In the March 14, 2009 edition of The Economist I read an article entitled “The teacher-in-chief speaks” that can be viewed at www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13279059 . This article was about Obama’s speech and all of the issues we have discussed so far in class from rigors of standardized testing, merit pay, teacher quality, charter schools, and vouchers.
I think this all are serious issues that apply to the Baltimore City Public School system and cannot be ignored. I know that my school receives Title I money from the government, but how that money is used is not often in the students best interests. Baltimore City Schools have a large amount of Federal money thrown at them, but miss manage it and use it for things that ultimately do not promote closing the achievement gap.
I think that in order for the BCPSS system to change, the reforms at the Federal level must be stronger and have a longer lasting influence than those of the past administrations. There is momentum being built to close the discrepancies between state standards as well as getting bad teachers out of the classroom. Baltimore City needs supports in place to keep the good teachers who demonstrate student achievement in the classroom while working to eliminate the teachers that do not perform to expectations.
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