Very poor administration? (P.S. doesn't mean union would help or hurt)
That seems to be a huge problem is that there are very bad people on the administration side of schools. It seems to be a mix of that + unions at Milwaukee Pub School where we spend an outrageous amount of money and get less results. So I would say there is some waste going on there at the upper levels.
Cultural? It could be the parents are not supporting the teachers in their efforts. The culture could be unsupportive to good education. Take a look at some poor places in London. They have the same problem where there is a culture that abhors education. Seems to be an issue in just about every "race" in certain places.
Administrational issues and culture are certainly part of it, but I don't think there is any evidence that administrations are worse in the north or south. Remember, even in "union" areas, nobody above teachers are unionized. The principals, HR back end staff, curriculum writers...they aren't union.
As a teacher, do you get any sort of evaluation from your superiors on a yearly (or semi-annual) basis? Something where a principle ranks the teachers in his school based on certain criteria and includes a subjective narrative based on his observations/interactions with you?
You do, although the specifics of that evaluation depend on your school. It can include test scores, professional development goals, parent and coworker feedback, quality of lesson plans, and many other factors.
Nowhere else will you find more capable Americans.
Unless you mean things like "capable at doing math", or "capable of sustaining non-dangerous cities" or "capable of having any industry not based on resource extraction, gambling, tits or booze"...then no, Louisiana doesn't have the most capable.
Your senator used hookers. Your main urban center's economy is built on boobs. Your school system is completely uncompetitive, despite being the conservative wet dream. You realize this, right?
Poor states education budgets be poor? I suppose an arguement could be made if those states actually had unions they'd be even worse off.
Oh, you almost got it Mobboss! So close.
THE SINGLE VARIABLE THAT HAS THE BIGGEST IMPACT ON A SCHOOL'S STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT IN THEIR POVERTY LEVEL. Not their unionization. Not how educated their teachers are, not how long the school day is, not the size of their budgets, not whether they allow prayer or not, not what curriculum they use. IT IS THEIR POVERTY LEVEL.
Really, the second biggest variable is their poverty level too. If we look at things by a state level, most of our highest achieving states, (in terms of graduation rate and ACT score) are fairly unionized. They're also fairly wealthy.
I dont think that unionization, by itself, has a significant impact on student achievement. The only union-led policy that I think we can prove has significant impacts on student achievement would be tenure...and maaaaaaaybe last in-first out, although that is probably inconslusive.
Unions make an easy scapegoat for conservatives because teachers unions are a reliable democratic constituency. I won't deny that teachers unions have done stupid things. I was in a teachers union. I understand....but they ARE NOT THE reason our schools suck. Poverty is the reason our schools suck.