Here is an example of some of the things you will find in the school I teach in:
Students being handed multiplication tables because they are incapable of multiplying two single digit numbers yet they will be expected to pass Algebra this year and Geometry next year.
Students who never took Spanish 1 and Spanish 2 are being placed in Spanish 3. Their transcripts are being altered to make them appear to have passed a proficiency test in grade.
Students are being placed in the second term of Math B so they can attempt a regents in June although they either never took the first part or failed it with a fifty or less.
A senior who insists on taking an extra year of math is put in an honor pre-calculus class intended for juniors because it is the only class with an available seat.
September 19 and kids are still being moved from Algebra to Geometry and back. No one seems to care these kids missed over two weeks of instruction.
Principals who only care about passing everyone along so they can collect their big performance bonuses.
Bloomberg and Klein--keep up the good work!
6 comments:
And then they go to community college and have to take remediation courses.
...And then drop out because of the cost without even receiving any college credit. Schoolgal, right now, that is the strongest evidence of how ineptly and shamelessly Bloomberg, Klein, and shady principals pass students along in high school. Accountability, my arse.
I know what you both mean. I teach in a local community college at night. Luckily I am teaching pre-calculus but the most popular course is one in arithmetic.
Wow! I thought this only happened in a dump like where I am at or was. Well at least my dump has a local newpsaper looking into its practices but that is because they want us out of their community.
So we have "accountability" pushing admins to program funny to improve numbers (improve kids? nah, improve numbers).
We have marginal competence (incompetence?) believing that any kid can be prepped for any test in a term or two.
We have "accountability" pressuring schools by measuring them on how many take the test as well as how many pass.
We have admins who are too lazy or too overwhelmed to really care.
With all those choices, how does one choose?
Jonathan
Now all the accountability is on the teachers when it should be on students. Instead a student gets seat-time credit, lower passing scores on regents, and passing classes they never took.
We get...bad press.
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