Post by BrianSullivan on Oct 4, 2010 16:17:50 GMT -5
The following is a very good read from Greg Bean. While Mark Zuckerberg's donation is very generous and very nice of him, Bean provides some good reminders. Click on the link for the whole story.
newstranscript.gmnews.com/news/2010-09-29/Greg_Bean%27s_Column/Lets_hope_they_spend_all_of_that_100_million_wisel.html
my favorite parts:
.........Newark — where 46 percent of the district’s 40,000 students fail to graduate and where just 30 percent read and write at grade level. But one thing we’ve learned in New Jersey is that throwing money at educational trouble spots does not translate into an equivalent bump in academic achievement.
Newark, like 30 other urban school districts in the state, has been what was formerly called an Abbott district for years, and as such has gotten millions of dollars in state money required by the 1985 New Jersey Supreme Court ruling that forced the state to provide an adequate education to students in some of the poorest districts.
.....Thanks in large part to Abbott money, educators in those districts are very well paid, and facilities have improved dramatically. Currently, teachers in Newark are the highest paid teachers in New Jersey, and the schools spend $20,000 per year per pupil, 47 percent higher than the state average.
Still, the results are abysmal — and while Newark’s graduation and achievement results may be the worst of all the Abbott districts, results in the other districts have been consistently poor as well.
......until parents become more actively involved in their kids’ education and demand performance, until students are truly motivated by their peers, families and their society to excel — no amount of money will solve the problem.
newstranscript.gmnews.com/news/2010-09-29/Greg_Bean%27s_Column/Lets_hope_they_spend_all_of_that_100_million_wisel.html
my favorite parts:
.........Newark — where 46 percent of the district’s 40,000 students fail to graduate and where just 30 percent read and write at grade level. But one thing we’ve learned in New Jersey is that throwing money at educational trouble spots does not translate into an equivalent bump in academic achievement.
Newark, like 30 other urban school districts in the state, has been what was formerly called an Abbott district for years, and as such has gotten millions of dollars in state money required by the 1985 New Jersey Supreme Court ruling that forced the state to provide an adequate education to students in some of the poorest districts.
.....Thanks in large part to Abbott money, educators in those districts are very well paid, and facilities have improved dramatically. Currently, teachers in Newark are the highest paid teachers in New Jersey, and the schools spend $20,000 per year per pupil, 47 percent higher than the state average.
Still, the results are abysmal — and while Newark’s graduation and achievement results may be the worst of all the Abbott districts, results in the other districts have been consistently poor as well.
......until parents become more actively involved in their kids’ education and demand performance, until students are truly motivated by their peers, families and their society to excel — no amount of money will solve the problem.