You go through the normal litany of questions when your child comes home from school. How was your day? Did you learn anything new? What do you have for homework? What papers do I need to see? Digging through the daily folder, you come upon crumpled assignment sheets and check out the red-highlighted grades on each page. Realizing the time, you begin to make supper and the evening progresses as normal.
Are you ever surprised when you get your child’s report card? What if their report card didn’t properly reflect how little your child was actually learning in school?
A recent rally based on the results of a report titled “When good is not enough in Illinois public schools” kicked off the Illinois state Statewide Action and Grassroots Education (SAGE) Campaign which is focused on inner-city school reform throughout the state. Part of the report focuses on the reduced school days throughout Illinois, which decreases the education time available to teachers by 62%.
If you could be a fly on the wall of your child’s classroom, the chances are you would be disappointed about how much time actually gets spent teaching your child. Like the Illinois SAGE program, several other states along with the federal government are taking a closer look at the real learning going on in our classrooms.
In the light of the fact that many of our schools are delivering less than expected for our kids, site like
http://www.edreform.com/Home/, the Center for Education Reform, keep readers updated on the latest developments in the realities of our kids education. You can search for headlines for your state and even find out how to get involved.
So, back to those questions you ask your child when they get home from school. Wait, do they really matter if the education they’re getting IN the classroom is already substandard? No. They don’t.
Posted By: Paul Adams
Friday, May 21st 2010 at 3:46PM
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