During the last joint session of the Prince William County School Board and the Board of Supervisors, Supervisors Lawson and Candland chose to pick a fight with the School Board over a budget flyer sent home. I wish they had discussed the needs of the school board, especially as it relates to textbooks.
Disclosure: up until 3 years ago I was a certified secondary math teacher so this is important to me and I think I know what I am talking about. I also have grandchildren in PWC Schools.
Kids aren’t being issued textbooks. I checked with my middle school grandson. No math book. I couldn’t get an answer about the other books. I checked with friends who have kids in the school system. Their kids don’t have text books in any of the subjects. WTF? There are classroom sets.
So I asked about homework. It seems that kids have binders and worksheets. Sorry. That doesn’t cut it. How on earth are our kids learning to read in the content areas? Apparently they are not. Reading in the content areas is a critical skill that people who move beyond high school must have to be successful. If our SAT scores are coming up short, that is one place to immediately look.
The textbook issue has to be generated at the local schools. I do not believe it is overall policy. Why are individual schools doing this? Probably because they do not have the money. This lack of a textbook for every child is simply unacceptable, at least in core subject areas. I call on the BOCS to give enough money to the schools to at least provide a text book in core academic areas for every child. Textbooks are just no place to go on the cheap. A text should be a powerful tool.
Furthermore, I feel confident that teachers and administrators know that sharing a classroom set of books is not considered “Best Practice.” The equivocation and subject changing when people start asking questions is a dead give-away.
What might be considered acceptable in place of a textbook for every kid would be site licenses where the student can access the textbook online. I would have no problem with this practice. It’s tremendously expensive to start up online textbooks but it saves money in the long run. There is no wear and tear on textbooks. Updates can be electronic. Currently most texts are replaced every 6 years as per state guidelines. I see no reason why the state couldn’t approve a longer time for textbooks before they were considered outdated, especially if they were being updated electronically.
Students without a computer or internet would be assigned a traditional text book.
At any rate, PWCS regulation 345.01-1 Guidelines for Purchasing, Accounting and Disposition of Textbooks spells out that there is to be a textbook per student by the second year of adoption and purchase. Something needs to change to make this happen. Currently there is not a textbook for every student in every subject, in particular at the middle school level.
The BOCS needs to make sure the School Board has enough money to buy textbooks for every student. The BOCS and the School Board need to discuss these issues as critical needs rather than gotcha over flyers being sent home with kids. That’s always gone on. What hasn’t gone on is not having textbooks for every child and that has to be corrected, immediately.
Same down here in Henrico.
Progress, don’t you know?
1. text books are outrageously expensive
2. all school systems are strapped.
3. this is a horrible practice and kids need to know how to read in the content areas, now more than ever.
Is the textbook shortage in all subject areas?
Textbooks are available in PWC – you have to request a textbook for the class and one will be assigned to the student (I currently do this). The textbook is then left at home. There are also some textbooks available online.
Do the kids still get graded on their binders? It has been awhile since my two were in City Schools, but there was a grade for neatness and completeness (all papers in it; papers in proper tab area).
The practice, as I was informed, was to educate children on being organized preparing them for post-High School employment or education. My in-home education occured at the end of School Year when they took their binders and emptied them into the recycle bin for the “Mixed Office Paper” aspect.
Too funny.
I think they don’t have the money for text books.
I have having bad flashbacks just thinking about grading binder organization.