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lv_john_galt

@fremmasmind

I am not underestimating the importance of PE. The students who are taking these classes are not the students who could benefit from extra exercise during the school day. The students who are taking Lifetime Sports and Weightlifting get more than their fair share of exercise competing in sports. The classes aren't aimed at getting the general population of a school fit. They are aimed at making their sports teams better and keeping those "student-athletes" academically eligible to play.

If the goal of those classes were to make sure that all students were getting fit and healthier, I would have no problem with those classes. I have seen first-hand the students that take those classes and it isn't full of students who want to get healthier. It is full of students hoping to impress their coaches so they can get in the starting line-up.

Alison Turner - career and technical education (CTE) may be expensive, but the graduation rate, proficiency exam pass rate, and daily attendance percentage of students who take these classes are higher than students who do not. In addition, the dropout rate of students who are taking a CTE class are lower. This includes students who are taking CTE classes at a regular comprehensive high school not just Career and Technical Academies or Magnet schools.

The problem lies in that some of the comprehensive high schools are more interested in their football and basketball programs than they are preparing students for life outside of high school. Some parents would be surprised on how many sections of Lifetime Sports or Weight Training are offered at a school compared to CTE electives like computers, business, or auto shop. Kids may like Lifetime Sports because it is an easy A and there is no homework or classwork, but as educators are we really preparing students for life after high school by letting them take a glorified PE class for four years instead of a class that will help them get a job or be better prepared for college?

The question isn't can we afford to offer CTE classes? The question is in this economy, can we afford not to offer CTE classes? Education is about preparing students for life after high school not about how many banners you can hang in the gym.

WDM - maybe you should read the whole article and maybe The Sun should have worded the statement better. There are secondary administrators who will be moving to elementary schools without ever working in an elementary school and vice versa. To get into the leadership program for CCSD, you have to have taught in a classroom for five years (it used to be three years).

There are significant adjustments that some of these administrators are going to have to make. Breaking up a fight between two ten-year olds is nothing compared to breaking up a fight consisting of several teenagers.

What the article should be focusing on is why are all these cuts happening at the school level and not the central/regional offices?

What you should be complaining about is that these cuts are based on seniority and not quality? There are plenty of good, new administrators and some bad administrators with plenty of seniority. The problem with education isn't all about funding; it is with the unions/associations who are protecting the wrong employees.

How quickly people forget history. 46 Democratic senators voted against Clarence Thomas in 1991. I guess they are all racists and African-Americans should never vote for a Democrat again.

Shockingly enough, race is not a prerequisite to being a Supreme Court Justice.

Really? A survey based almost solely on the number of students who take AP tests cannot possibly identify how good a school is or is not.

Clark HS has a graduation rate of 57% and Valley's was 42%, both numbers are from the 2007-08 school year.

Any school could make almost every kid take an AP exam, but did they actually pass the exam? I am surprised to see that this study wasn't financed by the College Board who requires a fee (almost $90) for each AP test that a student takes. This is a non-profit who made more that $53 million "in excess" last year.

A more important question is, did these students actually receive college credit for taking and passing these AP exams? The trend among colleges is to no longer accept AP scores as a replacement for a college class. There are many reasons for this including putting too much importance on a single test and how is a college supposed to make any money if kids don't need to take four or five classes at their university because they passed an AP exam with a 3.