Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy How do you feel about the public school system?

Agreed. Flexible cluster grouping by readiness and ability (rather than chronological age) places more reasonable demands on teachers for differentiated instruction while offering greater learning opportunity to students. Everyone benefits.

There is good and bad in everything. Learning the weaknesses, not to hyper focus on them as a stumbling block, but to understand where our own abilities as parents can compensate/offset/complement the education experience our children receive in any given setting, is key. Resetting our emotional compass during/after a stressful exploration of options with a school, maintaining a growth (not fixed) mindset, role-modeling resilience, striving to understand the constraints within which the opposition is operating... all provide great life lessons for our kids.

If there are "too many old people with no kids" in most public school districts, where would you have these grandparents go?

May we consider the possibility that the "old people with no kids" include boomers who, upon reflecting on their own "cookie cutter" educations, created a plethora of educational options, research, and legislation available for families today? Might we appreciate the many benefits they have provided which are ongoing?

Might these families have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in property taxes and referenda to support the local public schools over their lifetime? Might they essentially be living in their piggy banks, their homes being their last asset? If the economy improved and there were young families with steady jobs looking to purchase existing homes at the assessed values (upon which property taxes are based), might these empty nesters be willing to sell? If you did not have "too many old people with no kids" living in your district, what demographic would live there instead, and where are they now? Do they have the financial means to purchase these homes, plus pay higher property taxes than are now levied?

Across the nation, as baby boomers retire or are downsized to face an early retirement with no pensions and 401(k) accounts which may have lost half of their value or more during the economic downturn, these grandparents may see the high risk or folly of continuing to tax at ever increasing rates for budgets which are not balanced but create ever increasing deficits for the next generation to pay. There may be wisdom to be gleaned from their financial perspective, before their fate becomes our own.

What percentage of your income are you willing to pay in taxes throughout your lifespan? When you no longer have an income, but are required to continue paying taxes, you will be paying over 100%. When one is paying out more than one is taking in, there is a budget deficit. Our government is in this situation by design; many "old people with no kids" are in this situation despite having planned differently.

Education reform, improving efficiency & efficacy, may yield longer-lasting educational benefits than increasing taxes. One example may be flexible cluster grouping by readiness and ability in each subject, rather than grouping by chronological age.

Sorry, no. From your description, she is grouped by chronological age. A pull-out group is not the same, no matter whether they call it a "cluster group" to try to sell it. This is not the same as flexible cluster grouping by readiness and ability without regard to chronological age.

There is as sharp a contrast here as there is between "differentiation" meaning "differentiated instruction" or expectation of "differentiation in work products/output", without benefit of instruction.

Cluster and differentiation are among the many buzzwords which can mean almost anything.. therefore obfuscate the educational experience... rather than providing transparency and managing expectations.

Some may emphasize the importance of asking the questions, whose answers will manage our expectations.
You may wish to find out how that may be different than what your daughter is experiencing now. Based upon your description, some questions may include - how often does the group gather? is there differentiated instruction? who leads the instruction? are children allowed/encouraged/supported/instructed to work ahead?...

Operating within the current paradigm of sorting children first by chronological age, this may not receive broad support... Teachers may be evaluated based upon student performance as an indicator of teacher efficacy, therefore some unions may preclude the grouping of students who may naturally perform better, as this may been seen to give an advantage to those teachers. This has created a teacher-centric (or union-centric) system.

Remove chronological age, sort by readiness and ability, and the process becomes student-centric.

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Just some things to think about...
Continuing from our previous posts earlier in this thread... Where would you have the 70% of your local population move to, who are households without school-aged children (empty-nesters, grandparents, childless couples, etc)? No matter where they live, they are in someone's public school district. Why not allow them to stay in the community which they helped to build up through their tax dollars over the years?

This sounds like a point in favor of the opposition; The 70% of your local population without school-age children who are not voting to increase tax levies, may say this.

In the scenario you indicated, as baby boomers and their echo-boom of children age, there may be a smaller number of pupils in many districts nationwide... which may often indicate the same number of tax dollars is being utilized to educate fewer pupils... therefore there are more dollars available per pupil.

There are fixed costs and variable costs. Looking at a particular district's budget, attending school board meetings, and examining your State's Department of Education data found online may be ways to identify and analyze costs.

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Earlier in this thread, when you mentioned having "too many old people with no kids" living in your public school district, I summarized and shared several thoughts I've become aware of, from the opposition view point who seem to match this demographic. (link- http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....o_you_feel_about_the_p.html#Post172782As)
Not knowing your district or the actual wealth of residents there, nor whether the wealth of "old people with no kids" is being drained by medical issues, I cannot further illuminate for you what the opposing view(s) may be.
Some of this cost may depend upon the teacher salary and benefit costs, also possibly the tenure and relative experience of teachers. Costs may be found in school district budgets, and at the Department of Education.
Districts may list the most dramatic potential cuts in attempt to pass a levy, and when a levy does not pass they may make other cuts which have less impact upon students. The sharing of worst case scenario is sometimes seen as a scare tactic. Again, looking at costs may prove helpful.

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