Like other principals across the city, he is retaining basic classroom teachers but not filling vacancies in support staff.
The teachers with whom I've worked buy basic classroom supplies out of their meager salaries; if they don't approve of No Child Left Behind in its present form, this ought to tell us something.
Fueled by frustration over large class sizes, lack of basic classroom amenities, and dilapidated buildings, teachers waged the sickout – an organized mass absence of work – seemingly as a cry for help, despite the questionable legality of the tactic: Michigan law prohibits government employees from going on strike.
"But there are certain things we are always looking for, including the ability to convey enthusiasm, having good basic classroom practice (not allowing pupils to talk over you; clear instructions; objectives; outcomes; opportunities to show progress), high expectations and having the confidence to challenge poor behaviour".
Forget that the one justice who dissented, David B. Saxe, wrote that "chronic underfunding, although interspersed with some years of greater funding, has also led to deterioration of school buildings, overcrowding, inadequacy of textbooks, library materials, laboratory supplies and basic classroom supplies, and, in some schools, even an insufficient number of desks and chairs".
Although I faced few serious disciplinary issues that first year, I did find that basic classroom management was still the most challenging part of the job.
Many of the pupils crammed into the basic classrooms are in their mid-20s; others have fled conflict.
Other educational materials and recreational equipment were supplied, allowing teachers who had been trained in 2002 to convert basic classrooms into stimulating environments.
Its is a remarkable story, and one that poses some intriguing questions in the education debate, especially in these straitened times, about the value of costly makeovers and flagship Government policies as against a reinvigorated commitment to the basics – decent classroom teaching and strong leadership.
A number of bright students have dropped out of college something that would have been considered shameful only a decade ago to start software companies.Getting the basics rightIn classrooms all over the developing world, ICT is proving useful.
Mr. Khan calls his revolutionary idea "the flip" and the basic premise — that classroom lectures followed by homework followed by exams is a recipe for educational failure — is gaining momentum.
