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How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

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Re: How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

#111

Post by eaurouge »

dhekir wrote: post #76
masklinn wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Longer school days, 3 meals, and a longer school year helps students stay focused. The middle one is absolutely true, the other two I really doubt e.g. in Finland or Germany, schoolday starts around 9AM and ends around 2PM, yielding 3h30 to 4h studies a day accounting for breaks, 5 days/week, with little homework (maybe 5h/week total). Afternoon is usually dedicated to clubs.

I believe it also depends on the environment around the school. In a third-world country, I'd probably prefer being safely indoors at school and in contact with friends, with free time if needed, than in a sketchy area without being able to see many friends. In a rich European country, there's enough public infrastructure (public transport, libraries, parks, etc.) that I'd probably prefer to be outside.

> In a third-world country, I'd probably prefer being safely indoors at school

That's a ridiculous generalization. Most developing countries have lower crime rates than some American inner cities. Heck, many developing countries are safer than some developed countries.

Re: How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

#112

Post by jcims »

pjmorris wrote: post #58
koolba wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's not in the interests of the teacher's union to fracture the public school system. The larger, more faceless and immeasurable it gets, the harder it is to isolate individual teachers as the cause of children not learning on pace and then fire them. Charter schools (usually) do not have unionized teachers that are part of the larger teacher's unions. That means they have their own standards for hiring and…

> the harder it is to isolate individual teachers as the cause of children not learning on pace and then fire them The Gates Foundation spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the 'Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching initiative' [0], only to find that teacher evaluation isn't an effective way to improve student outcomes. Maybe there's more to improving student education than isolating individual teachers a…

FTA

> 5. None of this means that teacher evaluation "doesn’t work." Rather, the point is that it’s much more complicated and much harder to do well than advocates, the Gates Foundation, or these districts initially anticipated.

There is clearly more to 'improving student education than isolating individual teachers as a cause', but average effectiveness of the faculty of a program is going to be a fairly defining metric.

What if we focus on evaluating the technique rather than the teacher to take a little bit of the vindictiveness out of the discussion and more properly equip those that are entering the field? Today new K12 teachers in the US are given basic skills around classroom management, building student relationships and the technical substrate required to teach the material. From there, young teachers learn on the fly from the staff they work with (usually the first problem), their own intuition and whatever resources and experiences are available to them.

Clearly there is some kind of spectrum, Richard Feynman vs Ben Stein in Ferris Beuller's Day Off, how do you decompose those differences in a way that you can measure their component contribution to overall effectiveness and build the most important ones up in those that are just entering the field. Maybe there are different 'roles' in teaching that could be aligned to personality types...the 'inspirers' and the 'questioners' and the 'fortifiers' and the 'ass kickers'.

I don't know the answer. I do know there are good teachers and great teachers and ones that are ten years overdue for a different career and I feel that it's worth continued time and energy sorting out what makes it that way.

Re: How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

#113

Post by erikpukinskis »

e40 wrote: post #96
roland35 wrote: post #50

I am excited about this approach and I think LeBron's organization has put a lot of though and work with experts on this project. - This school is a true public school and not a charter school. In Ohio a lot of charter schools can have some degree of selection in their students and kick out families which don't meet the requirements which leads to more at-risk students left to the public schools. This school is makin…

Others fall asleep immediately at school since they live with 5+ siblings and there are literally no available beds at home. I am not trying to blame the parents in all the cases either At some point, though, personal responsibility has to come into play. Having 5+ children when you have no resources... this is the true elephant in the room. It seems talking about it gets labels thrown around. I guess it's a conversa…

What do you mean “no resources”? These families have many resources... do you mean “no money”?

Re: How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

#114

Post by erikpukinskis »

lexs wrote: post #97
e40 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Others fall asleep immediately at school since they live with 5+ siblings and there are literally no available beds at home. I am not trying to blame the parents in all the cases either At some point, though, personal responsibility has to come into play. Having 5+ children when you have no resources... this is the true elephant in the room. It seems talking about it gets labels thrown around. I guess it's a conversa…

Personal responsibility of the parent sure, but the child can't exactly ask to not be born.

Also, is it personal responsibility if the state has put the parent in a situation where they will be systematically stripped of resources?

Re: How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

#115

Post by [deleted] »

colek42 wrote: post #26
mkirklions wrote: post #2

Open question that wasnt really discussed in the article- Why are charter schools demonized? My local area HATES them, and I'm not sure if its politics or worthwhile. EDIT: Why did I get 5 downvotes?

