Hypothetical Situation: Director of Education

[EricH]

Inspired (or not) by this thread: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...threadid=77601, I have decided to open a thought challenge.

If YOU were the top education official in the U.S., what would you do? I.E., ranking system for schools, improve classrooms, etc.

The ground rules:
-You may not try to shut down alternative schools (i.e. homeschools, charter schools, and private schools). There are reasons I've put this restriction in. PM me for them.

-You must try to keep anything you do realistic. (For example, an FRC team presence in every high school in the country isn't exactly realistic. However, an engineering competition-type item in each H.S. may be achievable.)

-We will assume that budget is unlimited. It isn't, but we'll try to keep this simple.

Have fun.

[Taylor]

I would quit. Too many people with sharp, pointy sticks that are looking for something to get mad about..

[Rick TYler]

I would reduce the federal department of education to six people: two staff analysts and four software developers. The sole job of the DOE would be to allocate federal money to local school boards for use in educating children. This would be accomplished by cutting one check a year to each school district. All federally-required testing and reporting would be abolished (ask teachers how they would like that). The ultimate development would be to stop sending money out and cut federal taxes.

Want to hear how I think the money should be spent locally?

[EricH]

If you want to go a little more local, that could be interesting...

Now why 2 staff analysts and 4 software developers? Replace the entire department with a computer program?

[bobwrit]

Overhaul the system to make it look something like France's and Japan's educational systems. Raise the age where it becomes legal to drop out(18, possibly 19). Place stricter penalties on dropping out before then. Accelerate our math standards. Have kids start to learn a foreign language at about 6th grade. Issue something like the BAC test(have a science/engineering/math, litracy and history tracks).

[mrbob1000]

Originally Posted by bobwrit

Overhaul the system to make it look something like France's and Japan's educational systems. Raise the age where it becomes legal to drop out(18, possibly 19). Place stricter penalties on dropping out before then. Accelerate our math standards. Have kids start to learn a foreign language at about 6th grade. Issue something like the BAC test(have a science/engineering/math, litracy and history tracks).

I started learning french in 6th grade and did it all the way through 9th and i dont remember that much. But i do agree on the dropout age being raised, too many kids who just give up. We should also get more hands on teaching like maybe a few classes that focus on engineering so kids can see first hand how fun it is.