There are test scores, report cards, quarterly and daily grades, minute analysis of clicks and views, tracking analytics, diagnostic criteria, disciplinary records, international comparisons, district and state evaluations, and much more. Big data and ed technocrats are excited.
For the record, here's are some numbers that our so-called public schools do not even bother to collect:
- what learning services families in the district want or need at this time
- numbers of kids wanting/needing open-access extracurricular classes
- skills that kids would like to acquire
- numbers of children needing daycare in the district
- numbers of kids needing aftercare in the district
- numbers of kids wanting supplemental activities after school
- numbers of families wanting nighttime services
- a listing of services families could provide
- a database for carpooling and transportation needs
- a shareboard for used athletic equipment
- a list of families whose kids need transport to events
- a list of computer and book needs families have
- lists of community members willing to work with mentoring/apprenticeship programs
- a listing of resources for teens forming small businesses
- classes desired by homeschoolers
- the number of people wanting Saturday classes
- the number of families seeking tutoring services
- a listing of teacher and parent support groups and class space for them to meet
This data is not even deemed important enough to collect, track or know. If district parents want to network, they can do it on their own time. All they need from families are our children and tax dollars, thank you very much.
There are lots of ways that citizens pooling money for a common service could go about it but one would think that as a social service for children, schools would be very involved with families if only because children live in families and have a special legal status that way. But our schools have a surprising attitude toward families that can only be attributed to the police mentality developed when given policing power over families. The fact that schools are not operating as supportive social services is clear when this kind of data is not even deemed worthy of knowing.
Parents have been cut out for a long time in our public schools and the only real way to fix that is to get our schools back in our hands as social service providers of voluntary learning services to families.
There are lots of ways that citizens pooling money for a common service could go about it but one would think that as a social service for children, schools would be very involved with families if only because children live in families and have a special legal status that way. But our schools have a surprising attitude toward families that can only be attributed to the police mentality developed when given policing power over families. The fact that schools are not operating as supportive social services is clear when this kind of data is not even deemed worthy of knowing.
Parents have been cut out for a long time in our public schools and the only real way to fix that is to get our schools back in our hands as social service providers of voluntary learning services to families.
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