Adults blame parents for education problems

[proud2BlibKansan]

Blaming teachers for low test scores, poor graduation rates and the other ills of American schools has been popular lately, but a new survey wags a finger closer to home.

An Associated Press-Stanford University Poll on education found that 68 percent of adults believe parents deserve heavy blame for what's wrong with the U.S. education system - more than teachers, school administrators, the government or teachers unions.

Only 35 percent of those surveyed agreed that teachers deserve a great deal or a lot of the blame. Moms were more likely than dads - 72 percent versus 61 percent - to say parents are at fault. Conservatives were more likely than moderates or liberals to blame parents.

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One in 10 kindergarten and first-grade students misses a month of school every year, which can put them behind their classmates for years, according to Attendance Counts, an advocacy group. By ninth grade, missing 20 percent of school is a better predictor of a student dropping out than test scores are, said Attendance Counts director Hedy Chang. In the poll, 41 percent said students not spending enough time in school is a serious problem.

more . . . http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2013652962_apuseducationpollblamingparents.html

[BeyondGeography]

1. But not themselves, of course

Other parents. The poor ones.

[seabeyond]

4. wrong. i have always accepted the responsibility. it is my job. maybe that

is why i clearly am pointing finger to parent and majority of parents do. it is obvious. and it has nothing to do with poor or not. one child in high income school. one hild in low income school. had them in a private school. the issue has followed us around.

[BeyondGeography]

5. "Conservatives were more likely than liberals or moderates to blame parents."

They are not pointing the finger at themselves.

[seabeyond]

11. if you are talking sentence structure, the coserv in that sentence is not pointing finger at liberal

and moderates.... though sentence poor structure, conservative is more likely to point finger at parenting rather than schools, as problems in education and liberals, moderates less likely

is that what you mean, by quoting that sentence and your comment?

[Starry Messenger]

2. More from the dept of "duh":

"Hungry students do worse on standardized tests and are absent more often, according several studies that have connected poor nutrition with students who have trouble concentrating." Did they need a study to confirm this? Just ask a teacher. Oh wait, we're drooling morons...

[AnneD]

3. I have to be a voice of reason here.....

Absences in kinder and preK are to be expected. Little kids are building an immune system so they do tend to catch anything going around. A better count would be absences after after 1st grade.

As a school nurse, I would much rather have sick kids out of school and not exposing healthy kids. When your kid has a fever, they need to stay home.

[surrealAmerican]

6. This brings up another interesting point.

Could it be that some large fraction of children with "poor attendance" are actually children with chronic health problems? Might these problems also be affecting their grades, even when they do attend school?

[madmom]

9. I am convinced that this is part of the reason. My daughter is/was an honor

student in every subject except math. She just can't get her head around math. When she was younger 1st and 2nd grade when they were learning the basic math concepts, she was having severe allergy problems. We couldn't find the cause and were looking for meds to alleviate them. One left her hyper, another lethargic etc etc. In the mean time she was loosing out at school because she just wasn't there mentally. Later teachers could not understand how she could do so well in all other subjects. To this day she has problems with math, although she is doing much better, she took and adult Sylvan learning class.

Wanted to add, she didn't miss a lot of school attendance wise but having her head bogged down because of allergies and/or medication she was not there mentally.:shrug:

[mopinko]

10. agree with you. got a kid that has a chronic illness.

she was dx'd in 3rd grade, but had been showing symptoms and missing school before that. she is a senior in high school and to this day we have been unable to get a plan implemented to support her. we have had 504 plans, and she was finally allowed to have an iep. but she still does not get the same day tutor when she misses more than 2 days. she was sick all week, asked for her tutor, and ...crickets....

the system, at least here, is not set up for chronic illnesses.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. They need to change the attendance mandate in NCLB

and allow a higher percentage of absences for the younger kids.

The way it is now, their attendance counts even though they aren't tested. There is no mandate for their achievement but there is for their attendance.

Pretty dumb system.

[Puregonzo1188]

8. Thank you! I remember when I was kid, even up to fourth grade at least once a year

there would be a time when I would get so sick I would miss at least a week of school. And it wasn't that I was lazy or goofing off, I would seriously have a sinus infection with a fever or stomach flu for a week. It would have been impossible for me to go to school.

Now that I'm in college, I hardly ever miss class. I didn't even miss class this year when my appendix ruptured, although that was more due to the timing of it than anything else (No Thursday/Friday classes, appendix ruptured on a Thursday, was released on the hospital Saturday).

[GeorgeGist]

12. and parents can thank ...

republicans for dumbing down the schools.