Klarinet Archive - Posting 000114.txt from 2006/04

From: Mark Charette <charette@-----.org>
Subj: Re: [kl] Business aspects of music performance & education
Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2006 14:16:20 -0400

Ormondtoby Montoya wrote:
> Rather, it is that NCLB is proving to demand these skills _to the
> exclusion_ of other skills which also can allow a child to survive and
> feel satisfied
It's the relationship of X dollars available for attaining Y minimum results. If f(X) = Y, there's nothing left over. If f(X) < Y, taxes get raised or schools reorganized to attempt to achieve Y. If f(X) > Y, then arts & such can be added. if f(X) = Y, then you have almost the same struggle as f(X) < Y to add anything ...

However, considering f(X) is a non-linear function, "where you live" (tax base), "attractiveness" (how attractive are your schools to teachers?), "how involved are the parents" (which have additional dependencies on the previous 2 items), etc. can change the results dramatically from location to location. It's interesting that place that spend less money per child can greatly outperform those schools that spend more money per child, leaving the high-performing/dollar schools with f(X) > Y, whereupon they add new and interesting programs, and deliver even better results. Dollars and performance, while probably not completely decoupled, do sometimes show perverse effects.

There's also the Y itself; many people will not weigh arts as much as sciences to determine Y ...

There's no happy answer ... it always depends on who's ox is being gored.

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