Quiz 1: School Efficiency

Welcome back!

This week I wanted to touch on the subject of efficiency in schools in regards to current budget cuts and changes in school districts. An article about this all sparked my thoughts so I decided I would speak about it this week. The article is called "U.S study hopes to increase school efficiency," from Yahoo News and is linked below for you to view.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110119/us_nm/us_education_efficiency

In summary, there is a study being conducted in the United States considering the efficiency of teaching in schools and how to increase this efficiency if it's lacking. The study suggested that with budget cuts and layoffs, schools need to be more conscious of spending and possibly reevaluate how much is being spent on certain departments. It was suggested that more money go into actual teaching instead of administration. Doing so would provide schools with more money to fund better or more dedicated teachers, in return teaching children more efficiently with the school time provided, resulting in children learning more and scoring higher on proficiency/standardized tests.

That might have been a lot of information to swallow so take a moment to digest.
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There are a few points I would like to draw from this article. I agree with the reasoning behind the study, which is to make schools more efficient in spending/teaching their students. I think the main point of school is slightly overshadowed though. Students go to school to learn the basics, in education and life itself. At the end of the day, if a student is learning efficiently, everything else will fall into place. Sometimes I feel that school districts focus too much on preparing students for testing, which will determine their funding. That is the underline for them. Yes it is important to have the funds to run an exceptional school, but if you don't have the support of hard working teachers and thriving students then the money is worthless. I will speak on standardized testing another day, but I feel it is partially to blame in this situation. Districts should want their teachers to be efficient no matter what. Children are sent to school for a reason, so why waste time and not teach them like they should be taught? I applaud the U.S. for having good intentions in making sure schools are using their resources wisely but let us not forget why we are solely here.

Thanks for your time and hope you stop by for next week's discussion!