Elementary school rant

[diggitydot]

Your district has over 4.5 times the students of my district. However, wow, your district gets $7983 per student and only $616 of that is from local tax. We get $9486 per student, $2702 of it from local tax, but we still don't even have music in the elementary school or gifted & talented elementary education or very many course offerings at the middle school and high school level. We had a budget crisis two years ago that we're still trying to pull out of (can barely afford to bus the kids) and we wouldn't have field trips without the PTA fundraising. We've had a lot of turnover in superintendents.

Holy shit! Your district is TINY because ours has a little less than 1,100 students K-12.

ETA - Maybe we're not talking about the same district? Our district spends $9852/student.

[houseelf]

Rethinking my original response to this thread. While I'm *generally* happy with my kids' current public school, we are transitioning into Common Core. Should I be afraid? Thoughts? I just read about this in Time magazine recently. I do notice that tests come home with clear objectives listed ahead of the problems (e.g. I can divide fractions with different denominators and unlike variables). What do I need to be aware of with the Common Core?

[spotty_dog]

Holy shit! Your district is TINY because ours has a little less than 1,100 students K-12.

ETA - Maybe we're not talking about the same district? Our district spends $9852/student.

Aw, dang, I made a bad guess. We have 973 total, so pretty close.

[diggitydot]

Aw, dang, I made a bad guess. We have 973 total, so pretty close.

Really, there are only two options. You had a 50/50 shot.

[DCJenn]

I don't mind homework because it give my kid something else to do in the evenings besides whine that he's not on the screens. (because he's Amish. Of course)

The projects are silly but again, it's something to do. The other activities he has are piano and soccer. I pick him up at 3:20. We buy a paleta from the paleta man on the way home. (he does, I only treat myself on Fridays) and then it's piano for a half an hour, then homework, dinner, shower, bed.) Soccer day is exactly the same but an hour of soccer in the middle.

Maybe because I only have to focus on one kid but it's not that bad to me.

J.

[Ladybug]

Me too! I was scared to say anything, but I enjoy homework too. This is the first year I've had two kids with daily homework (3 subjects usually) so that's been a bigger challenge for sure. They honestly like homework though. They need help, but they want to do it and take pride in their work. Thank God though, if i had one kid sink it would pull the whole boat down. I really, truly empathize with parents whose kids are burned or frustrated. The system doesn't work for them. It feels like walking in egg shells.

[SuzySunshine]

A also loves homework and I've tried to find things for R because otherwise he gives her the answers to hers (yes the 3 year old is doing the 5 year olds homework!) She doesn't usually have much but since she missed a week last week she came home with a STACK of worksheets and devoured them. She'd definitely do more if she had it. My issue with her school isn't her homework it's their handling of behavior issues and what I think is creativity squashing!

[Ladybug]

The color thing is crazy. I asked DH how he would feel if his chairman giving him a color each day based on his performance and having to come home and share it with us each day after work. Can you imagine the anxiety?

Kris, the emails are nuts. We get one summary email each friday from second grade; a weekly letter in a folder form PK and not a peep from 4th grade.

I wouldl lose my mind if I got multiple emails each day from the same teacher. Completely aggravating.

[peggyfromwastate]

Our current elementary school gets almost $9000 per student, but our previous school spent just over $15000 per student. Current school-- almost 20 students per staff member. Old school--- just over 12. Those extra staff members are really missed!!!

I would argue that the high school here is much much better than the high school in Maryland, but it is heavily subsidized by parent contributions as the state has cut way way back on school funding.

After having lived in these two places, I don't see school spending so much as a red state blue state issue bc both states I've been mostly in are heavily blue (like 80%) and vastly different when it comes to spending. They don't even have buses here in CA..... School buses were cut from the budget a long time ago.

And we live in such a wealthy part of the country, yet a lot of kids get free lunch (almost half). The lunch is horrible!!! Really really bad here. Breakfast is horrible too---- like cold pizza. For breakfast. Or a corndog. I saw both offered last week. At breakfast.

Anyway---- Kelly as far as common core-- it's new here too so I don't know much about it. I haven't heard any good things though at all........

[SuzySunshine]

As for Common Core Kelly, I don't know - unfortunately we missed the curriculum meeting last week but these are the two links the school was handing out for "explanation"

https://www.teachingchannel.org/blog...bout-the-ccss/

http://www.smarterbalanced.org/sampl...ormance-tasks/

My issue is the CONSTANT changes - my kids have 13-15 more years of this, is the curriculum going to change every 4-8 years with each new administration?

[moonlight]

As for Common Core Kelly, I don't know - unfortunately we missed the curriculum meeting last week but these are the two links the school was handing out for "explanation"

https://www.teachingchannel.org/blog...bout-the-ccss/

http://www.smarterbalanced.org/sampl...ormance-tasks/

My issue is the CONSTANT changes - my kids have 13-15 more years of this, is the curriculum going to change every 4-8 years with each new administration?

