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

Not perfectly. But let's not miss the larger point that businesses/organizations/schools/etc tend to improve when there is competition, thereby customers/consumers/patients/students/etc have a viable choice: to leave one and choose another. N'est-ce pas?

Since smart people should read books other smart people like, one way to choose books on Amazon is to prefer books where the majority of reviewers understand the difference between a review of a book and a review of their particular bookseller.

We now return you to a discussion of government schools... might a change from grouping by chronological age, to flexible cluster grouping by readiness and ability, benefit both students and teachers?

Yes to Bostonian. Which is exactly why I love Amazon and used it as my example. I tend to look at both the recent reviews, the lowest rating reviews, and some of the three and four-star ones, which often have pro's AND con's associated.

Yelp and things like it don't (typically) encourage that much nuance. A star rating system without the commentary isn't very useful.

delete

blackcat, your state IS the one I was thinking about-- where charters have had the longest timeline for playing out.

There were "start-up" troubles right from the start in the system, but those were mostly about poor management by people who REALLY had their hearts in the right places. Then there was a golden period where things worked well administratively, and the same original players with great ideas and the purest of motivations were in charge of C&I...

and now, the endgame, with monetization being the underlying goal.

The problem with charter is that their are each their own little fiefdom. Depending on the staff and administration that is present each year, you could have a radically different experience.

I feel like our charter is doing a decent job... better than the public school at accommodating our son. The local public (with amazing ratings, according to the state) said all the right things to us, but never actually seemed to help our son in ANY fashion. It was a hot mess.

Windows 8. 'Nuff said.

Oh dear. Don't even get me started on that train wreck.

Please don't get me started on this whole conversation. I really have too much to do today before the kids come home for the weekend, especially when someone started discussing market driven higher education. Let's take the one thing that the US was doing right in education and systematically tear it down.