Where I live, Hoboken, NJ, the high school math and reading proficiency rate are 8% and 44% respectively, while the graduation rate is >95%
What the hell are they doing if they're not even teaching kids math and reading? And why are they graduating them?
Grades aren't meant to be a feel good merit badge. They're supposed to be an accurate reflection of your level of knowledge relative to your peers. If it ceases to be that, then the selection just happens elsewhere. So now high school diploma isn't worth anything because everyone graduates. Hiring a high school graduate doesn't even guarantee you the person can read. Same thing happens in bachelors as schools become less selective and inflate grades.
My personal opinion is that the government should get out of education, just lower our taxes and let the free market handle the rest. Never gonna happen, however.
You increase the chances to succeed at the same time you make it more difficult, to overwhelm that aspect.
Reduce the binary outcome slightly so it's not just a cycle of fail and be thrown / throw yourself to the wolves (dropout).
Dramatically increase vocational education training.
Shift to a year-round school system. So you don't fail and abandon. Instead, you never stop until you succeed.
High school et al stops being N year pegs/separations that you must pass each of to move on annually (start year / pass or fail / break / next year). Instead it's year-round, fluid, continual. You are failing at this thing, continue until you are not, no break, no year markers.
The rigid year system is largely bullshit, it's an exceptionally idiotic approach. It's overly simplistic and lacks the nuance of an individual's context and needs.
That's why I say we should move to a more free-market based solution. It would be EASY for a private organization to completely revamp the way the school year structure works! I went to public school myself, but I believe I've heard of such "progressive" or "nontraditional" private schools that offer different structures than the standard "grade" approach.
Of course, the issue with private schools is cost, but I think direct subsidies a la stimulus checks as well as tax cuts could help.
Of course, this would cause mass disruption in the education labor market, but the nuances of that escape me.
The incentive to succeed starts at parents having to pay, ending with the students being quite aggressively challenged to actually deliver on exams.
It may not be fit for everyone, but now that I work in an investment bank in Hong Kong, I dont feel like I m being abused by deadlines, financial objectives, disappointement on failures, high reward on success, expectation that I do more than the minimum etc.
But in France, saying these is an anathema, people can get insane we encourage kids to excel, in silly things such as just being fluent in English, useful in Math, generally aware of physics, careful about historical precedents or able to follow a discussion on philosophy. And it's not even considering accessories like understanding Latin etymology or never making a spelling mistake in French.
We may see education like a sort or right, that happens given enough tax money thrown at schools, but it feels to me like a mindset and a duty: we must understand what's happening around us and we must make our children useful. Too bad if it's a little bit hard some days, but that's this or we whine all our lives the rich are eating OUR cake, when all we ever did was being born and claiming equality.
Triple integrals are a bit too hard for 11th grade, but they are usefull to calculate the speed of a sailing boat. If you admit only one sail form exist however, you can make a simple algorithm for your pupils to apply different lenght/height and calculate the ultimate ratios. Thank you Mr Mason.
Microwaves are dangerous, but the powder inside fluocompacte (don't have the translation :/) bulbs does not react dangerously, and that can be used to who how low-consumption light can change our consumption (it was before LED bulbs became a thing, overall i have a lot of useless knowledge from this, but the method stayed with me).
You don't need to learn italian to translate a fencing treaty from 17th century bologna, but translating historical text is hard. At least you can use some positions and attacks in your saber competition, it's not good but surprising enough to get some points. But well, my history teacher introduced most of us to HEMA
There is multiple francophone theater festival a year, some of them not in France, and surprisingly not many French school attend (We were mostly the only one each of the 3 time). Tulsea is a fine city, Agadir is better and Liege is interesting too (budget cut in my last year i guess, we did not take the plane).
My brother was in a private school however. And i can tell you the difference: in public school the floor is low, sometime very low compared to private school. But the ceiling can be much, much higher when your school have a bit of money (like if it's also a public trade school).
I've also been part of "les petit debrouillards" and i've taught some chemistry and engineering (sometime even electricity!) to kids, at different levels. I've been invited to public school, to homeschooling association, but never to private school. It might be anecdotal, but our group was very well known and liked, we had a lot more invitations than we could respond to/attend to, and never once we were called to a private school. It's not a dig, but in my mind, it is exactly why i couldn't have done everything i've done if i went to the same private school my brother went. I would probably have a lot more money than i do now (not that i really care, i'm still in the top 10% income), but with a lot less skills and experiences.