You said your looking at schools for next year in a new light. What are some things you are keeping a eye out for? I start the process next year. We love the preschool here so much I hope we can stay one more year. I'm not thrilled about public school here tho.

[spotty_dog]

Rethinking my original response to this thread. While I'm *generally* happy with my kids' current public school, we are transitioning into Common Core. Should I be afraid? Thoughts? I just read about this in Time magazine recently. I do notice that tests come home with clear objectives listed ahead of the problems (e.g. I can divide fractions with different denominators and unlike variables). What do I need to be aware of with the Common Core?

IMO, the first thing is to read the new Common Core State Standards for yourself. Then, find a comparison of old standards the new CCSS. If there are a lot of differences, you'll see a bit of upheaval in the school -- especially if the new standards are significantly more rigorous; I've heard of districts plopping the new standards into place and then rushing to get later grades caught up when they're lacking all the prep work that should have gone in.

As for homework...my kids like it too, and yes my younger kiddo loves having her own "work" to do alongside. But it's the principle of the thing. They have my kid for 6.5 hours per day. They don't have any claim on the rest of his time, especially when homework has not been shown to improve any kind of outcomes. And especially when I feel like I need to do extra enrichment to make up for what they're not doing in school.

The stuff we've gotten this year has actually grown on me. I kind of appreciate it as a complement to school work. It's sent home once weekly, and for this week anyway, it's a fairly gentle request to do a few things during the week: practice some sight words, read a daily book *if* we can, practice math on the website as we find time. This is fairly appropriate (especially when there are definitely some families who wouldn't read quite as much without the reminder and some kids who could use the sight word reinforcement; my kid doesn't, and the way the request is made, I'm fine to give it cursory attention and be done.) I'd start bristling if there were more frequent requirements, indications they were being graded on the work, etc.

FWIW, I'm on the hold list at my library for The Smartest Kids in the World, which sounds like a fascinating description of the education systems in countries that turn out very high achieving students. Spoiler: Finland's schools don't issue homework, at any level.

[SuzySunshine]

You said your looking at schools for next year in a new light. What are some things you are keeping a eye out for? I start the process next year. We love the preschool here so much I hope we can stay one more year. I'm not thrilled about public school here tho.

I don't know exactly what I'm looking for but the questions I'm asking are: behavior modification, help for lower and upper level students, accountability of the student not the parent, extras, creative outlets.

The preschool my kids go to is play based/child led - yet the elementary school is rote desk learning, not at all what I was expecting given they are both tied to our church. But it was our fault for not doing our homework and waiting until the last minute to start looking at other options. DH went to catholic schools all through schools, everyone told us these were the best catholic schools around - maybe they are but they don't seem to be meshing with my kid(s) right now - we'll see.

[Pollyanna]

Lol, our K-8 doesn't even discuss curriculum. I only knew they adopted common core because it's stamped in their math books. Dd11 is considering switching to homeschool for 7-8. She really has a bunch of interests outside school that she cannot take advantage of unless we homeschool. Dd19 pointed out that for the most part middle school sucks for girls so if she wants to homeschool then go for it. . Homeschooling is so common here it's crazy (Honestly all the education opportunities here are pretty amazing). We'll see what next year brings

Homework is mostly a waste K-6 if you ask me. You have my kid for 7 hours, we don't need to add more schooling to their day. It's especially a pita when your kids have outside interests that keep them busy (dd11 and ds13 each have 12-15 hours per week of extracurriculars and I don't think they should have to cut back so they can do more busy work).

[PrincessFiona]

Homework is mostly a waste K-6 if you ask me. You have my kid for 7 hours, we don't need to add more schooling to their day. It's especially a pita when your kids have outside interests that keep them busy (dd11 and ds13 each have 12-15 hours per week of extracurriculars and I don't think they should have to cut back so they can do more busy work).

Well, that's my problem. I think because our lives outside of school are so crazy, extra schoolwork doesn't provide structure to our day but instead creates a hardship for mom. That doesn't mean that the homework can't necessarily be valuable or even that my kids don't want to do it. It ends up being just one more thing at the end of a busy day. They come home from school at 3pm and I feel like they deserve to have a break. They get a snack and have time to play with friends. Thing is, Monday and Tuesday Aidan has violin and orchestra from 4-5:30. Wednesday, Zoe has dance from 5-6. Friday Zoe has violin from 4-430. Saturdays they all have kung fu from 11:30-1:30. During the week, they get home from school, have their snack, then run to an activity. After we get home I have to start dinner. Dinner never ends up being before 7 and then it's rush, rush, rush to bedtime.

Aidan is in 4th grade. He's very organized and manages to get his work done on his own fairly quickly. Homework is not an ordeal for him. He makes sure his planner/reading minutes/blahblahblah is signed and he's good.

Zoe is seven. Seven is too young to be required to sit in school all day and then do an hour of homework at night. I am supportive of the homework though because it is so important to her. She takes it all very seriously and ... good for her. I just cringe over it. It takes her a long time to organize herself and get things sorted. If I didn't have 5 kids and they weren't all in outside activities, it might work out differently for me.