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Utah schools warned on test-score reports

Is it just me or is there too many generals and too few soldiers?
Every local area has to have a full lineup of administrators, add in all the layer of state education bureaucrats all of which make much more than the "ordinary" teacher" who's the grunt doing all the important work.
Whatever happened to the idea of eliminating the burdensome and out of touch Federal Dept. of Education formed by Jimmy Carter to make it look as if he was doing education a big favor, when actually we did much better before it was formed? I don't have an exact figure but I've heard that administration costs take .68 cents out of every dollar spent on education, leaving .32 cents, by my Maeser Elementary School (Provo) math sense to really teach.
I hope we can wake up and realize that there is a direct correlation between underfunding teachers and over-funding the administration resulting in huge class sizes and kids who are scared to death of math and can't read.
This news item seems to point out how out of control the present system seems to be.

Now that Utah is going to be paying teachers more, and has rejected vouchers can the people of Utah get something back from the educational community.

Please educational community get serious about education. Please don't toy around anymore with math programs that don't teach math such as what Alpine school district did and continues to do. Please give our kids a good education, one that will prepare them for the future. This is not a game. We don't send our hard earned tax dollars to you for you to play games. This is serious business and all of our futures depend upon the job that you do.

I am happy and in support of teachers getting more pay. But I want a quality education in return.

This just highlights again the fact that teachers are alone on an education island.
They are required by faceless Washington officials to accomplish a mandated standard with no support on the other end of the line from the homes of the students. The great majority of teachers really care about their students and work diligently to help the kids learn. When do the parents of the students come into the picture? A teacher has to have willing students who actually want to learn. If there is no support for the teacher in the student's home life, no amount of federal bluster is going to help. It's a two way street and the parents of under achieving students must be held accountable too.

This mandate is a terrible burden to teachers, who now have to spend more time with paperwork than actual teaching.

And how are teachers in rural areas supposed to get themselves to the point to certify in every single area.

The No Child Left Behind law ranks up there with the Iraq war as one of the worst things the current administration has done.

All the coments are good, but buerocracy works in the opposite dirrection Their solution will be to add another layer, perhaps the U.N.

As a teacher, I can tell you that it will be impossible to get every child up to grade level. I have one student who only comes to school when she feels like it because her mom can't get her out of bed. She even wanted me to come and do it for her. She has missed or been late to school so many times, it's a joke. We can't do anything about this problem as the juvenile court for truancy is backlogged with 450 cases worse than this. I have at least four other students who are so low in math that can't pass the most easy test and I have an endorsement specializing in math. I can teach up to pre-calculus. I just teach fourth grade. It is very discouraging. I'll probably retire early because of this feeling of being put against impossible odds. I'm fortunate to teach at an excellent school where many parents are involved and care about their children. Unfortunately, I can't change a child's I.Q.

I retired from full-time teaching in 2000. Even then, the paper work was overwhelming. When I went back to teach again, the paper work was even more overwhelming. It was so needless. Real "planning" was difficult. "Washington" needs to get out of the education business and return it to the states. (where it once was) Congress can't even run the country efficiently. Why do we want them running education?

Teachers boo hoo all the time even after pay raises. If teachers don't like the standards - find another job - doing the same amount of work - for the same pay and benefits.

Vouchers may have been a good solution to limit the bureaucracy.

Utah has the lowest cost per student in administration. We spend $46 per year per student on administration, compared to the national average of $146. We also spend the least percentage on administration at .4%.

This law, has done many things to improve education. Teachers and administrators use research based methods, focus on data driven decisions, and look at all student groups. My MAJOR gripe is that it makes hugely important decisions based on one single test.

If you went to the doctor and he listened to your heart then suggested emergency surgery, wouldn't you want more testing? Or should something so important be based solely on one test? How about a years worth of work in your career evaluated on ONLY one measure? Doesn't seem fair does it.

Just another attempt by the Teachers group to cover their own incompetence by short changimng the children while fattening their pocket book and retirement.

you anonymous people are cowards not to include your names when bad mouthing teachers and school district for the work they do with are kids. same on you !!

Are you joking? See the post above yours as to why this test is a joke. If the teachers association had as much power as you think they do why is the teacher salary as low as it is? Why are class sizes so large? And, exactly how does this article relate to "fattening their pocket book and retirement?"

Stop blaming the teachers. They have nothing do do with the reporting. The state is so incompetent that they haven't yet bothered to update last year's numbers. NCLB is a train wreck. In the Granite School District more than 95 percent of the little boxes NCLB requires received a "Yes" in terms of meeting the standard, yet numerous schools were denied "passing" status by not meeting just 1 of 40 criteria.

At Monroe Elementary School, one special ed student missed one too many questions, so the whole school receicved the "did not pass" label, despite a significant overall improvement in the numbers of students meeting the standards.

We need to looking at individual student success and give some consideration that children who do not speak English or who have special need some accommodations in terms of reporting.

Perhaps the news media should stop labeling schools as failing and look at the real issues.

Let's get real about accountability and stop blaming teachers and schools and start helping children and holding parents accountable as well.

Anonymous and oldman:

With people like you spouting off, criticizing the work and character of people you don't even know, the shortage of educators will continue to get worse. Who do you think will pick up the slack? How many caring, intelligent people are you encouraging? How many want to sign up for such automatic abuse?

If teaching is such a lucrative, easy career, try it yourselves. I dare you.

Because the teachers' union keeps fighting any attempt to pay and treat teachers like professionals...insisting that teachers remain mired in a chop shop socialistic pay schedule that rewards poor teachers and punishes good ones

You want teachers to do a better job? You want children to learn so they can compete with our foreign counterparts? You want to ensure all kids reach their full potential? Well it aint going to happen by meeting some criteria or by threats of closure. It starts with letting teachers teach! By giving them the authority to teach without threats of job loss or lawsuits. It starts with us as parents taking responsibility and teaching our children to respect authority. I see so many kids doing nothing, and having the attitude I don't have too. And when a teacher trys to push that student they are met with "my parents will sue you" or parents who show up and pull a student from a class. It all starts at home...not with more federal or state mandates and threats.

Ah, wasn't the death of the voucher proposals supposed to stop all of these educational evils?

Nothing new here actually; read Freakonomics for a good discussion of teacher conduct surrounding standardized testing and grading.

my children go to a great school with wonderful, imaginative teachers who care. I agree that the buck starts and stops at home. Either we teach obedience and respect and we take the TIME to read and help them with their math and other subjects or the teachers waste valuable time. Children may sometimes be held back so that they are better prepared and not just drifting. By the end my children will go further than I. Parents be involved. Go teachers and thank you for your efforts.

If government can spend money on war, why can't they spend money on education and pay raise for teachers?
It makes you look back and think, what was "wrong" in the past that made us think we were not doing a good job?