Good, Short, Read for Non-teachers

The link below is to a regular columnist for Georgia School Watch, Curmudgucation.

The blog post is called, "Five Myths About Tenure and FILO."

It deals with the following Myths:

• Teachers want to protect bad teachers.
• Tenure guarantees a job for life.
• Administrators' hands are tied.
• Young teachers are shut out of the profession.
• Teachers don't want to be evaluated.

While this isn't directly about DeKalb Schools, this is relevant due to the Board of Education election on May 20th. Even more so because the large crowd of republican candidates for State School Superintendent will be using these myths in their campaign literature and stump speeches.

I will repeat what I implied earlier, the problems with public schools are problems of organizational structure and leadership.

Common Core State Standards are not going to radically improve public schools, but I believe they are better than the current state standards.

Tying teacher merit pay to student test scores is not going to improve education, but will lead to more teaching-to-the-test.

Some of the things I believe could improve the education of children in DeKalb County are smaller class sizes, longer school days, more flexibility in teaching, and more parental involvement EVERY DAY with their children's education.

I have to point out that minimum class sizes are effectively set by the state DOE with the funding formula. It is the legislature and GaDOE with whom parents need to advocate for smaller class sizes.

Please start as soon as possible.

*This blog is only my opinion and does not represent any other person or group.