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Silk, Tim, I hope this works. I think it is a good idea. I am just suspicious of anything Kopp and Co. is involved with. It is not uncommon to find use for former school buildings. What is very unusual is to use them again as a school. Show me an example of that... where a school building was replaced with a new one, and the old one reactivated as a school.
I did suspect Kopp was involved with the rediculous Community College mess. I was wrong about that. That was Gov. Photo Op all the way.
Stonewall Jackson High in Charleston is now a Middle School. Same building.
Okay, Stonewall Jackson. But, my hunch is that was the intention all along. The middle school was not outdated, it was merely instantly changed from a high school to a middle school because they were building a consolidated high school. That happened in many places all over the State. But when they build a school to REPLACE a school, and shut the old school down that is another issue.
At the same time, I acknowledge that at times school boards replace schools that are not really in need of replacement. I am actually aware of that happening in Marshall County this year... the school being replaced is only 25 or 30 years old. It's a waste of taxpayer money. If there is an example of that sort of taxpayer money waste in Cabell it might be a feasible issue there. Did Dr. Kopp have such an example?
There actually is a school in Morgantown that could be used in that manner. St. Francis High School shut down and could be used in that manner. It's not in bad shape, they just didn't have enough students who wanted to go to a Catholic high school to keep operating it. They built a new Catholic middle school and high school students go the public schools. Monongalia County might be advised to look into that. Like I said, I agree with the concept. In fact, they have dumbed down education except for science and technical education to the point that splitting it off from the other politically correct garbage would be a very good move.
St. Francis High School shut down and could be used in that manner. It's not in bad shape, they just didn't have enough students who wanted to go to a Catholic high school to keep operating it. They built a new Catholic middle school and high school students go the public schools. Monongalia County might be advised to look into that. Like I said, I agree with the concept. In fact, they have dumbed down education except for science and technical education to the point that splitting it off from the other politically correct garbage would be a very good move.
So if it happens in Cabell County it's just Kopp blowing smoke and it will fail in a few years, right about the time he leaves, according to you? But Mon County should look into it and it would work there? If they didn't have enough people to support a private high school and they shut it down, what makes you think another private high school would work?
My point being, why not just say it's a good idea that should be looked into as an example all over the state to help move the education of our children forward and to challenge them on a higher level? Why start this rhetoric of it won't succeed if Marshall does it in Huntington but if WVU does it, it would be GREAT? Do you not see your own prejudice toward ANYTHING MU does?
This is the kind of stuff I'm referring to CT. What is one of Marshall's strengths? Teaching. They have an early education center and they have set up the 21st Century School model in some of the public schools here. There are more people to draw on from this area as proven by the fact that Huntington itself feeds into two high schools, Huntington High and Spring Valley and there's also Cabell Midland and 3 other private schools in Cabell Co. Two of the private schools here have/are in the process of expanding and one of them is catholic. So there's a lot of school aged children here and if you open it up to more of the MSA, you have an even larger pool of children to potentially choose from.
I've recently seen one of the buildings that the school board is emptying and it is a beautiful building that is in great shape that would suit such a model. They are merely emptying it because you have to offer a "gift" to the public to support consolidation and that most often comes in the form of a new school building. Doesn't mean the old one was inadequate but it helps keep the parents from fighting the consolidation because why would they support it if you were just using the same building?
On another good note for Marshall, they are looking into adding a Meteorology Degree which would be the first of its kind in the state. They already have a Meteorology minor that has been pretty well received so they are looking to expand. Here's the link.
Harborlady, they appear to base whether you proceed or not on subject rather than grade. They appear to only measure what year you are for records rather than what set of criteria you are on. If you are having trouble in one area but are mastering others, you can move on in the subjects that were mastered while still working on the one you haven't. That's what I get from it anyway. I think it's good that they would challenge kids to be more well rounded. I think if left to their own devices, kids will never achieve more than mediocrity. If pushed to achieve more though, they often rise to the challenge. They usually don't like it at the time but often see the benefit of it later in life. I really hope this works and is then adopted throughout the state.
