是時候幫父母評級，新條例草案建議

是時候幫父母評級，新條例草案建議
It's time to grade parents, new bill proposes
By Leslie Postal and
Denise-Marie Balona, Orlando Sentinel
9:02 p.m. EST, January 18, 2011
Translation by Autumnson Blog

Every year, Florida's students, schools and districts are graded based on their performance. Now, it's time to start rating parents, a state lawmaker says.
每年佛羅里達州的學生、學校和區域都根據他們的表現被評分。現在是時候開始評價父母，一個州議員說。
State Rep. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, filed a bill Tuesday that would require elementary school teachers to evaluate parents based on "the quality" of their involvement in their children's schools.
R -萊克蘭的州眾議員凱利 Stargel週二提出一項法案，會要求小學教師去評估父母，根據他們參與子女學校的“品質”。
Parents with children in pre-K-to-third-grade would get "satisfactory," "needs improvement" or "unsatisfactory" ratings in four broad categories.
家長與孩子在學前班到三年級會得到“滿意”、“需要改善”或“不滿意”的等級在四大欄目。
They would be judged on their response to requests for meetings or communication, their children's completion of homework and preparation for tests, their children's absentee and tardy rates and their children's "physical preparation for school," including a good night's sleep and appropriate meals.
他們對應邀參加會議或溝通的反應，其子女完成作業和準備測驗，他們子女的缺席和遲緩率，及他們的孩子的“上學身體準備，”包括一良好的睡眠和適當的飯菜等等都會被判斷。
Parents' grades would appear on their kids' report cards.
家長的級別會出現在他們孩子的成績單上。
"Although the school environment has a great impact on a child's well-being and academic success, parents and the home environment form the foundation of a child's present and future life," Stargel explains in the bill, HB 255.

"Without proper parental involvement in all aspects of a child's life, the child's prospects to be a well-equipped and useful member of society are greatly diminished," the bill states. Stargel, a mother of five, could not be reached late Tuesday.

Parents and teachers raised questions about the bill, saying it could backfire and make parent-teacher relations more tense. They also feared it would add to teachers' workloads if they had to keep track of parent progress as well as their students'.

"I think it would create a more hostile environment if the parent wasn't doing what they were supposed to do," said Andrew Spar, president of the Volusia Teachers Organization, that county's teachers union.

"At the end of the day, I don't think this would change anything. It would just create more work."

Spar said the descriptions of ideal parental involvement in Stargel's bill are good and there is no doubt that involved parents are key to student success. But trying to create a formal grading system — complete with parent appeals — would have little impact but to "put a tremendous burden on the teacher," he said.

Susan Persis, president of the Florida Association of School Administrators and the principal at Pine Trail Elementary in Ormond Beach, has other concerns – fairness being the chief among them.

"There are some parents who work two and three jobs and who care about their kids just as much as the parent who's the president of the PTA and is there at school every day," Persis said.

"It could be a time thing. It could be something going on in the family. Who is the teacher to say, 'You're not doing a good job?' "

But John Wilson, whose two sons are in kindergarten and third grade at Bentley Elementary in Seminole County, thinks Stargel's bill is a great idea.

Parents who are doing their part would appreciate the positive feedback from teachers, he said. Those who aren't doing their part might be encouraged to start.

"Someone who truly wants their child to learn and succeed and go above and beyond, they're not going to take it as an insult — they're going to step up and do more," he said.

It's not clear whether Stargel's bill will get any traction in the legislative session that starts in March, when many education-related ideas will be considered.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/education/os-teachers-grade-parents-20110118,0,5628190.story