close private schools don't have better test scores within our socio economic class as the public schools. The far private schools do a better job educating kids- but they are college prep private schools. Our district spend $8500 per student, those private schools have tuition at $18k a year and up.

So how is the private school being more effective?

Now, its my understanding that there are parts of the country where you don't have decent public schools. But that is not universal.

But you are only looking at one facet of the private schools. Test scores are just one part of what makes a school, whether public or private, good. Even if the test scores were the same for public and private schools in our area, we would still choose private. Why? Smaller class sizes, fewer major behavior problems, much more parent involvement, etc. BTW, our private school costs just $5600 a year.

 

[pilesoflaundry]

I don't have a problem with school supplies like pencils, paper, dry erase markers, tissue, hand sanitizers, etc. But toilet paper, bleech and detergent is unreasonable. The school needs to supply that. If they can't, then they need to look closer at their budget.

I used to feel the same way and was pretty mad they asked for soap and paper towels. Then I found out through the grapevine the state cut the school supply budget to $27000 for the entire year. That's it they get to buy all the soap, paper towels, pencils, paper etc. for 6 grades. They used to get $100,000 a year JUST for supplies. I think they may be doing the best they can with what they have.

Taxes have not gone down here in years, actually they went up. We need to ask the states where they are putting the tax money they are cutting from the schools. They have cut the budget more and more every year.

 

[heatherwillmom]

But you are only looking at one facet of the private schools. Test scores are just one part of what makes a school, whether public or private, good. Even if the test scores were the same for public and private schools in our area, we would still choose private. Why? Smaller class sizes, fewer major behavior problems, much more parent involvement, etc. BTW, our private school costs just $5600 a year.

When my kids were in private school, it cost $7,000 per year per child. I had 2 in private school. I kept DD there through 7th grade & DS through 5th grade. I switched them both to public school the same year. I didn't want the shock of public high school (our private school only went through 8th grade) to be a double shock because of the much bigger classes. The same year that I switched mine, about half of the middle school (which was 5-8 at this school) did too. There was a math teacher that was horrible. The kids math scored plummeted. Public schools had much better test scores. She had grades 4-8. She couldn't teach nor did she care. She spent the entire class period either talking on her cell phone or shopping on the internet. I couldn't believe this was true until a friend of "spied" outside of the classroom & said it was true. I went to the head master, the director of students, even the chairman of the board of the school, & no-one would do anything about her. I talked to about a dozen parents who did the same thing. I had a friend whose family had donated a very large amount of money (think 7 figures) to start this school. She was on the fund raising committee. She said this teacher's parents made a large donation to the school that had a lot to do with the fact that she wasn't fired. They finally demoted her to the younger grades. The chairman of the board called me during the sumer after I pulled my kids out & before school stared for the new year to see if there was anyway that I would return. I told her only if I got to watch them kick this teacher's a** out the back door. She said I was the only parent who had complained about her. I told her I could name at least a dozen parents who told me that they complained multiple times. I told her that she just proved to me that they cared more about my checkbook than my children. By the way, the friend whose family donated the very large amount of money to the school, she pulled her kids out that year too. Unfortunely, sometimes private schools aren't always better.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Nevermind. I googled and I am remembering liquid starch. Yep--I am so not crafty even though they fought me cool things in school. Lol!

I agree!! I just reread my previous post and it sounded as if I were complaining about our school list. I am not at all!!

Teachers spend so much of the disgracefully small salary that they recieve on our kids that it is ridiculous. It should be our privilege to volunteer to help in the classroom..or out doing cut-outs or other things for the classrooms. Clipping box tops, sending in used ink jet cartridges, or saving Campbells labels are things ANYONE can do. Your school will be glad to get them.

I do have to wonder though why a teacher would ask for detergent. Can't they just send a note home asking for a parent to do a load of dress-up clothes?

I wish that schools would do a better job letting the communities I know what things they need.

I wonder if detergent is for am activity like paper mâché. I have vague memories of using that for crafting at some point. It is ready made a d requires no mixing---so perhaps that is what it is for.

 

[pilesoflaundry]

(And in case someone misunderstands, I am not saying that those ESL students shouldn't have ESL at all, I'm just saying that they don't all need an individual teacher to do it.)