So if it happens in Cabell County it's just Kopp blowing smoke and it will fail in a few years, right about the time he leaves, according to you? But Mon County should look into it and it would work there? If they didn't have enough people to support a private high school and they shut it down, what makes you think another private high school would work?
My point being, why not just say it's a good idea that should be looked into as an example all over the state to help move the education of our children forward and to challenge them on a higher level? Why start this rhetoric of it won't succeed if Marshall does it in Huntington but if WVU does it, it would be GREAT? Do you not see your own prejudice toward ANYTHING MU does?
This is the kind of stuff I'm referring to CT. What is one of Marshall's strengths? Teaching. They have an early education center and they have set up the 21st Century School model in some of the public schools here. There are more people to draw on from this area as proven by the fact that Huntington itself feeds into two high schools, Huntington High and Spring Valley and there's also Cabell Midland and 3 other private schools in Cabell Co. Two of the private schools here have/are in the process of expanding and one of them is catholic. So there's a lot of school aged children here and if you open it up to more of the MSA, you have an even larger pool of children to potentially choose from.
I've recently seen one of the buildings that the school board is emptying and it is a beautiful building that is in great shape that would suit such a model. They are merely emptying it because you have to offer a "gift" to the public to support consolidation and that most often comes in the form of a new school building. Doesn't mean the old one was inadequate but it helps keep the parents from fighting the consolidation because why would they support it if you were just using the same building?
On another good note for Marshall, they are looking into adding a Meteorology Degree which would be the first of its kind in the state. They already have a Meteorology minor that has been pretty well received so they are looking to expand. Here's the link.
Meteorology major considered - News (http://media.www.marshallparthenon.com/media/storage/paper534/news/2009/03/03/News/Meteorology.Major.Considered-3656442.shtml - broken link)
Tim
It's good that there is an adequate building for them to use. What that says, however, and this is not just as regards Cabell but all over the State, is what's wrong with a picture where perfectly good facilities are shelved in a State that is hypothetically the poorest finiancially in the country? Who is setting these priorities?
I hadn't realized that Marshall had suddenly come into all this money to add even more degrees. It's a very expensive proposition. I wonder if the current instructional and classified staff is being consulted about it? As long as they legitimately have funding to adequately fund existing offerings and pay a decent wage to their personnel, I'm all for it.
I'm not going to go into my bias against Kopp and what I think he has done to the school. Let's just take a wait and see approach to that.
Marshall's Forensic Science Program Gets Number One Ranking
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Marshall University's Forensic Science Graduate Program is top ranked in the country, based on overall test scores on a recent national assessment test.
Five graduate students earned the highest honors on the Forensic Science Assessment Test from the American Board of Criminalistics.
The students who participated in the test showed knowledge in forensic biology, controlled substances, trace analysis, toxicology, latent prints, questioned documents, fire debris and firearms/tool marks. The test is given annually to students in their last semester.
Eight other programs across the country participated in the exam, including Arcadia University, Cedar Crest College, Duquesne University, Ohio University, Penn State University, Sam Houston University, University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of North Texas.
They definately have a top notch program here in Huntington and I was glad to see that they earned this ranking.
Ok...so if there are 25 accredited programs (http://www.aafs.org/default.asp?section_id=resources&page_id=accredite d_programs - broken link)...and only 8 participated...how can you really claim to have the top nationally ranked program in the country? That's straight hubris.
On the bright side, I guess they can claim that they are empirically better than Penn State though...and they got that TV show about their program going on.
And seeing Arcadia on there cracks me up. Its this crappy little school down the street from where my wife grew up in Glenside, Pa. It used to be, and I'm not making this up, a women's school called Beaver College. Hahaha.
Academic programs across the board are judged based on test scores. It's the best way to show what the programs are teaching and how well they are teaching it. These tests are open to students from all of these programs. As with most cases, if your students don't participate, you lose your chance to showcase your program. Whether 5 or all 25 programs participate, conclusions will always be drawn from that data. It's the nature of the beast. Here's another article with more detail.
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Marshall's Forensic Science Program Gets Number One Ranking
