What Will It Take To Get People Involved In Our Children’s Future? KTSCW

There is a lot of concern today that six persistently low-achieving schools in the city will not get 5.6 million dollars in funding from the state because the Buffalo Teachers Federation has refused to sign a teacher-evaluation agreement. The teachers support is needed for the children to even have a chance to move forward.

It seems that the teachers have concerns about the student’s ability to learn the English language and how they (the teachers) will be judged on the performance of those students on standardized tests.

Buffalo Teacher Federation Chief Philip Rumore says that “The major concerns are student absenteeism. When you have 35 percent of our high school students who are absent over seven weeks, that’s a concern for the high school teachers; the teachers say how am I going to be judged on a student test score when that student is absent over seven weeks?’”

With absenteeism and drop-out rates at an all time high, and those students graduating from high school in Buffalo at an all time low, the first place that most people will focus on is the parents and the home of these students. And while this should be the first place of concern, we should also focus on the learning system and teaching methods used in our public school system.

It is time to come together as a community and stop doing the same things that we have done for years over and over again just to get the same outcome—that is a sign of insanity!