In schools, self-esteem boosting is losing favor to rigor, finer-tuned praise
Finally, “educators” are discovering what ordinary parents have known all along – self esteem follows success!
***
From The Washington Post, By Michael Alison Chandler, Published: January 15, 2012 –
For decades, the prevailing wisdom in education was that high self-esteem would lead to high achievement. The theory led to an avalanche of daily affirmations, awards ceremonies and attendance certificates — but few, if any, academic gains.
Now, an increasing number of teachers are weaning themselves from what some call empty praise. Drawing on psychology and brain research, these educators aim to articulate a more precise, and scientific, vocabulary for praise that will push children to work through mistakes and take on more challenging assignments. Consider teacher Shar Hellie’s new approach in Montgomery County. Continue reading →
An Open Letter to Parents of Our Public School Children
Phil King
Strategies for Reforming American Education
By Carole Hornsby Haynes, Ph.D.
In the 1982 landmark court decision, Plyler v. Doe, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that children of illegal aliens have a “constitutional right” to a free and appropriate public education with equal protection of the law under the 14th Amendment. This court decision has resulted in states being forced to pay for the public education of thousands of illegal immigrant children, in American schools nationwide, even though many have no path to legal status upon graduation.
Southern border states have had a huge influx of illegal immigrants since 1982, resulting in enormous financial burdens on those states.
In Texas the greatest percentage of the identifiable costs of entitlements received by illegal immigrants is for their education. Since more than 60,000 illegal babies are born annually in Texas, the cost to taxpayers is staggering.
According to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) report, the annual per pupil expenditure is $11,567. That brings the cost to educate the 60,000 illegal immigrant children born in one year to nearly $700,000,000—and that is only for one year of their education! Continue reading →
Uphold Texas’ prerogatives in public education
from Statesman.com
by: Republican state Reps. Leo Berman; Wayne Christian; Rob Eissler; Dan Flynn; Kelly Hancock;Phil King; Tan Parker; and Ken Paxton,
SPECIAL CONTRIBUTORS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As state legislators, we are disappointed that Texas schools will miss out on $830 million in federal funding because of an overt political attempt to embarrass the Texas Legislature and the governor in the form of an amendment inserted into federal law by U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin. The Doggett amendment requires the State of Texas to maintain education funding at current levels for each of the next three budget years 2011, 2012 and 2013 to receive the federal dollars under the emergency school aid funding authorized by Congress last month.
The language added by Doggett required the governor to guarantee these levels of funding when he applied for the federal education aid. However, since the Legislature writes the state budget every two years, Gov. Rick Perry was unable to make that guarantee, noting that “surely Congress did not intend to require states to violate their own constitutions and statutes in order for schools to receive this money. I am sworn to uphold state laws and our constitution, which prohibit binding commitments about future budgets or funding levels.” Continue reading →
Examining decades of growth in K-12 education spending
Excessive Spending 101
Did you know –
the teacher to non-teacher ratio in Texas public schools is basically one non- teacher for every teacher, a 1:1 ratio !
total Texas public school expenditures increased 334.5 percent from 1987 to 2007, an increase of 142 percent when adjusting for inflation.
Texas’ per-pupil costs increased from $3,659 in 1987 to $11,024 in 2007, a 66 percent increase when adjusted for inflation.
