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Personal Observations and Experience:
My dissatisfaction with our public school system began at a young age. When I was eight years old my Dad was transferred to Geneva Switzerland and so, for five years, my sister and I attended the International School of Geneva . Upon returning to the United States, I attended Unionville high school, one of the top rated public schools in Pennsylvania. I didn't learn a thing my first two years in this school - that's how far behind the private school they were. The International School was also much more creative and fun. However, I am grateful to individual teachers and coaches at Unionville who bucked the system and worked to make classes fun and exciting, despite receiving no reward for doing so. Mr. Vince Odonnell, my biology teacher, deserves special credit for this and was my inspiration for the character of Steve Rangart. Students today apparently agree with me as seen by his high rating on this site.
In college, I found the public University system just as hopeless as the public school system. In my last few years at Florida State University I stopped attending class completely and just showed up for the tests. My grades actually improved dramatically (although admittedly there were also other factors involved). There were some exceptions to the rule, Mathew Rhodes, an enthusiastic and brilliant graduate student, taught an incredible Cognitive psychology class. I never missed this class. Dr. Charles Madsen, a clinical psychologist with over 40 years of experience, taught his classes through telling stories of his own clinical experience. I took every course he offered.
My first teaching experience was as a private tutor in New Jersey and a Teaching Assistant in Physiology of Psychology, a neuroanatomy class at Florida State University.
For the past year I have been teaching MCAT preparation (the Medical School admissions examination) at Kaplan, a test prep company. First, each potential teacher has to have scored in the top 10% of the portion of the test they will be teaching. This is the only qualification needed. Next, they must perform an audition where they present a topic to the center manager. Assuming they pass the audition, all new teachers go through a very well designed and comprehensive teacher training course where valuable feedback is given and the trainer is an expert. Kaplan has a very impressive system where students rate their teachers midway through their class and at the end. The ratings the students give are multifaceted and they can also offer comments and feedback. Each teacher meets with the center manager to go over the student feedback and give encouragement and suggestions. The trainer will periodically sit in on a class, rate the presenter, and work to further improve teacher performance. Veteran teachers are 'retrained' to keep them fresh and discourage lazy habits.
Interestingly, the teacher ratings of the newer teachers are mostly found near the bottom of the teacher spectrum. This indicates that experience plays a large roll in teacher proficiency. I have found that teaching a lesson the second time around is exponentially easier and more satisfying.
The work is all part time and teachers are always trying to pick up more classes. Teachers who are more highly rated are given top priority in picking up classes, further incentivising good performance. The curriculum is very structured, but this is likely because Kaplan's business model is tailored for this specific test.
Kaplan charges students around $1500 for the MCAT preparation course. For this they receive flash cards, 4 large paperback lesson books, and extensive online and center resources (including extra practice tests, question databases etc..). All of these had to be created from scratch by Kaplan. They receive twelve 3 hour lessons and six 6.5 hour simulation examinations, for a total of 75 class room hours. Kaplan is able to do all this and still make a decent profit. I am sure they could run an excellent Charter school for much less than our current public schools spend.
I have a number of good friends who are past and present public and charter school teachers and many have expressed frustrations with the current system.
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