Be glad they do. Here the budget was cut so bad they lost the ESL teacher. They put all the ESL kids in one class with the remainder of the class english speaking kids so they hopefully learn it. You know who teaches those kids? The english speaking ones.

You know who suffers? Everyone. My child was in that class last year. She had a great teacher but the teacher could not understand these kids at ALL. She spent half the year just trying to figure out if they had the answers right or not. The kids that spoke english worked with them, a lot. My kid is a bit behind this year because of it. I am doing what I can but I should not have to reteach her all of last year. I would be thrilled if the school had the budget for an ESL teacher again. They do make sure your kid doesn't get that class 2 years in a row but what's done is done.

 

[Soben]

Part of the reason that private schools can educate so much more cheaply/efficiently is that they are not forced to take all children. Public schools have to educate everyone on the IQ spectrum and those at the lower ends are naturally taking up a disproportionate amount of the money. Of course it takes more money, they need aides and special buses and accommodations. When you add it all up and divide by the number of students the cost will be higher. If you had all kids with average IQs and no special needs, it would naturally cost less to educate them.

 

[MarilIncredible]

Getting back to the OP's opost, I don't have any kids in school [yet], but I think it is outrageous that the superintendent in my county got a 12% raise and makes close to 300K per year, while teachers were furloughed for 3 or 4 days [I can't remember how many] and the children have to bring in tissues, dry erase markers, band aids and hand sanitizer. I wish the superintendent would agree to take $50K less and then have the school board provide those items for all the classrooms.

When I do have kids in school, I know I will provide the items listed b/c it won't be an issue of whether or not I can afford it, and I wouldn't want the teacher's wallet to suffer b/c of tight school budgets, but it just seems wrong to me that the superintendent makes so much and got such a huge raise at a time like this.

 

[MomToOne]

We could choose to afford to send our kids to private school. We don't. Why? The close private schools don't have better test scores within our socio economic class as the public schools. The far private schools do a better job educating kids- but they are college prep private schools. Our district spend $8500 per student, those private schools have tuition at $18k a year and up.

So how is the private school being more effective?

Now, its my understanding that there are parts of the country where you don't have decent public schools. But that is not universal.

Test scores aren't all there is to a school. Even though that's all the politicians can talk about.

I'll admit my child pulls down her class score average, significantly, because she has a learning disability that shows up particularly bad on standardized testing. And since it is a very small school with only 12 kids in her grade, her poor score has a large effect on the average. But because we are in a small private school her teachers have had the time and inclination to find ways to help her learn outside the normal methods. That, combined with a lot of hard work outside of class by my daughter (that her teachers also play a key part in motivating her to do), has allowed my child to keep up with the class and even make straight As. But her test scores will always suck, just because standardized testing consists of all of the conditions that make her problems show up at their worst. Her teachers and I all know that her test scores DO NOT reflect her abilities in her particular case.

And while our public school shows acceptable test scores (as defined by the state, not me), they also have a 25% suspension rate. Tell me you'd like your child going to an ELEMENTARY school with a 25% suspension rate. And picture just what an elementary school age kid needs to do to get suspended

 

[palavra]

When my kids were in private school, it cost $7,000 per year per child. I had 2 in private school. I kept DD there through 7th grade & DS through 5th grade. I switched them both to public school the same year. I didn't want the shock of public high school (our private school only went through 8th grade) to be a double shock because of the much bigger classes. The same year that I switched mine, about half of the middle school (which was 5-8 at this school) did too. There was a math teacher that was horrible. The kids math scored plummeted. Public schools had much better test scores. She had grades 4-8. She couldn't teach nor did she care. She spent the entire class period either talking on her cell phone or shopping on the internet. I couldn't believe this was true until a friend of "spied" outside of the classroom & said it was true. I went to the head master, the director of students, even the chairman of the board of the school, & no-one would do anything about her. I talked to about a dozen parents who did the same thing. I had a friend whose family had donated a very large amount of money (think 7 figures) to start this school. She was on the fund raising committee. She said this teacher's parents made a large donation to the school that had a lot to do with the fact that she wasn't fired. They finally demoted her to the younger grades. The chairman of the board called me during the sumer after I pulled my kids out & before school stared for the new year to see if there was anyway that I would return. I told her only if I got to watch them kick this teacher's a** out the back door. She said I was the only parent who had complained about her. I told her I could name at least a dozen parents who told me that they complained multiple times. I told her that she just proved to me that they cared more about my checkbook than my children. By the way, the friend whose family donated the very large amount of money to the school, she pulled her kids out that year too. Unfortunely, sometimes private schools aren't always better.

