The failing American School System

[angelburst29]

The American school system has been steadily declining since the early 1970's. The introduction of "Common Core" has added to the deterioration but it is only one symptom to a larger problem. When a Countries highest priority is to feed a war machine and grant it's Military elite full rein, subtracting vital financial resources needed to sustain it's own operating infrastructure, it's only a matter of time before it collapses in on itself. As a Country, we are at a point now, where we are unable to meet the basic needs for our own children. (But Pakistan is pi$$ed off at the U.S. because Trump has decided to cut off "million's" in financial aid?)

Baltimore students and teachers returned back to school from holiday break on Tuesday, expecting to start the new year with a bang, but that was an overly optimistic assumption for a collapsing school system, as they found their classrooms flooded and indoor temperatures barely above freezing. Starting off on the wrong foot, Baltimore’s school system could be on track for a turbulent year, in conjunction with a widespread cheating scandal.

Children Forced To Freeze, As Baltimore Schools Open With No Heat 03 January, 2018 (Photos - Tweets)
https://stockboardasset.com/insights-and-research/baltimore-schools-open-with-no-heat-while-children-freeze/

The recent cold snap in Maryland has sent temperatures across the state plunging. For instance, on Wednesday morning, Baltimore printed at 11 degrees.

On Tuesday, the cold weather paralyzed the school system across the city, however, schools remained open despite the horrific conditions.

“It was miserable. The kids had their coats, hats, and gloves on all day,” said Jesse Schneiderman, a social, studies teacher at Frederick Douglass High School.

One classroom at Frederick Douglass was completely destroyed, after flooding from a burst pipe rendered the classroom unsafe.

“A teacher in our basement, because her room is under the flooded classroom, lost all of her materials,” he said. “Other teachers had to teach in the library because their classrooms were too cold.”

Schneiderman added, “we were shocked we weren’t one of the schools sent home.” He also said water damage destroyed the wrestling room, the weight room, and the JROTC room.

Baltimore Brew notes that temperatures were barely above freezing in classrooms.

THE HIGHEST IT GOT HERE WAS 40 DEGREES – FROM 7 A.M. UNTIL 2:40 PM WHEN SCHOOL DISMISSED, IT NEVER WARMED UP.

Four schools closed on Tuesday for weather-related issues, but social media indicates cold conditions in schools were widespread.

Social media was flooded with angry parents and teachers voicing their concern for a deteriorating schools system. Baltimore Brew reports classrooms at “Patterson High School, City College and Calverton Elementary School” also experienced no heat.

Today, on one of the coldest days this winter, several Baltimore City Public Schools forced students to go to schools with no heat, busted water pipes, and cold lunches.

Jeffrey San Filippo, a seventh and eighth-grade history teacher at Calverton Elementary/Middle School, lashed out Baltimore City Schools and alerted the local media after his classroom only made it to a high of 40 degrees. San Filippo was shocked when he found out the city opened so many unheated schools, meanwhile they reassured everyone on social media everything was fine.

On Wednesday, it’s day two with no heat and the social media outbursts continue…

Baltimore Brew reports city officials are “feverishly” working to prevent a further collapse in the school system,

Reached at City Schools headquarters in North Avenue, spokeswoman Edie House-Foster said school officials are doing their best with aging facilities.

“We have some of the oldest buildings in the state of Maryland,” House-Foster said. “Trying to maintain heat with the extreme temperatures and wind chills we’ve been having is extremely difficult.”

“Our facilities teams have been working feverishly to address the problems,” she said.

House-Foster said officials try to keep schools open where possible to make sure students can receive needed services like free and reduced price meals. She said she was only aware of weather-related problems at four schools:

Woodlhome Elementary/Middle School, the Elementary/Middle Alternative Program and Frederick Elementary either closed or dismissed early, she said.

Lakeland Elementary/Middle released students at 12:45 p.m. because of heating system issues.

Councilman Zeke Cohen said he recognizes the school system’s challenges, but “the school system needs to do a better job of protecting kids.”

“It is not acceptable for children to be learning in freezing temperatures,” he said. “Understanding we’re going to be in extremely cold temperatures, they’ve got to make sure schools are prepared.”

Cohen said he heard today from parents and teachers across his Southeast Baltimore district, concerned about freezing classrooms.

On social media, Baltimore City Schools updated the community on more closures indicating the problem is more widespread than initially thought:

As we reported last night, there is more bad news for the East Coast. A “Bomb Cyclone” is set to detonate off the coast producing wicked winter weather, but what is following the storm could be even more devastating for the region. ”The whole troposphere is coming south and we will not avoid an intense cold snap lasting several days,” said StormHamster.com.

With more cold air expected to plow onto into the East Coast through the weekend. We wonder, can Baltimore City Schools avoid a further collapse?

