10-14-2009, 02:55 PM
tgalarneau:
I have to say a few words in defense of charter schools, while there are some Hawaiian Culture based charter schools they are not the norm. For some families those schools are the best fit, but they are not the only charter options. At my school (Connections) I spent the morning today proctoring the PSAT. Every single 10th and 11th grader takes it. Our stated goal is that every single Connections graduate is college ready, and taking the PSAT is part of the process that gets them there. We also require every graduate to have had a "post-secondary" educational experience, which usually means taking a class at HCC or UHH in their Junior or Senior year, paid for by Connections.
We require far more specific course work and credits than DOE schools to get our diploma: 4 years each of science, language arts, math, and social studies plus at least 1 year of a world language and other assorted required electives like PE and the Arts. We manage to do this with about 1/2 the funding as DOE schools, plus we pay for our buildings out of our per pupil funding.
Yes, we do have Hawaiian language, Hawaiian studies, and Hula, but these are not all our kids do. Hawaiian is a legitimate language and counts towards our language requirement, Hula can be either a PE or a Fine Arts credit, and Hawaiian studies is a demanding Social Studies class. These classes are taken by both Hawaiian students and kids from other backgrounds, they are demanding classes taught by a fully certified teacher who is Highly Qualified under NCLB federal guidelines.
I believe that HAAS is just as demanding, although with a different guiding philosophy.
My last point is more general, most teachers hate the "training days" and "professional development" days. These are management driven and every teacher I know would far rather teach to their students than spend a day listening to some windbag who hasn't stepped into a classroom with actual kids in it for 20 years droning on and on telling us how to fill out additional paperwork they've created to prove we actually teach. I spent most of the October "vacation" cutting and pasting information from the state standards into curriculum maps to fulfill NCLB federal mandates. I would have worked those days anyway, but instead of designing dynamic and challenging lesson plans I was stuck filling out paperwork that was going to go into a file somewhere in Oahu, never to be seen again.
Carol
I have to say a few words in defense of charter schools, while there are some Hawaiian Culture based charter schools they are not the norm. For some families those schools are the best fit, but they are not the only charter options. At my school (Connections) I spent the morning today proctoring the PSAT. Every single 10th and 11th grader takes it. Our stated goal is that every single Connections graduate is college ready, and taking the PSAT is part of the process that gets them there. We also require every graduate to have had a "post-secondary" educational experience, which usually means taking a class at HCC or UHH in their Junior or Senior year, paid for by Connections.
We require far more specific course work and credits than DOE schools to get our diploma: 4 years each of science, language arts, math, and social studies plus at least 1 year of a world language and other assorted required electives like PE and the Arts. We manage to do this with about 1/2 the funding as DOE schools, plus we pay for our buildings out of our per pupil funding.
Yes, we do have Hawaiian language, Hawaiian studies, and Hula, but these are not all our kids do. Hawaiian is a legitimate language and counts towards our language requirement, Hula can be either a PE or a Fine Arts credit, and Hawaiian studies is a demanding Social Studies class. These classes are taken by both Hawaiian students and kids from other backgrounds, they are demanding classes taught by a fully certified teacher who is Highly Qualified under NCLB federal guidelines.
I believe that HAAS is just as demanding, although with a different guiding philosophy.
My last point is more general, most teachers hate the "training days" and "professional development" days. These are management driven and every teacher I know would far rather teach to their students than spend a day listening to some windbag who hasn't stepped into a classroom with actual kids in it for 20 years droning on and on telling us how to fill out additional paperwork they've created to prove we actually teach. I spent most of the October "vacation" cutting and pasting information from the state standards into curriculum maps to fulfill NCLB federal mandates. I would have worked those days anyway, but instead of designing dynamic and challenging lesson plans I was stuck filling out paperwork that was going to go into a file somewhere in Oahu, never to be seen again.
Carol
Carol
Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb
Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb