Comment Archives: stories: News & Opinion: News
Re: “Turned off to teaching”
A fact missing from this account is that Rochester has more schools of education per capita than any other city in the country in an area with steady K-12 enrollment decline. And despite what Dr. Hursch thinks, many are diploma mills and have taken no responsibility for the lack of quality of their graduates' teaching. Another fact missing is that none of the private ed schools in Rochester were willing to submit data on their admissions in a national study on the quality of teacher prep programs. http://www.nctq.org/transparency.do?stateId=33. Easy to claim you are selective and fabulous in the dark. These college kids are taking on a lot of debt--they deserve to know about the quality of their teacher prep program.
Re: “Turned off to teaching”
Sarah:
Thanks for your comment. If you go to the New York State Education Department website, there is a reference to requirements for "provisional" and "permanent certification." The point I was trying to make: becoming a teacher doesn't end with a 4-year degree; it's an ongoing, time-intensive, and costly process.
Tim
Re: “Turned off to teaching”
Google Deliberately Dumbing Down and see what Charlotte Iserbyte oberved in the Education Dept. in the 80's. She was fired for being outspoked. This was No child Left Behind and ELA and Math testing (teaching for the test).
Re: “Child subsidies stay”
The $1.1 million would be far better spent rounding up the fathers of the little darlings and compelling these louts to man up, so that the children's mothers can stay home to care for them.
Re: “Child subsidies stay”
This is fantastic news! Many of the young women served by the YWCA have been hard pressed to continue work and school without this support! A great thank you to our state elected officials for giving low income families a chance to participate in the workforce and add their talents to making NYS a great place to live and work!
Re: “GEH has plan for University Ave.”
Wishful thinking on the part of some city officials. It's even outside of Artwalk.
Re: “Child subsidies stay”
So your hard-earned tax dollars will be going to provide handouts to people making $65k (presumably on top of their food stamps, disability checks and housing subsidies) — and oh by the way, laundered through the AFL-CIO! You can't make up this stuff.
Re: “GEH has plan for University Ave.”
@Troll: Funny, but the city has posted a sign at East and Culver reading, "Welcome to Center City". I'll stick with the official demarcation, thank you.
FYI, I do drive by the site daily (several times). I'll grant you it is downright bucolic compared with my block.
Re: “Turned off to teaching”
At this writing, Tim's piece has been posted for hours, yet no attacks from the right-wing on public education. The public itself, by overwhelming margins (in the 85%, 90% and higher range, for decades), wants our country to have a strong public education system. That is what we want, as a nation and as a community. The public - you know, "us" - has never wavered over the years. The current attacks will ultimately fail; too bad we have to go through this damage at all.
Re: “Hemlock-Canadice plan not clear enough on drilling”
OMG...after the public meeting in Springwater and 400 comments , the state thinks they only need to clarify their intention not to drill on the land??? The intention was perfectly clear from the beginning and thats why people reacted so strongly.
Just put it in writing that oil and gas drilling for forever prohibited/banned on this land. It's that simple and will never be any need to clarify intentions again.
Re: “Turned off to teaching”
Please note: There is no such thing as "permanent certification" for new teachers in NYS. Once you've completed your Master's and three years of teaching experience, professional certificates must be renewed every five years, contingent upon professional development.
Re: “Turned off to teaching”
If anybody expressed to me a desire to be a teacher, I would definitely query their motives.
If they want a good job with tenure, I'd suggest they try something else. If they feel called to it, for any number of reasons, they are at least motivated for the right reasons.
As a teacher, I can agree whole-heartedly with many of the claims made in Mr. Macaluso's article. Many of us do feel targeted and abused by many public perceptions. Even though we have Masters' Degrees, people seem to think we're still not professionals. The amount of stress we are under that has almost nothing to do with bringing high-quality education to the kids is tremendous.
Nothing is going to solve the problems in public education if the public doesn't believe in it or us.
Re: “GEH has plan for University Ave.”
Love this area - used to live close by - but 102 units is awfully large. A somewhat scaled back version might just be the ticket. Then it would be a terrific addition to a really nice area.
@j.a.m., this is hardly the "inner city." Drive by it sometime. It looks a lot like the safe confines of your suburban apartment.
Re: “GEH has plan for University Ave.”
I dont see how a parking lot with a garden next to it is a better alternative to Morgans plan. Morgan would bring additional tax revenue, density, and people to a neighborhood where new housing is in demand. Not to mention a dense development will encourage walking over driving in an already walkable area. Nearby Businesses would no doubt prefer Morgans plan also. In my opinion more parking and green space owned by Eastman is not what is needed for this site.
Re: “GEH has plan for University Ave.”
Wait — somebody's willing to put their own money at risk to bring more than a hundred new households to the inner city, and the bureaucrats are giving them a hard time? Excuse me, but that's insane.
Re: “GEH has plan for University Ave.”
So a parking lot is more appropriate for the East Ave Preservation District? The Morgan design acutally appears to have more trees and green stuff, they didn't even have to throw in a vegetable garden.
Re: “A surge of charters to Rochester?”
Indeed Joe Klein helped bring former RCSD Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard to Rochester. Joe had a plan then. He has one now (although in my humble, but informed view, it's a very, very bad plan, and even dangerous in some ways), at least he has a one, which raises the critically important question: WHAT IS THE ROCHESTER BOARD OF EDUCATION AND THE CURRENT SUPERINTENDENT'S PLAN? They don't appear to have one, which is a big part of the reason why people like Joe Klein can so easily implement theirs. Bold, courageous, unbought, unbossed, committed leadership is clearly a big part of what's missing in the Rochester City School District.
https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/change1…
Re: “A surge of charters to Rochester?”
I think Mr. Klein is "supportive" of public schools in the same way Jean Claude Brizard was. Specifically, Brizard introduced a strategic plan in which the Parthenon Group (a capital investment firm specializing in opening up opportunities to generate investor profits in the public pK-12 "market." ) was the primary citation and basis for his discredited branding-style , charter-expanding portfolio approach to school choice. The article below demonstrates how Parthenon profers advice to investors that has nothing to do with improving education and everything to do with profits. The solutions to the crisis in education involve more democracy and less privatization, not the reverse. Democratization and powerful movements for local control of public education would minimize the perversions of profiteering "investors," but more importantly we would finally see learning focused on meeting our children's needs according to high community standards. Parthenon Group analysis of potential profit centers based on state funding (more is better) and anticipated test performance (lower is better): http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/marketplace…
Re: “Improving neighborhoods”
You're correct, Pam (and Chris), the city website does show Beechwood in the SE quadrant, but the logic of putting it there totally escapes me when it is very clearly in the NE part of the city.
Re: “East End garage needs millions in repairs, quickly”
Have you ever done an expose on who is one the Cultural Commission, what they are paid and what they have spent?