 

[Arwenn]

This reminds me of a few articles I've read on SoTT regarding this dumbing down and frankly pitiful state of the education system:

[quote author=SoTT]
Lawyers sue California because too many children can't read

Julie Watson
Sacramento Bee
Tue, 05 Dec 2017 14:11 UTC

In this May 10, 2011, file photo, Van Buren Elementary school teacher Debra Keyes teaches a class in Stockton, Calif. A group of prominent lawyers representing teachers and students from poor performing schools filed a lawsuit against the state of California on Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2017, arguing that the state has done nothing about a high number of school children who do not know how to read. Van Buren Elementary School is among the plaintiffs.

A group of prominent lawyers representing teachers and students from poor performing schools sued California on Tuesday, arguing that the state has done nothing about a high number of schoolchildren who do not know how to read.

The advocacy law firm, Public Counsel, filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court to demand the California Department of Education address its "literacy crisis." The state has not followed suggestions from its own report on the problem five years ago, the lawsuit said.

"When it comes to literacy and the delivery of basic education, California is dragging down the nation," said Public Counsel lawyer Mark Rosenbaum, who sued along with the law firm Morrison & Foerster.

Department of Education spokesman Bill Ainsworth said officials could not comment because the state had not yet been served with the lawsuit. English assessments found less than half of California students from third grade to fifth grade have met statewide literacy standards since 2015. Both traditional and charter schools are failing, Rosenbaum said.

Of the 26 lowest-performing districts in the nation, 11 are in California, according to the lawsuit. Texas, the largest state after California, has only one district among the 26.

Among the plaintiffs are current and former teachers and students from three of California's lowest performing schools: La Salle Avenue Elementary School in Los Angeles; Children of Promise Preparatory Academy, a charter school in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood; and Van Buren Elementary School, in the central California city of Stockton.

One of the plaintiffs is an 11-year-old student identified only as Katie T. When she completed fifth grade at La Salle, she was at the reading level of a student just starting third grade and was given no meaningful help, the lawsuit said.

State assessments found 96 percent of students at the school were not proficient in English or math, according to the lawsuit. Only eight of the school's 179 students were found to be proficient when tested last year.

David Moch, another plaintiff, is a retired teacher who taught at La Salle for 18 years. Moch said he had fifth graders in his kindergarten class. Teachers were not given training or help to deal with the situation and programs that did seem to make a dent were discontinued, Moch said.

"I chose to teach at La Salle because I wanted to help," he said. "Every day I was there, I witnessed students' lack of access to literacy."

The plaintiffs want the state to create an accountability system to monitor literacy levels. They also seek screenings of reading levels at the beginning and middle of the school year for elementary school students and interventions based on programs proven to succeed.[/quote]

To be fair, I don't think more monitoring and reporting will help, it just leads to more 'outcome based' learning rather than any creating a foundation for deep literacy and numeracy skills. Australia has National monitoring systems in place right from kindergarten- and while it might appear to improve learning outcomes on paper, based on the data they collect, I know plenty of kids whose lack of grammar, spelling, basic math, and geography is staggering.

 

[Arwenn]

Another article in SoTT about Common Core

[quote author=SoTT]
Florida school drops Common Core: Soars to #1 in English Language Arts

Alex Pietrowski
Waking Times
Mon, 10 Jul 2017 14:43 UTC

The federally mandated, nationally standardized education program Common Core has many parents and teachers concerned. For starters, it imposes rigorous testing onto students, forcing curriculums to be molded around exams, not necessarily around learning or the development of critical thinking. Additionally, Common Core is part of a system developed by corporations and aims to prepare children for the life of being an employee, not a change-maker.

The program is causing friction around the nation, and a slow-burn rebellion of sorts is underway. In 2015, 4th grader Sydney Smoot made national headlines when she eloquently ripped standardized testing at a school board meeting.

So what happens to a school and the students therein when Common Core is abandoned altogether? Mason Classical Academy (MCA), a charter school in Naples, Florida has been applauded for its testing results in English Language Arts after the school ditched Common Core.

In a letter to parents of MCA, principal David Hull explained the dilemma facing the school and its students:
There is, however, a serious conundrum we face as a classical, public charter school: Not only are we to use our own curriculum and offer a different choice than the regular public schools, but we are also mandated to pass the state test. This begs some questions. Which is more critical, a solid education or passing state tests? Can we accomplish delivering both? Is it ethical to focus more on state standards than a rigorous curriculum influenced by one of the most prestigious colleges in the world, Hillsdale College? Are we able to accomplish our mission with state mandates and Common Core breathing down our necks? Do we have our students practice for state tests on computers because tests are now computer-based? Are our students at an automatic disadvantage because we choose paper and pencil over keyboards and mice? These are difficult questions to answer, and ones that will be revealed only by time.

