Comments on: Is TSL the answer?

By: Darren

Darren — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:49:33 +0000

I’m still a bit iffy on the difference between reducing class size and reducing total student load. Can anyone explain this to a lowly high school math teacher? I’m not certified to teach anything but math, so given that, how would my TSL be reduced except by block scheduling (which I don’t support) or by reducing class size?

By: Jane

Jane — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 12:59:03 +0000

Polski3,

How does your school “royally screws our GATE students by putting them in â€œclustersâ€? How does putting them together hurt them?

I thought putting GATE kids together was a best practice for GATE kids.

My school royally screws its GATE kids by separating and isolating them.

By: BadaBing

BadaBing — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:09:04 +0000

I don’t think Mrs. Davis was labeling all low-performing students as “losers,” but I could be wrong. I think she was talking about losers, i.e., the narcissistic pathologues that come to school with no intention of doing anything other than taking up space and disrupting class. And of course the powers-that-be contort themselves out of shape in order to save them from themselves. Unfortunately, they were lost before they ever entered your classroom, but the liberal egalitarian mind cannot accept that there exists such a thing as losers. And because of that worldview, teachers are tasked with trying any number of educational strategies and fads in order to reach them, and if teachers fail at it, it’s the teachers’ fault. Bright kids are often neglected because they just don’t ignite the flames of altruism that the losers do. Besides, you don’t get a hero’s medal or a film made about you for spending time on bright kids.

By: Linda F

Linda F — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 18:58:05 +0000

I don’t believe that you can label low-performing students as “losers”. It may seem like a poor choice to put the “intensive” students in small classes, but the alternative may be to place them in larger classes than they have the ability to handle. When they feel overwhelmed with work that is too hard, and feeling less able, they will maintain their esteem the only way they can – by becoming a disruptive PITA (no, not the bread, the Pain in The —).

By: Polski3

Polski3 — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 18:05:28 +0000

I have fewer students in several of my classes this year ( Grade 7 World History in California). Why? Because a certain percentage of our students are not enrolled in History classes. Why not? Because they are sent to junior high with 2-3rd grade reading levels, and “Far Below Average” test scores in Math. So our JHS offers them two periods of math, two periods of LA, PE and Science. Why science ? Because for JHS’s, apparently science Grade 8 test scores are more important than Grade 8 History/Social Studies test scores.

In the past, I have had “low performing/academic skills” students in my classes who did well. In part, it is up to the student and what attitude they bring to the classroom. Our school royally screws our GATE students by putting them in “clusters”. My “GATE cluster” class includes about 12 GATE students, about 12 ELL students, three students labeled “Highly At Risk,” and a handful of “regular” students.

Some of lowering class sizes can be negotiated. Our local high schools have, by their contract, a limit of 24 students in science classes. Our district, meanwhile, allows, by contract, up to 45 students in a PE class.

Schools who are allowed to use money to lower class sizes are, IMO, lucky. But, is it done equally across the board, or has it been done to provide yet another service to the lowest level students ?

By: david foster

david foster — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 16:12:19 +0000

I suspect that the people who would seek a job as principal in a world where they have budget authority and results accountability are pretty much a different group from those who seek the job in an environment of minimal authority and accountability. Maybe there are a few frustrated souls who are rarin’ to go if they could only get the reins in their hands, but in general, the typical administrative pattern probably weeds out the enthusiasts and retains the time-servers.

By: Mrs. Davis

Mrs. Davis — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 15:36:08 +0000

A period with 10 “intensive students” and one with 32 “GATE” students. Yeah, let’s spend three times as much on losers as we do on the bright kids who will actually lead society. Do we do this to make t4reating each kid the same look good?

By: allen

allen — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 12:26:46 +0000

Maybe if your martinet were on the hook to produce measurable academic results the pleasures of misusing authority would be forced to take a back seat or the martinet would be gone.

Right now all your martinet has to do is *not* become an annoyance to higher administration and there’s no fault. But if academic results become the criteria for determining job performance then the its the subordinates who determine how the principal measures up.

By: BadaBing

BadaBing — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 05:34:19 +0000

God forbid that the martinet currently serving as our principal gets control over the school budget.

By: Rob Jacobs

Rob Jacobs — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 04:28:25 +0000

California has created a statewide grant program called the Quality Education Investment Act. 488 low performing elementary, junior, and high schools were selected to receiving funding geared at increasing student achievement through a number of means, but primarily lowering class sizes. The approximately $3 billion dollars is supposed to increase student achievement by lowering class sizes in all grades and in the key subject areas.

Will it work? We will see, but the key will be if the lower class size allows for better teaching in the classroom. The teaching quality in the classroom is the true key. Lower class sizes allow for better interaction with students, ease in small grouping, etc, but if the teaching is the same before the smaller class size, it would be difficult to predict increased student achievement.