Its been a while since I've made a policy post

[achildnamedlove]

The Steven O’Keefe Education Plan

Apparently in Washington D.C, they spent $16,500 on each student every year.  That’s the highest in the nation.  Yet only 15% of the students read at their grade level.  That’s what we call throwing money at a problem.  So on my long drives home from work, I’ve been thinking about ways to improve schools.

How

Comments

[originaldw]

I'd vote for that plan, makes perfect sense to me

[achildnamedlove]

Let us mark this day! Dan Willing is agreeing with a Steve policy post!

[originaldw]

Its true... I think that may be a first

[rooks]

I like it, too. There's nothing wrong with giving students some money. I'd give them some in advance, though, because they can make way more than $5800 over 4 years if they just drop out, and having a regular salary would help discourage them from working part-time jobs instead of doing homework.

[achildnamedlove]

It was either that or the "finish line" model. I thought the finish line would be better because it focuses on graduation. Also, by not giving the money immediately, it negates the risk of students using the money to bribe teachers, buy drugs, or what have you.

[russkie247]

I like it except for the fact you'd have to account for an increased incentive to cheat among poorer students who will have a harder time paying for college. That can be fixed with total loss of funds for anyone caught cheating, though.

Also I like most things that have to do with fucking unions.

[achildnamedlove]

Yeah. Maybe if a person is willfully involved in cheeting, that person's account will be liquidated.

[i_love_kittens]

I agree with most of your points. However, I mentioned similar things to my step-mother, who is a teacher, and her response is, how do you measure performance? Think of a really good teacher you had, but taught a hard class, and now of a poor teacher that taught an easy class. If you base the evaluation on performance, then the good teacher will get punished. Also, the really good teachers did more then just impart the subject matter on you, they taught you valuable life lessons and changed your way of thinking about the world. Is there really a way to measure that?

In theory, your idea is great, but without a scale with which to measure teachers, how do you decide?

PS: Liking the incentive program. I seem to remember proposing something like that back in high school, though it was just for the money that that feds gave to the school if you graduated, somethign like a grand.

[achildnamedlove]

Well, I'd measure a teacher the same way I'd measure any other job. If their job is to impart Calc 1 onto a class, then the measurement is how well the students know Calc 1 at the end of the year.

Of course, kids will do worse in harder classes. Perhaps a college style grading system would be better for AP and other hard classes.

[i_love_kittens]

What about teachers that get dumb kids? Or teachers that have smart kids. Clearly the one with the smarter kids will have their children test better, while the one with dumber kids will not. How do you measure that?

[rooks]

It should be easy to compare their grades to their past academic achievements.