Charter schools are a great option when your school district has poor management and private school is not an option for some reason. Teacher unions hate them for a various number of reasons, in my view the main reason is that they are threatened by them. There are great charter schools and great public schools as well as horrible public schools and charter schools.

[deleted]

Re: How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

#116

Post by fhood »

nemo44x wrote: post #85
AlwaysRock wrote: post #55

It's great to see superstars like LeBron doing something like this. Say what you want about him as a player but you cant knock him as a philanthropist.

I'm not a fan boy or anything but he's a rather remarkable person. To take advantage of the biological attributes he was given and work insanely hard to maximize them from a young age. All while not being distracted by all the other things that could lead to squandering his natural talents. And then not relying just on those but enhancing them through dedication and discipline. Then you throw in all the pressure he h…

I agree. To have someone like LeBron as the face of the NBA is fantastic. As a sports fan I hate the guy (Thank god he moved to the western conference) but as a human, I think he is an incredible role model and force for good in this country.

Re: How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

#117

Post by pjmorris »

koolba wrote: post #84
pjmorris wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the harder it is to isolate individual teachers as the cause of children not learning on pace and then fire them The Gates Foundation spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the 'Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching initiative' [0], only to find that teacher evaluation isn't an effective way to improve student outcomes. Maybe there's more to improving student education than isolating individual teachers a…

> The Gates Foundation spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the 'Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching initiative' [0], only to find that teacher evaluation isn't an effective way to improve student outcomes. Did you actually read the article to which you linked? Some choice quotes (emphasis mine): > The reforms demanded too much time. The evaluations required an enormous amount of time and paperwork , an…

I did overstate my case. I think you are also overstating yours.

> rating without the ability to fire is pointless

A fair point.

> whatever rating system they came up with was too onerous.

All measurement systems come at a cost. Picking the unions to blame without looking at what the researchers or the funders required seems premature.

You don't like unions. Finland, where education reform has worked, has teachers unions. It might serve you well to investigate further if you want to achieve education reform here.

Re: How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

#118

Post by sebringj »

From what I read it seems he's focusing on the pain points or barriers to learning from the perspective of the underprivileged from whence LeBron came. If you have someone that lived this giving him deep insight to the real issues AND he's a good person AND he has power to change, that is a fabulous formula for success. I hope this works out. Too many times you have people meaning well that have not actually experienced the life of the subjects being helped and you end up with wrong-fit solutions. We can all understand this as coders when we build something thinking this is how users will use it and then find out no, that's not the case.

Re: How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

#119

Post by erikpukinskis »

BurningFrog wrote: post #95
Nokinside wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Warren is academic expert bankruptcy and commercial law. She is third most cited academic in her specialty. She is pretty good at economics especially when it comes to consumer behavior and one of the best politicians overall. "The Vanishing Middle Class" (2007) is a good book.

Warren is a lawyer, not an economist. Her academic career in that field is very impressive, but that has nothing to with an understanding of the science of Economics, which is notoriously full of counterintuitive and misunderstood truths.

This is a fallacious appeal to authority. Credentialed economists are not the only people who can make claims about economics. If you can substantively debate her assertion then please do. Otherwise you are not contributing.

Re: How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

#120

Post by naravara »

masklinn wrote: post #68
roland35 wrote: post #50

I am excited about this approach and I think LeBron's organization has put a lot of though and work with experts on this project. - This school is a true public school and not a charter school. In Ohio a lot of charter schools can have some degree of selection in their students and kick out families which don't meet the requirements which leads to more at-risk students left to the public schools. This school is makin…

> Longer school days, 3 meals, and a longer school year helps students stay focused. The middle one is absolutely true, the other two I really doubt e.g. in Finland or Germany, schoolday starts around 9AM and ends around 2PM, yielding 3h30 to 4h studies a day accounting for breaks, 5 days/week, with little homework (maybe 5h/week total). Afternoon is usually dedicated to clubs.

>The middle one is absolutely true, the other two I really doubt e.g. in Finland or Germany, schoolday starts around 9AM and ends around 2PM, yielding 3h30 to 4h studies a day accounting for breaks, 5 days/week, with little homework (maybe 5h/week total). Afternoon is usually dedicated to clubs.

In the context of at-risk kids, I think the idea is to maximize the amount of time the kids get to spend away from their toxic and stressful home environments.

I am a bit skeptical of the overall "minimize idle time" idea, though. They seem to be on board with giving the kids enough free time to do independent study and stuff, but whether that's any good will depend on how it's implemented.

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