Credits for no work seem to be the new norm. IB a math teacher is always writing about his senior credit factories where all the kids have to do pretty much is breathe and show up to get credit, and this is too much for them. It seems to be the same everywhere. Principals are under pressure to increase their graduation rates and the only way to do this is to give kids credit for being alive.
Here in New York our wonderful mayor did away with evening school. After all, these were just credit factories. Evening school has been replaced with extended day school. The classes meet two days a week for an hour and a half. There are no standards and teachers are pressured to pass the kids. I know one kid who is taking two math classes during the day and one in extended day school. This is not very conducive to learning for a kid who has never learned in the first place. It just gives him the credits and pushes him out the door. Summer school is now being reduced to four week sessions for non regents classes and six week classes for regents classes. They will be local to the individual school so the principal will also be able to assert more pressure to pass everyone.
Now everyone is graduating, but is everyone going to college and succeeding? I think not! Maybe the graduation rates are going up but the caliber of students graduating is going down. Kids are not being prepared for anything at all. They are not succeeding in college, they jand they just don't have the right work ethics and study skills. They don't do well at work because they are used to having things done to suit them. This NCLB law is doing a great job of leaving lots of kids behind.
1 comment:
The thing that really freaked me out was when they started talking about "seat time." This from the people who are always paying lip service to standards and accountability.
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