Even though I have ideas about a variety of topics, my blog about education was intended to draw attention to the product of the system. Every young person that gets a diploma should have some expectation of what that certificate is worth. Symbolically a high school diploma represents a level of achievement that should be measurable. The minimum standards for high school graduation should give every kid the tools to do something. I don’t suggest that it should be college prep for every kid, but there should be prep for some “next step”. We are graduating kids who are unable to read, solve problems or communicate at junior high levels. How can that be acceptable to anyone in the school system? We are missing the boat with a good percentage of the “graduates”.
My comments are intended to raise an issue in my community and talk about how my community can address a local problem. We tend to cave in to organizations with agendas when we develop our local policies because we are not up for the fight.
We can’t roll over because we are not up for the fight. That is forfeiting our responsibility in the name of expedience.
One thing you suggest is that we already have standards I may not be aware of. And my response would be “I am not looking at standards, I am looking at results.”
If the results are not up to our/my expectations, the standards are either not high enough or there is no system in place that works to achieve the standards. And I think that is the focal point of my comments; the system that works to achieve standards designed to meet local goals.
If it is acceptable to our community that many kids graduate from high school without the ability to do simple tasks, I don’t know why I should be upset. I don’t have to hire the illiterate ones. It is not my responsibility to be concerned about them.
I guess I thought the school board and the superintendent were the ones worrying about achieving the goals and developing the systems that would do so. This idea of educating our kids is not one where a failure rate of 30% or 40% is acceptable.
WASL may be a flawed test system; the goal for all kids meeting “minimum” standards is not. Whether the standards are set at a state level or a local level, it doesn’t matter. The standards set by WASL could be the guide we use to develop higher local standards that we care about right here in our own district. Our local expectations for student learning should always exceed state standards.
Our school board should be demanding that our superintendent develop a plan where a Snohomish Assessment of Student Learning sets benchmarks for testing/assessing at predetermined points along the way so that in core disciplines there are clear expectations and consequences for failing to meet them. There need to be consequences for students, teachers and administrators for failure. Certainly the consequences for the kids will be felt when we turn them out to the world after graduation when many of them discover how the system moved them along but failed to deliver an education.
Society suffers the consequences of this failure as well. I would prefer that we be a little hard-nosed with a fourth grader, a seventh grader and a sophomore rather than a twenty year old with a gun and a bag of drugs.
We can make a difference in our own community without standing for comparison to our neighbors. We can choose to set higher standards. We can adopt methods that work to achieve those standards, even if they may be a little controversial. We can take responsibility for the Snohomish School District.
In the end, it is the results we are looking for.
No Loss for Words 
Bag Em Dano!
by Steve DanaAfter reviewing the text of the Seattle ordinances that ban Styrofoam and plastic food containers and implement a “Green Fee” for plastic grocery bags, I am not as annoyed with the Seattle City Council as I had been, but I am even more disgusted with our State Legislature. We all knew about the liberal policies of the Seattle Council, but the State created the framework upon which Seattle crafted the regulations.
The left wingers in Olympia must have known they didn’t have the votes to pass a state law that accomplished their goal, so they appealed to the left leaners to help them set the stage for cities to pass local ordinances. That way, they didn’t have to take responsibility for screwing the constituents; that fell to the local government bodies.
They did this, knowing full well there was already a city chomping at the bit to jump on the band wagon.
Even though all Seattle residents are not flaming liberals, there are plenty of folks willing to be bent over by their government and take the punishment without revolting. They collectively deserve what they get. If you listen to the namby pamby comments by some Seattlites in the media, they seem to be resigned to the screwing and are willing to roll over and take it. Taking this abuse suggests that the citizens have conceded that city officials know what is best for them better than they do.
You know that saying about a camel getting his nose under the tent flap. I don’t want to speculate about all the havoc this camel will cause.
For me, I listen to the debate about recycling then I watch to see where the recycled products go that the dutiful citizens separate from the garbage. I find it a little amusing when I hear reports that the recycling companies periodically divert the “recyclable” waste from the recycling path back to the waste stream and the garbage disposal system.
Government tells you to recycle or else…..You separate the stuff….. the volume of “recyclable” waste overwhelms the system…..the market is flooded with product…..the inventory explodes with too much “stuff”……the price falls and the company can no longer reprocess the product at a profit so it just dumps the excess back into the dump.
I don’t know the real motives of the left wingers in dealing with these bags and styro food containers, but I am sure they will reveal themselves as time goes by. I do know that the government has learned to shift the burden of responsibility to business owners that generally sell these products. It is much easier to control a few hundred businesses and armtwist them into compliance where policing hundreds of thousands is virtually impossible. Once again, the consumer is not the one held accountable. Once again the small business person takes the hit.
There has to be fairer way to get where we need to get with the environment. I suspect that if we really knew where some of these turkeys wanted to take us, we might revolt. Since they feed it to us steadily over time, trustworthy citizens are duped before they know it.
I am just happy I don’t live in that nut house. For now……
Posted in Environmental, Snohomish County Political Commentary | Leave a Comment »