States Lie About Minority Test Scores in School? Imagine That!
It should come as no surprise that schools have been playing hookey when it comes to honestly reporting their own students' test scores.
As a teacher, I see it all the time. The more affluent white schools cheat by slanting their curriculum toward the style of questions asked (it is not only what the question says but how it is stated). These schools score very high, and yet don't technically cheat because the kids can anticipate what kind of questions they will be getting on the STAR tests, etc.
Now the minority kids. Seems that states have been hiding minority students' test results in a variety of ways. It's not hard to do. The testing process seeks to be honest, but is so labyrinthian (just visit any school on a testing day in May) and so open to corruption, from the teachers themselves to nefarious parents and even more eager administrators.
So, is President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" law hurt or helped? It has hurt, big time. Schools have to lie about their results. They have to wall off their failures with minority kids. Minority kids know they don't really have to try and they don't. They just pencil in, at random, answers on the "bubble sheets" and rush through, or even completely skip, the essay and/or writing segments.
That is why the California basic test for teachers (CBEST) has been a bitch for teachers to pass. Few can write anything and haven't had to write anything (or very little) through their grade school, high school and collegiate careers. They bullshit their way through, pull crap off the Internet to fool their professors and attend fluff "education" classes full of softball quizzes and arts-fartsy "exercises" and "thinking" sessions.
No writing.
That is why many college counselors and complaining that up to 80 percent of all college freshman need remedial writing just to stay enrolled (much less attend or pass college-level courses).
Just realize this: Under the present system, minorities' scores -- if they are released unfiltered -- will shock even the most hard-bitten educator. They aren't learning anything, because they often refuse to work, and teachers just give up on them and try and find dubious ways to "pass these students through" the system.
Otherwise, we would have high schools stuffed with 25-year-old seniors.
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When I was in school
When I was in High School I missed a few credits due to my own ignorance. I had to make up the courses at a different school so I could graduate on time.
One of the classes I had to take was literature. This is probably ironic considering I am "the life of the party" here, but none-the-less I had to take it.
Anyway, my class was composed of myself, a white teacher and the remainder was "minority" students.
The outline of the class actually sounded fun. We were supposed to read books and write papers on them then have debates (woo-hoo!).
Well, it turns out that about 60% of the class was not capable of reading the featured selections. So the teachers solution was to watch the movie versions of these books.
So for the Monday class we would watch the movie, then on Wednesday we have our group debates.
I was so disgusted with the system because the other 40% of the class was completely wasting their time.
However, we all graduated the same day.
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Your experience is typical ...
... and I hear it all the time. In your case, how did the teacher deal with the kids who could not read the required material? Did she fail them -- again? Was some kind of alternate class offered? My own son is a high-school dropout because he was sick and tired of how stupid school was.
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Actually...
Since the kids couldn't read the required material she changed the books to movies. She passed everyone!
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During a lecture at U. of Iowa, Timothy Leary ...
... said, only weeks before he died, that 90 percent of all information a human being processes is visual and formative and has no relationship at all to reading words. It's all motion and color.
Somebody should have figured out by now ...
... that if you don't get 'em by puberty, you've probably lost 'em. IMO, the patterns that lead to these failures are established, probably, by the time the kids enter kindergarten, and reinforced through the early grades. So when Junior discovers sex (however and at whatever it may be directed), well, who needs school?
I sure as hell remember my grade school years, when it was essentially "learn or else". We all knew who was choosing "or else". They were all the ones beating on "the walking dictionary", i.e. me. That's right, my fellow second graders were already complaining about my vocabulary. :) Not to mention my incompetence in baseball or anything else remotely athletic. At least I was spared the horn-rimmed glasses. :) And at least most of my classmates left high school able to read the newspaper. That wasn't true fifteen years later.
I have been told ...
... by reliable education experts that a kid's future is decided by the time he/she is 7 years of age. That tells me that education in kids should begin earlier (and end earlier) and when they are teens they must launch their own minds. Enough of this coddling when they are 14-18 years old.
I agree with your statement
I think most childrens futures are determined by the age of 7. Sometimes there are rare instances where a child that is 14 or 15 decides to change his life for the better/worse. Take Abe Lincoln for example. He wanted more than what was initially in store for him so he went out and got it all on his own.
So whats the deal with schools? Is it just "easier" to pass a child than to say, "Wait one minutute here. You need help. I will be the one to give it to you."
I totally relate about parents trying to help kids when it's too late. I have had many friends who dropped out of school by the age of 17 because they were so far behind. Once you fall into that rut you feel helpless. People need to guide youth at a much younger age.
Schools ARE NOT doing teens a favor by graduating them when they are not capable of reading and writing. The bottom line is that in todays world you have to compete with college degrees for even the most basic of jobs.
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Basically schools are overdone and overvalued ...
... and tghey can't possibly do everything parents want. They can't raise the kid and they can't motivate a kid to work. Shortern the school years and offer vocational training again in high school.