Students are getting ripped off at public summer schools that cut corners to save money — including one program that ended Friday after just 10 days of classes, The Post has learned.
And a second high school stuck English students in front of computers and essentially assigned a baby sitter — who didn’t have a teaching license — rather than a certified instructor to keep an eye on them.
...
At Women’s Academy of Excellence in The Bronx, students said the English class has no instructor and no one to answer their questions when they need help with an educational computer program that is teaching them.
Instead, the school assigned a $30,000-a-year “community associate” — a noneducator who is paid to be a liaison between the school and the surrounding area — to monitor the classroom.
“Honestly, I don’t learn much from [the computer]. It tells me stuff, but it doesn’t show me what I’m learning,” said 17-year-old junior Monica Morgan.
“I was so confused . . . I’d get more out of a textbook.”
Despite confirmation from a dozen students and staffers about the lack of a certified teacher, Principal Arnette Crocker denied the charge through the DOE.
She did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
A DOE spokeswoman said the certified instructor was a “virtual” teacher whom the students could ask questions of by e-mail — but the kids said that was news to them.
“I never got offered that,” said soon-to-be sophomore Emani Brown, 15.
DOE officials insisted that the “virtual” teacher was allowable under state regulations.
Those regulations require that online courses be taught or supervised by a certified teacher in the same school district.
Ah yes - students being taught by "an educational computer program."
The future of education is here.
No need for a licensed, certified teacher.
Just a low-paid "community associate," an "educational computer program," some computers and the students.
And of course the use of an "educational computer program" and a "virtual teacher" is "allowable" under state law.
Hell, not only is it "allowable," it soon will be the norm in many urban districts.
This is just one of the reasons the powers that be want to break the unions - so that they can fire the "bad" teachers and replace them with computer programs and "virtual" teachers who are virtually non-existent.
Poof goes to the money - right to Pearson, Wireless Generation and all the other education vulture companies.
Poof goes the future - for the kids stuck in this system.
I totally agree with you that this is going to be the trend in education--people like Joel Klein have had this in the works for quite some time. Get rid of experienced teachers, hire cheap newbies and fill in the gaps with online learning--with school aides babysitting the kids. I have been afraid that this scenario was coming for quite some time.
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