To confront this issue head on, the school tried something of which many others should take notice. It developed its own educational standards based on proper discipline on the part of students, respectful dedication on the part of teachers, and a platform of virtues that have historically been prevalent in classical education.

Character traits such as respect, integrity, citizenship, and responsibility are not only explicitly taught during assemblies, but are embedded throughout classical literature, history, and fine arts instruction. Where are those standards mandated by the state?

Among this programmatic shift at MCA was a return to phonics based learning when teaching young children how to read. Common Core has been widely criticized for complicating the process by which children learn to read, confusing them by making them memorize whole words before learning how to read sounds and recognize syllables. In short, Common Core abandons phonics-based learning, and when MCA returned to this approach, the results were outstanding.

It was hardly surprising, either, to learn that students at MCA were at the top across Florida as well. Third graders at MCA were in the top 2 percent in the state. In fifth grade, MCA students were in the top 1 percent for Florida. The results speak for themselves.
Furthermore:
Thanks to the classical approach of phonics, an impressive 90 percent of the third-grade students at Mason Classical Academy were proficient in English Language Arts, compared to just 58 percent in the county overall, most of whom rely on Common Core. In fact, the MCA third-graders were in Florida's top two percent, while fifth graders from the academy ranked in the state's top one percent.
In today's conformist culture it is no surprise that MCA has been attacked by others for their willingness to take control of their own standards, even though the results speak for themselves.

Final Thoughts

For those serious about exposing Common Core, its clear that as a conspiracy, the program appears to be designed to crush divergent thinking, offering an inroad into the minds of our children which is to be exploited by the interests of the State.
Common core children are not allowed to synthesize latent creativity, and they spend little time in nature. They also are not given an inspiring human mentor, as much as a by-the-book curriculum regurgitating 'teacher' who has also been dumbed down by the educational system. This person is more concerned, through their own educational brainwashing, to apply the latest psychological theories, without truly teaching a child to be on fire for learning.

Intelligence agencies also infiltrate the educational system in order to train and recruit future elite personnel. People are chosen based on their ability to follow orders, not diverge from the transhumanist agenda. Common core is a massive take-over of the educational system, similar to the takeover of the agricultural system, our water, our banking system, etc. In short, it benefits the military industrial complex and a handful of corporations, not your children's budding intellectual genius.
How long will it be before other schools in America see the light and follow MCA in ditching Common Core?

Alex Pietrowski is an artist and writer concerned with preserving good health and the basic freedom to enjoy a healthy lifestyle.

Comment: Common Core advocates make no bones about their goals:
Common Core Panelist: "The Children Belong to All of Us"
Common Core stance gets mom suspended from her child's school - threatened with arrest‏
Creating a generation of Authoritarian Followers: Interview with 5th grade teacher reveals ideology behind Common Core creators
The rebellion against this pernicious "education system" is spreading.
Iowa just the latest state to ditch Common Core curriculum
Just say no to idiocy: Common Core opt-out movement is growing
Three Missouri teachers take stand against Common Core

 

[angelburst29]

BUSHWICK, Brooklyn — A Brooklyn mother was shocked when she picked her son up from his Bushwick school: both of the 6-year-old student's arms were broken.

Brooklyn boy, 6, comes home from school with both arms broken, education officials pointing fingers January 3, 2018
http://pix11.com/2018/01/03/brooklyn-boy-6-comes-home-from-school-with-both-arms-broken-education-officials-pointing-fingers/

Krystal Alejandro immediately asked school officials what had happened, but no one could explain it. Her son is in the after-school program at P.S. 106 and was in their care at the time. But neither the school nor the after-school program have taken responsibility for the boy during the afternoon playground accident.

"It's a horrible situation - me as a parent thinking that I can't go to work because I don't know if my son is safe," Alejandro said. "It's just a horrible feeling to see the pain that he went through."

Her son's arms were broken about two weeks ago and she's no closer to an answer. Attorney Marcel Florestal plans to file a notice of claim against the city.

"The principal is pointing fingers at the after-school program, saying 'well it's not us, it's not DOE's problem, it's the after-school's program problem,'" he said. "Nobody wants to be accountable."

But the after-school program is saying the reverse is true.

"No parent would want to go through it," Alejandro said.

The boy's incident is being investigated by the Department of Education.

"The safety of students and staff is our top priority," DOE spokesperson Miranda Barbot said. "We are treating this with the utmost seriousness."

 

[Laura]

As noted, the US school system has been declining for years and it has now reached something of a nadir. Parents who want their children to be well educated don't have many options. Home schooling is one, obviously, but so many families have both parents working so that it isn't feasible.

I think parents should band together and create something like the old time one room schools and pay a good teacher to sort of "home school" their kids for them. My grandmother had an 8th grade education in such a school and knew the classics, some Greek and Latin, geography, decent math, etc. She was way better educated than kids that graduate from high school nowadays.

