Yesterday the NS published an article quoting David Chow, superintendent of the Anderson, Indiana public schools who said that social promotion is a disservice to students. Today the NS followed with an editorial which put the burden on public schools to justify continuing the practice. Social promotion is a lie to the student who thinks he is doing well enough to get a diploma that's not worth the paper it's written on. It's a lie to the taxpayers who think their sacrifice pays for graduates who can meet meet a minimum standard. It's a lie to the business community and colleges who think a high school graduate is prepared for the next step. Most important it's a lie that keeps the money flowing.
The blanket social promotion practiced by districts like FWCS is an admission of failure so obvious that they won't even talk about it. They're afraid of a lower graduation rate if kids are told the truth and held accountable. What's the difference between a drop out and a kid who gets a worthless diploma? None for all practical purposes. But it's proof of a failing system with a gutless school board and administration.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
Evert,
You are on the money with this blog. It is only going to get worse now that "Your Man Mitch" has taken away tenure from teachers. What teacher is going to say anything against their school now that they can be fired without cause? In case you don't know it, Wendy has made FWCS a place where no teacher will want to work. Krista Stockman please do not respond and please do something with your face.
I didn't know teachers had tenure. They had seniority which was used according to the union contract to make decisions on layoffs and retention instead of competence. But that's going to change in every district not just FWCS.
Wendy's not responsible for those changes. The board publicly opposed Mitch's reforms. So what did Wendy do to make FWCS a place no teacher wants to work? I thought FWEA loved her.
I don't think any school should have a blanket social promotion policy, but neither should a school have a blanket policy to hold students back.
The decision to hold a student back should be made with the agreement of the student's parents/guardians.
It will be interesting to see what the long term effect of a blanket retention policy such as Indiana IREAD will be. How many 19,20,21 year old hs grads will we have? Is that a good thing? Will drop out rates be affected?
Prediction: private schools will require passing IREAD to be admitted after 3rd grade under the Indiana voucher program. If I were running a private school, I would not accept voucher students until 4th grade - to avoid the costs of remediation. (can't accept them until 2nd grade now)
Evert,
You crazy little Dutchman. If Wendy supported the FWEA she would have extended the current contract for four years with some health insurance changes. Instead she is going above and beyond what Daniels had in mind. What is Wendy doing you ask? She is taking away teacher plan periods, gotten rid of the maximum students a student can have, and made it easier to fire teachers. Great work environment. I have also heard that Wendy is thinking about eliminating pay for coaches.
I meant the amount of students a teacher can have.
(My opinion) drop out statistics don't deserve the importance the state gives them. Yes, lifetime earnings are lower and chances of a drop out going to jail are higher than someone who completes school. But what they should also look at are the statistics for illiterates who are given undeserved diplomas vs. drop outs. Why not just promise everyone a diploma for sticking around with their lexile score stamped on it? That would at least give the schools some credibility.
So why is it so hard to modify the social promotion policy to get parental signoff on school promotion recommendations. We're supposed to be about individualized student needs. Is it because FWCS woud have to admit to what they've been doing? It seems to me that coming out publicly with a discussion of the policy and changing it would get them some much needed points with the community (I'd even come to a board meeting to hear that). More than they'll get from their $355K consultant.
Let's be honest the best teachers in FWCS, will leave! Wendy seems to love mediocre teachers that buy into everything she goes after.
If someone was smart enough, they would open a private school for our poor students with private dollars and not teach to the test as an unaccredited school. I'd bet the results would be similar to Canterbury, as the elite private school does not offer ISTEP for its K-8th students, unless they are taking a high school level class.
Again, today 6/3/11, she runs for the cover of "collaboration" and expects the teachers to accept and support failed policy and practices such as social promotion which have helped produce this failure. The very practices which those in power put in place can now be addressed by a "reform agenda". So, you can simply change your "agenda" as you seek cooperation and "collaboration" to have teachers cover for the failure you helped to foster. If the teachers acquiesce and "collaborate" it would be a shame.
I can't read her mind but she would be crazy to reinstate the current contract and tie her hands for another two years when she can wait until June 30 when all that can be negotiated is wages. And while I wouldn't expect individual teachers to challenge her on failed policies like social promotion, the union should have. Going along with that kind of crap may have been expedient, but in the long run the district and the teachers working in it are now paying the price. And the FWEA supported her in past elections by buying her the school board members she wanted to help her maintain the status quo.
I merely have a glimpse here and feel pleasant to hunt out out this journal. flush content writing hand and intensely cooperative science system easy auto title loans chicago. i would like most of we've a inclination to organization quadrilateral assess to seem out these sorts of things, here we have got got a bent to tend to tend to face persist the brink of acknowledge everything. i'm with the content respect associate degreed do respect him as associate honest supplier. Thanks for your diligence and you too.
Post a Comment