When Statistics Are All That Count

Mrs. Obsessed was worried about Nat.  The regents exam was just a few days away and she did not feel he was ready.  She asked him to stay late for extra help.  Mrs. Obsessed could not give Nat the undivided attention he needed so she asked Mrs. Kind to help.  Mrs. Kind sat with Nat and showed him different methods, explains fully as she went along.  Mrs. Obsessed overheard and said "don't bother explaining, just give him steps.  Nat is incapable of understanding.  He needs to learn by rote."  Mrs. Obsessed students passed the regents, her results were excellent.  Her statistics failed to show how little they actually knew.

Mrs. Obsessed is now a high school principal.  I fear for all the students in her charge she thinks are incapable of understanding and who are being pushed through without really being educated.

New Way To Waste Money

I just heard about a new assistant principal position-- DATA SPECIALIST.


In this day and age when there is so little money available for students, when classes and services are being cut left and right, where academic administrators are not being replaced, big money is being spent on a DATA SPECIALIST, a person who will sit in an office and sift through papers and numbers finding ways to make things come out in a way to benefit the school.

Mark Twain said, "There are lies, damn lies and then there are statistics."  I never thought I would see the day when education was replaced by these phony numbers and the people who supposedly care about kids are leading the way.

Memo_024

 

There are twenty-two seniors who must pass the Integrated Algebra Regents exam in June in order to meet the graduation requirement for math.  A class will be put together just for them four days a week (Monday through Thursday).  We can make it period 9, 10 or 11 so that it will fit into your day. You will be compensated at per-session rate and it is pensionable.  If you are interested, please let me know.  It will start next week or so. I understand many of the math teachers are taking classes after school and that prevents them from taking the job.

It seems to me teaching a sixth class should involve more than per-session.  The four day week probably skirts this requirement.  Still, it seems like quite a bit of work for this little money.

Before agreeing to teach this, ask:
1.  What happens if the kids don't show up?
2.  Will I be required to call parents and track them down?
3.  Will I be compensated for the time it takes to call parents and track them down?
4.  How will I be affected if they don't pass?

I've taught these at risk kids before.  It takes a special talent to get through to them because they don't see things the way others do.  The late logs, the no hat rule, the homework policy, the attendance requirement don't work with this group.  To teach them successfully, you need to break almost every rule, something that young, inexperienced teachers have been trained not to do.  Being successful with kids like this is an art, something it takes years to master. You have to be able to relate to these kids.  Traditional methods have not worked int he past and will not work now.

Several years ago I taught a double period class of seniors who had not passed one math class since freshman year.  It was a class I volunteered to teach as teachers weren't being rated by statistics back then. I got 27 out of 29 through.  It took all the effort I could muster to keep these kids going.  As a per-session class, this would have been impossible.  Unfortunately, the kids in that group, while passing the regents never learned math.  I see them still, years later, floundering around the community college campus, their biggest nemesis--MATH.

Mr. AP wrote in a previous memo that it job is to move these kids ahead,  It is not moving them ahead that counts but moving them out.  These administrators want to keep their bonuses coming.

The Dumping Continues

Based on one exam, kids are being moved from class to class.  One little exam is determining the high school career of a child.  One little exam is being used to move a child from a two term algebra class to a four term one, a class which will hold him back and possibly stop him from taking trigonometry and will definitely prevent him from ever taking calculus.  One little exam is shaping the future of a student.

One exam, an exam given to students after just two or three weeks in high school might be destroying their future and no one cares.  No one will go out on a limb and say enough is enough.  Statistics are all that matter and dropping kids back will keep these numbers high.

We do inquiries, look at data and make suggestions but nothing changes.  Nothing ever changes.