Should Parents Be Able To Choose Their Children’s Schools ?
In traditional school format let’s look at these two items and COMPARE AND CONTRAST, then express your OPINION in 250 words or less:
√ #1 Donald Trump Jr speech to Republican National Convention 22 July 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlpPH1ZQ1eo
“The other party gave us public schools that far too often fail our students, especially those who have no options. Growing up, my siblings and I we were truly fortunate to have choices and options that others don’t have. We want all Americans to have those same opportunities.
Our schools used to be an elevator to the middle class, now they’re stalled on the ground floor. They’re like Soviet-era department stores that are run for the benefit of the clerks and not the customers, for the teachers and the administrators and not the students.
You know why other countries do better on K through 12? They let parents choose where to send their own children to school. That’s called competition. It’s called the free market. And it’s what the other party fears. They fear it because they’re more concerned about protecting the jobs of tenured teachers than serving the students in desperate need of a good education. They want to run everything top-down from Washington. They tell us they’re the experts and they know what’s best.”
√ #2 Fraser Institute’s Report Card on Alberta’s High Schools 2016, July 23, 2016
The Report Card on Alberta’s High Schools 2016 rates 307 public, private, separate and charter schools based on five academic indicators generated from grade 12 provincewide testing, grade-to-grade transition and graduation rates. “Alberta parents want the best for their families and having the ability to compare school performance helps them make a more informed decision about the school their children attend,” said Peter Cowley, Fraser Institute director of school performance studies.
Taking into account the last five years, Alberta’s two charter high schools achieved the highest average rating of 8.3 (out of 10), followed by private schools (8.1), separate schools (6.3) and public schools (6.0). In addition to the rankings, the Report Card illustrates which specific schools are improving or falling behind in academics. The data suggests that every school is capable of improvement . . .
“When parents see the Report Card’s objective evidence that a school’s results are consistently low or declining, they often become very effective advocates for improvement,” Cowley said. “Every year, every school in the province should find ways to improve student results—it’s as simple as that.”
https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/alberta-high-school-rankings-2016-newsrelease.pdf
[posted to SQE — http://www.societyforqualityeducation.org/index.php/blog/read/saturday-at-the-movies-trump-this ]
Making An Informed Choice On High Schools In Alberta ?
See the latest Report on ACADEMIC results on AB HSs
https://www.fraserinstitute.org/studies/report-card-on-albertas-high-schools-2016
Read the news release https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/alberta-high-school-rankings-2016-newsrelease.pdf
Read full FI reports on AB, BC, ON Elementary and High Schools, QC HS http://www.compareschoolrankings.org/
NOTE: FI Reports deal with the ACADEMIC side of schools, generally SKILLS of reading, writing, arithmetic and reasoning — what parents generally expect, and which can be measured by standardized testing. In contrast, educators are seen to be shifting to the AFFECTIVE domain, the COMPETENCIES, (creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, character, culture and computer technology) and which are hard to measure (and compare) against understood and acceptable standards. These differences need to be appreciated to see how the issues in education are stacking up regarding accountability, choice, parental vs establishment authority, international comparisons, etc.
[posted as part of my FB 20160723 on above SQE content and with additional comment.]