We have been over this time and time again. Single “Miracle schools” are always shown on close inspection, to have feet of clay, or have some many quality inputs that they are not scalable or have misrepresented their data (very common with charters, they are caught every day). In the end nobody of influence seriously considers “Miracle schools”, they look at “systems” at least the size od a state or a smaller nation etc.

Miracle schools are not taken seriously.

Sure Doug, if it cannot be scale such as high expectations, effective instruction practices - the schools are called miracle schools.

I somehow doubt the local high school is seen as a miracle school, but in the research of small schools, the researchers called it effective teaching and practices.

This afternoon, as I was grocery shopping, my 16 year old was telling me about another classmate complaining about the golden rule, of not being allow to participate in senior year graduation events, if the student is doing the victory lap, or it is probable that the student will need the extra year. At first my 16 year disagree with me, but she did come around to my way of thinking, once we reach the last row of the grocery store. A good rule, to motivate students to succeed and be the best that one can be. And along with effective teachers, who really believe in their students, the golden rules do not seem to be a hardship on students, no matter their SEC factors.

Keep in mind that some here confuse their opinions with what all sorts of others think, as in “Miracle schools are not taken seriously”. 

Who is actually calling the examples “miracle schools”?  Is that commonly used or a creation of those trying to disparage the schools referred to?  “taken seriously”?  By whom?

As always it works best when “In my personal opinion…” is used as needed.

It is as dumb as a bag of hammers to even criticize the Victory Lap. What would you have kids who finish but their average is not quite enough for the program they want. Do you want them to try again to improve or give up and go to work?

Be serious. Attempts to even restrict it are ludicrous.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/01/opinion/01ravitch.html

There is an endless list of so called Miracle schools that 2-3 years later, everyone is embarrassed to discuss.

http://scholasticadministrator.typepad.com/thisweekineducation/2012/02/video-sht-tfaers-say.html

Even TFAers mock TFA

Point is Doug, if a student is not working at its best, they should not be participating in senior year events if they are not graduating in the year, or have no hope to graduate. They get to participate in senior year events, when the administration of the school sees the likelihood of graduating. Boils down to grades, and having a 27 percent midterm exam does not help students if they wish to graduate with the rest of their classmates. Nor does it help, when the student eschews the help of the teachers, parents, and than expect a miracle to get the needed help or an easy ride in the last 4 months of the school year. Sure the school has options, but it still requires a lot of effort on the student’s part to buckled down, and study.

I am not criticizing the victory lap, but I do agree students who do the victory lap, should not be treated in the same way as students who completed on time and within 4 years.

Oh Nancy there are students that don’t try. I thought there were only bad teachers

Try and stay with us here Doug. Please revisit Malkin’s post entitled “Not only can it be done, it is being done - and here’s how”.

She provides ample evidence to support that claim.

Nothing you can spin will change that fact.

You can attempt to make mountains out of molehills Chuck but in the serious research community, they don’t take “one off” Miracle schools seriously. You need a state, a province or a country to be taken seriously.

“One off” miracle schools rely too much on charismatic personalities or new revolutionary zeal or unrealistic inputs or skewed intake or hyped up data or all of the above. There is difficulty sustaining the projects or bringing them to scale. They have historically not lived up to the hype so as a result “one offs” are not taken seriously in the research community.

Come back with a province, a state or a country that matches your philosophy. Can’t find one? Wonder why?

the only thing being spun here is that research which matches the philosophy of whichever talking points you’re reciting today Doug.

“Miracle school” is your term not anyone else’s.

Victory laps were a nice way to ensure more teachers in the system. When the Victory Laps disappear, the surplus teachers in Ontario will be being retrained to scoop up those ECE jobs gushing thanks to the ELP.

1) Diane Ravitch coined the term “Miracle Schools” and has shown how they regularly crach and burn Chuck I will get you the link.

2) The Victory Lap will always remain Chuch because too many influential people have kids that end grade 12 with averages that fall short. Are you going to tell them they can’t come back or they have to pay? Good luck with that.

3) Seems like you have a poll on a very conservative board that says voters overwhelmingly want the ELP to remain. You can just imagine how popular it is in the general population.

“) The Victory Lap will always remain Chuch because too many influential people have kids that end grade 12 with averages that fall short. Are you going to tell them they can’t come back or they have to pay? Good luck with that.”

You mean the only students that are paying, are the kids with the not so influential parents, who go on to college, and even university, only to find out they lack the necessary skills and are taking the remedial courses in the 3 Rs. Or they find out the hard way, by spending dollars on tuition, that they lack the foundation skills to get a passing grade.

Students who take the victory lap, should be treated differently than the other students in the school. In my corner of the world, the victory lap students do not start school until a week later, and have a different exam schedule. Since most of them are only taking 1 to 3 subjects, they are also require to leave the school as soon as the class is done.

Restrict the victory lap students, and all other students must carry a full course load. A great motivator for students to avoid the victory lap, and to graduate with their friends at the same time. But than again, in my neck of the woods, students actually fail , and are made to repeat the grade. No point in allowing them to go to the next grade, because the public exams will get them at the end. Failed just one public exam, no diploma and a victory lap becomes a possibility if the student fails the rewrite a few months later. But Doug, there is all kinds of help, that there is no reason for students needing a victory lap. As for the students who want to increase their grades, no matter who the parents are, they are told go down to the college and pay like the rest of them.

But than again, Chuck states that it is a nice way to add teachers. In Ontario, and what the Drummond report stated, perhaps the victory lap will be reduced to one with many restrictions, minus the extra teachers needed. Great motivator for students, to avoid the victory lap of restrictions. ,

it can be done because it IS being done.

Truth hurts and so too will the pain, when McGuinty nixes that victory lap WHICH costs us too much money and skewers Ontario’s graduation rates BIG TIME!

Mark my words Chuck, the VL will be there in 10 years. There is no alternative. The public will not tolerate fees in a public system and the alternative is to tell kids with a 78% average in grade 12 you cannot come back, you are finished.

Good luck with that, LOL.

It improves the graduation rate, I dunno Chuck I thought that was what we were all going for? Perhaps not. I guess you don’t want that.

The terrible Canadian education system revealed.

% of people with post secondary education OECD members.

1 Canada 50%
2 Isreal 45%
3 Japan 44$
4 USA 41%
5 New Zealand 40%
6 S. Korea 39%
7 Norway 37%
8 UK 37%
9 Australia 37%
10 Finland 37%

7-10 a virtual tie. Notice the largest gap is Canada-Isreal.

No wonder there is no groundswell of support for reform or choice

Notice Doug, the European nations, except for England, free tuition is not a game changer.

England, more than likely due to the doubling of the tuition, the percentage of 37 will go down.

Canada, has cheaper tuition, living costs and still remains having reasonable access especially at the college level.

But when one thinks about it, what and where are the other 50 percent who did not enter into post-secondary in Canada?

All working?  Doubt it, since the young adults have the highest unemployment rates across the country.

So in your eyes, 50 percent entering post-secondary, no changes require in the K to 12 education system. How about breaking down the 50 percent, and how many of them are low-income?  There is a great many barriers between the years of K to 12, and if tuition start to rise like it did in England and the U.S.especially in the last two years, it will be another barrier and this is on top of less scholarships for students kicking around in the system.