I never said anything about private schools being better. I was just referring to the fact that there are many facets of a school to look at besides test scores.

 

[LizinSTL]

Test scores aren't all there is to a school. Even though that's all the politicians can talk about.

I'll admit my child pulls down her class score average, significantly, because she has a learning disability that shows up particularly bad on standardized testing. And since it is a very small school with only 12 kids in her grade, her poor score has a large effect on the average. But because we are in a small private school her teachers have had the time and inclination to find ways to help her learn outside the normal methods. That, combined with a lot of hard work outside of class by my daughter (that her teachers also play a key part in motivating her to do), has allowed my child to keep up with the class and even make straight As. But her test scores will always suck, just because standardized testing consists of all of the conditions that make her problems show up at their worst. Her teachers and I all know that her test scores DO NOT reflect her abilities in her particular case.

And while our public school shows acceptable test scores (as defined by the state, not me), they also have a 25% suspension rate. Tell me you'd like your child going to an ELEMENTARY school with a 25% suspension rate. And picture just what an elementary school age kid needs to do to get suspended

Let's see, an elementary student in my district can get in school suspension for being tardy too many times or not following a teacher's directions more than once or getting in a argument on the playground. An elementary school student in my district can get out of school suspension for bringing a cough drop to school, being tardy too many times, getting in an argument on the playground, pushing a peer in line, etc.

A 25 % oss rate is extremely high and very very rare. Most elementary schools, even in "rough" neighborhoods, rarely even hit a 5% suspension rate.

If your state says that the school made AYP, and at this point that's a very very high proficiency rate (above 70% proficient), how is that not good enough?

I've never heard of a school w/ a very high discipline rate- oss rate- make AYP. Never.

 

[tschales]

Test scores aren't all there is to a school. Even though that's all the politicians can talk about.

I'll admit my child pulls down her class score average, significantly, because she has a learning disability that shows up particularly bad on standardized testing. And since it is a very small school with only 12 kids in her grade, her poor score has a large effect on the average. But because we are in a small private school her teachers have had the time and inclination to find ways to help her learn outside the normal methods. That, combined with a lot of hard work outside of class by my daughter (that her teachers also play a key part in motivating her to do), has allowed my child to keep up with the class and even make straight As. But her test scores will always suck, just because standardized testing consists of all of the conditions that make her problems show up at their worst. Her teachers and I all know that her test scores DO NOT reflect her abilities in her particular case.

And while our public school shows acceptable test scores (as defined by the state, not me), they also have a 25% suspension rate. Tell me you'd like your child going to an ELEMENTARY school with a 25% suspension rate. And picture just what an elementary school age kid needs to do to get suspended

My daughter also has a testing issue and has been diagnosed with test anxiety as part of a much larger anxiety issue. That's why she does go to public school. In the private school here she would be tested as part of the whole class, which is only about 20 students but she cannot handle that large of a group. In the public school the teachers are required to provide small group and even individual testing due to her diagnosis. We are very fortunate to have a university lab school here that fall under federal guidelines with regard to testing students with exceptionalities but has fantastic test scores.

The school supply list for the school is, however, quite ridiculous. I have sent all of the supplies on the lists for each of my daughters every year only to have an entire bag of supplies sent back to me in May that are "extras." I teach at one of the public schools in the same area and would love to have that problem. A significant number of my students will not have supplies at all due to economic factors.

 

[MomToOne]

If your state says that the school made AYP, and at this point that's a very very high proficiency rate (above 70% proficient), how is that not good enough?

The school proficiency rate of our public school is only about 50% in any subject area across the entire school, and MUCH lower that that in some subject areas in some grades. But since they have made their "target" for progress over the last two years, the state considers them just great.

 

[LizinSTL]

The school proficiency rate of our public school is only about 50% in any subject area across the entire school, and MUCH lower that that in some subject areas in some grades. But since they have made their "target" for progress over the last two years, the state considers them just great.