 

[angelburst29]

The American school system has been steadily declining since the early 1970's. The introduction of "Common Core" has added to the deterioration but it is only one symptom to a larger problem. When a Countries highest priority is to feed a war machine and grant it's Military elite full rein, subtracting vital financial resources needed to sustain it's own operating infrastructure, it's only a matter of time before it collapses in on itself. As a Country, we are at a point now, where we are unable to meet the basic needs for our own children. (But Pakistan is pi$$ed off at the U.S. because Trump has decided to cut off "million's" in financial aid?)

The US State Department on Thursday froze military aid to Pakistan until it took decisive action against terrorists operating in the country. It said it did not intend to reprogram any funds at this time.

Trump Backs Proposal to Spend Pakistan Aid Money on US Infrastructure Projects 06.01.2018 (Video)
https://sputniknews.com/us/201801061060549441-trump-pakistan-aid-infrastructure/

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump appeared Friday to endorse Republican Sen. Rand Paul’s proposal to redirect aid money that would have gone to Pakistan into a US infrastructure fund.

The same day Sen. Paul tweeted he would propose a bill to put the money intended for Pakistan into an infrastructure fund to build roads and bridges at home.

"Good idea Rand!" Trump responded on Twitter after meeting the senator and Republican congressional leaders, among others, at his Camp David retreat in Maryland.

President Trump slammed Pakistan on Monday for receiving more than $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years while giving Washington "nothing but lies and deceit," and accused Islamabad of harboring terrorists that US troops were hunting in Afghanistan.


(Comment: A step in the right direction! I hope, Trump reviews "aid" to other Countries and makes adjustments including shutting off the running tap "of Billion's" sent to the State of Israel? Each new housing settlement and it's infrastructure, built in the West Bank for the last 70 years, has been backed by" the generous donation of American taxpayer funds", that's financially separate from the Military "aid" packages approved by the U.S. Senate.)

 

[seek10]

President Trump slammed Pakistan on Monday for receiving more than $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years while giving Washington "nothing but lies and deceit," and accused Islamabad of harboring terrorists that US troops were hunting in Afghanistan.

(Comment: A step in the right direction! I hope, Trump reviews "aid" to other Countries and makes adjustments including shutting off the running tap "of Billion's" sent to the State of Israel? Each new housing settlement and it's infrastructure, built in the West Bank for the last 70 years, has been backed by" the generous donation of American taxpayer funds", that's financially separate from the Military "aid" packages approved by the U.S. Senate.)

200 million per year is small amount when compared with 700 billion dollars of military budget . It is almost .03% of total military budget. I understand things add-up over the years. But, Promoting this minuscule amount as a solution for humongous problems in US school system may not be correct representation. If US wants to punish Pakistan for its geopolitical decision should not be reason for the improvement of the US internal education system. So, why does Trump is promoting this as a solution? - Threatening other nations with the cut and promoting this a great thing to US population?. Probably he needs some thing to cheer up after the recent UN debacle.

 

[angelburst29]

Children Forced To Freeze, As Baltimore Schools Open With No Heat 03 January, 2018 (Photos - Tweets)
https://stockboardasset.com/insights-and-research/baltimore-schools-open-with-no-heat-while-children-freeze/

Last week, while the “bomb cyclone” exploded over the East Coast, schools across the northeastern and southeastern United States were forced to close due to the dangerous winter weather. But, that was not the case for Baltimore schools, as we explained, the school system remained open during the first half of the week despite the widespread heating failures that caused many classrooms across the city to barely print above 40 degrees.

Baltimore Residents Use GoFundMe To Buy Heaters For Broken Schools 07 January, 2018 (Video)
https://stockboardasset.com/insights-and-research/baltimore-residents-use-gofundme-to-buy-heaters-for-broken-schools/

“It was miserable. The kids had their coats, hats, and gloves on all day,” said Jesse Schneiderman, a social, studies teacher at Frederick Douglass High School.

However, Baltimore school administrators decided to close school doors on Thursday and Friday, after a social media storm erupted by angry parents, community leaders, and even teachers, who voiced their concerns about the inhumane learning conditions for the kids.

A former NFL linebacker turned Baltimore elementary school teacher Aaron Maybin published a video on social media of his students discussing the freezing conditions in their classroom. “What’s the day been like for you today?” Maybin asked. The children, who were seen huddled together on the floor replied “Cold!”

Shortly after Maybin’s video went viral, he asked people on Twitter to donate to a GoFundMe page started by a Coppin State University student who says the proceeds will be used to buy heaters for Baltimore teachers to use in their classrooms. The student, Samierra Jones set a goal of $20,000 to fund the schools with heaters, but in four days, the page has raised more than $73,000, well over the initial goal by many folds.