More about GA High Schools (Atlanta, Mount Zion: 2009, middle school, colleges)

[lastminutemom]

And it isn't so pretty.

In today's AJC, there is an article about remedial courses at college as it relates to GA colleges and GA high school graduates. It is another in a series of articles this year discussing grade inflation.

Not surprising, the worst offenders are in Atlanta and DeKalb, where I suspect the students' basic skills lag the very most. DeKalb makes it nearly impossible to fail students. I hold the school systems that have policies like this very responsible. The article quotes several students who were surprised to learn that they weren't ready for college.

The problems begin early in many of these communities. For example, McNair High School in DeKalb. At the new elementary school in the McNair area, which consolidated three small and old schools, the 5th grade students averaged the 43rd percentile in reading and the 34th in math. They move on to middle school behind and may never really catch up.

Easy grades equate to failing grads | ajc.com

[mmenomen]

The grade inflation particularly at the high school level is due in large part to the Hope Scholarship. Now that the Hope has been around for nearly 2 decades, politicians who want to limit what it can cover in college would probably be voted out so Hope is here to stay barring some unforseen changes in the economy and higher education as a whole. A young person who starts college anywhere really should not take any remedial classes at all; that should be covered adequately in high school. To me that is just a given, but since Hope was put into place, it has made grade achievement much less meaningful.

I am not fond of the AJC all that much, but I think this article is probably spot on (though I am looking from the outside when it comes to public high schools in metro Atlanta).

[BobKovacs]

And people wonder why some folks are still hesitant to move ITP if they have kids....

Even the highly touted Grady HS had 30% of its students requiring remedial courses, 2, 3, or 4 times the percentage in most of the Cobb and Cherokee HS's, and some of the schools in APS and Dekalb were over 50%.

[RainyRainyDay]

And at the very head of the pack (bottom of the list), my daughter's school, Cobb county's Lassiter HS. This illustrates why I get so exasperated with claims of the "all Georgia public schools stink" variety. There's such diversity in our schools, generalizations are largely meaningless. However, it's my perception as a parent that my child is receiving a very good high school education at that school, and the numbers back me up.

[RainyRainyDay]

I just noticed that the online edition of the AJC article omits the school-by-school statistics to which Bob and I alluded. You can see the list in the print edition version of the article, here: Easy grades, failing grads | ajc.com

[Mgyeldell]

I not defending none of the High Schools but I do know, for at least the school I graduated from is that a lot of the smarter people I went to school with left Georgia or went to private school. I was lucky enough to only do my senior year here and not need remedial class at GSU.

And the guy who said that the teachers at Mount Zion in Clayco gave answers I can say that my year stint there ( I Only had AP Classes tho) only one of my teachers was like that, AP English she was horrible. And the Econ teacher he was talking about was great I had there and she had a great passion for Econ and Gov't and taught well and expected alot from her students and we gave her what she expected. 5th best teacher during my career in Grade school

[cmtiger]

Originally Posted by Mgyeldell

I not defending none of the High Schools but I do know, for at least the school I graduated from is that a lot of the smarter people I went to school with left Georgia or went to private school. I was lucky enough to only do my senior year here and not need remedial class at GSU.

And the guy who said that the teachers at Mount Zion in Clayco gave answers I can say that my year stint there ( I Only had AP Classes tho) only one of my teachers was like that, AP English she was horrible. And the Econ teacher he was talking about was great I had there and she had a great passion for Econ and Gov't and taught well and expected alot from her students and we gave her what she expected. 5th best teacher during my career in Grade school

So........ you say you didn't need remedial classes?

[cbreeze22]

I feel like I'm missing a big part of the picture with this. GA high school students are in the bottom 5 (up from the very bottom in 2002) nationally (bottom in math), but Atlanta metro teachers are in the top 10 in the NATION for salary? Isn't Atlanta also one of the top 10 large metros when it comes to low cost of living? Low performing students, highly paid teachers (relatively speaking), all in a cheap (again, relative) place to live? Does that formula work to improve student performance? As a teacher, isn't it hard to keep motivated to work above and beyond in those circumstances, especially if you don't have very motivated parents and little to no repercussions (no pay for performance, no mandatory interaction with parents, no accountability tied to you personally and not the school in general)?

I've learned quite a bit about the nitty gritty of Atlanta area schools here, so wondering if someone can explain this to me better. Btw, the info came from The Apple, a publication for teachers. Oh, and another article ranked Georgia in the top 10 for easy credential to get, or most avenues to get one.

I may be missing something, but I just don't get this as a recipe for public education success.