They can't be making AYP if they are at 50% or lower in 2010. Every school must be at 100% proficiency by 2013. Even if they made AYP via safe harbor, that's a 10% increase PER YEAR. That's not a success??

You said your child had problems w/ standardized testing. Some kids will NEVER make proficiency no matter what you do to help them. They just won't. Economically disadvantaged students tend to do more poorly on standardized tests. A school or district with a high oss rate will likely be economically disadvantaged. A school that makes AYP even with safe harbor is making progress. It just is. I'm sorry that you live in a school district that you consider to be a poor one. I'm still having a hard time grasping the idea that a school made AYP AND had 25% or more of their students out on suspension at some point in the year.

Last year, a school in my district had over 100 suspensions. Which works out to be about 15% of the populations BUT it was only on about 40 kids which is actually only about 6%. Which number are you looking at - incidences or students?

 

[Purseval]

I'm still having a hard time grasping the idea that a school made AYP AND had 25% or more of their students out on suspension at some point in the year.

Perhaps they did it the old fashioned way:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...heating-scandals-across-nation-100900069.html

In our area it was pretty easy to see why the kids would do so poorly the teachers had to cheat to raise their scores. An investigation found that the odds of achievement scores rising so dramatically over the course of a year were over a billion to one. If the teachers couldn't figure that out (and how likely they were going to be caught over it) how were they supposed to be competent enough to teach the students?

 

[LizinSTL]

Perhaps they did it the old fashioned way:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...heating-scandals-across-nation-100900069.html

In our area it was pretty easy to see why the kids would do so poorly the teachers had to cheat to raise their scores. An investigation found that the odds of achievement scores rising so dramatically over the course of a year were over a billion to one. If the teachers couldn't figure that out (and how likely they were going to be caught over it) how were they supposed to be competent enough to teach the students?

Wow. Seriously? You're saying that improving achievement scores is cheating? Last fall in our 8th grade class only 14% were reading at or above grade level. That's awful. Just horrible. Instead of cheating to improve their reading (and in turn their standardized test scores) we all did whatever we could to work on their reading with them. In Science, Social Studies, Lit, Language and even Math.... we hit 'em hard with new strategies. By the last term of the year only 14% were NOT reading at or above grade level. That's not cheating, that's dedication and commitment. If our standardized test scores increased that dramatically, we'd welcome the investigation that proved our kids were really that successful

 

[Purseval]

That's not cheating, that's dedication and commitment.

That's what they said in Atlanta Now some teachers and administrators are looking at jail time and they are calling for the resignation of the "award-winning" Superintendent of Schools. They expect the news to get worse before it gets better. We also had an entire county school system lose accreditation. If you just reacted to the headline and didn't bother to read the article before you went on the defensive you would see that Atlanta isn't the only school system to get caught, it's a nationwide problem. I wasn't mentioning your school system one way or another, just pointing out what has happened to others.

 

[Mary•Poppins]

Just wanted to say thank you to the poster. It is very kind of you to help your schools.

The only thing I can tell you that teachers cannot get enough of ... are tissues!

 

[LizinSTL]

That's what they said in Atlanta Now some teachers and administrators are looking at jail time and they are calling for the resignation of the "award-winning" Superintendent of Schools. They expect the news to get worse before it gets better. We also had an entire county school system lose accreditation. If you just reacted to the headline and didn't bother to read the article before you went on the defensive you would see that Atlanta isn't the only school system to get caught, it's a nationwide problem. I wasn't mentioning your school system one way or another, just pointing out what has happened to others.

Didn't bother to read the article... commenting only on your post. But had you read the article, you'd have seen that it involved a very very small number of teachers. Studies estimate 1-5 percent nationwide... Yup, sounds like all test scores are being raised by cheaters...rather than dedication and hard work. @@

 

[Purseval]

Studies estimate 1-5 percent nationwide... Yup, sounds like all test scores are being raised by cheaters...rather than dedication and hard work.

If you have a problem with it don't blame the messenger. Look at the cheaters, the people who make people like you look bad. They aren't parents or students or PTA members. Care to guess what they are???

I also love your rationalization that it's only 1 to 5 percent. Would you fly on an airline where only 1 to 5 percent of the planes crashed every year?