Cleveland Schools

Well if you want to talk about Cleveland, I guess you need to start with what is most important in any city and that, in my personal opinion, is our youth. The youth ARE our future. They define where the city will be heading, they will shape the job market and shape the growth opportunities.

I don't think you can invest enough into your school systems, but as with any investment you expect it to be well managed and you expect a return. This is where I feel there is truly a breakdown in our system.

Sure I agree that the Cleveland schools are underfunded, and I also agree that there are many people working very hard to try to make a difference every day with little help from the city, the government and sadly enough in many cases the parents. But my real issue is in how we "grade" our schools. How we manage them. A school is doing well if the students can pass proficiency tests. Although that is a good end indicator of whether the learning model is working, I don't think that it is a valid measure of the school's management or the teachers themselves.

It seems we are always wanting more money for the schools and we judge the children on what they retain but you never hear about what is being done to manage the proficiency of the teachers and their ability to teach or the management of the school and their ability to run a business, which is exactly what a school is, a business. There was a story in today's paper about a tenured teacher in California that completely disrespected a student that had tried to take their life. They were not able to fire the teacher. This is unacceptable! Accountability needs to be set from the parents, to the teachers, to the schools. With everyone taking an equal share. Without that I can only fear where we will be.

The school's report card should include assessments of the teacher's skills, methods, interpersonal skills (yes, I said interpersonal skills!!!!!, this is critical if they are to truly educate or teach which is a SHARED EXPERIENCE). They should have semiannual performance reviews and documented development plans. This is how employees are managed in a business and how they should be managed in a school. Tenured teachers should not exist EVER. There is no such thing in any other business, why in schools, where the teaching methods and type of knowledge is changing every year, yet there is no reason for a teacher to want to improve themselves, their students or the school if they have a job for life regardless of performance. Tenured teachers breads complacency.

The schools management needs to have a long term plan, goals, measurements like anyone else in a business. And most importantly they need to be available to the public.

We aren't going to fix our school systems overnight. But with the growth in charter schools it is obvious that the problem is not the students, the same students that were attending the inner city public schools are now attending charter schools with much better success.

One last comment...the parents need to start taking responsibility for their children! They don't need to be able to help them complete their Algebra assignment, but they better know that is one of the cl assess and they should be asking every day..."what was the best thing you learned today, because I want to learn it too."