Gone But Still Sickened

As I have written before, several of my colleagues have been forwarding me Mr. AP's memos.  While they have no affect on my life, they still sicken me.  Take this line, for example:

 

CUNY does not consider a student College Ready unless they scored 80 or higher on at least one of the Math Regents exams while they take in high school.  Therefore, students who scored a grade lower than 80 on MXRE or MXRG have been notified to retake the Regents exam. 

A child studying on his own will only score higher than an 80 if they have intensive help.  It is common knowledge that the longer the students are away from a subject, the more they forget.  teacher  The 80 DOES NOT MEAN the work has been mastered, only that the test has.  I have watched tests being looked over and seen points magically pulled from the air to give kids these points, points which help the school but do nothing for the student.  Mr. AP claims he doesn't want kids to have to take remedial math because he doesn't want them to pay for it but these kids need that extra term.  I've seen the kids who walk into the college math class ill prepared because all they ever did in high school was learn to pass an exam and they don't succeed.  It is far better to let them take one term of remedial math than to watch them fail term after term and eventually drop out.

Please do your best to convince them to retake the MXRE.  If they score higher than 80, their chances of passing MR21/MR22 increase drastically.  Provided, they have been working with algebra in MR21, there is no reason why they will not score over 80 in MXRE, particularly if  they are passing.

An 80 on the regents is the equivalent of a 63.75%.  The colleges are working hard to keep standards and help students.  They can't do this when kids come out of high school knowing so little.  The 80 he is looking for will help the school, and especially the math department look better but will do nothing for the students.  If anyone is really interested in using data, perhaps the kids who got these inflated 80's should be followed and their success rate should be noted.