62% fail HS AIMS SCIENCE (Peoria: property taxes, showing, trip)

[luckyrooster]

This should be an eye opener for the people of this state. Our children are being failed by the government here. Janet Napalitano said funding from Washington should be more for our young state. Please. Last January sales tax rose just in Peoria from 8.0% to 8.5%. I am so tired of the excuses as to why this stated puts students last. There are real problems here. I have read in other threads that if students want to learn, then they will succeed. How can our students compete, when they do not have books to take home. I have a child taking a science class, there are not enough books for the class to share in class, never mind take home. I live in what is called the best district, and excelling school. It bends me out of shape everytime I see that banner hanging. No books, but a banner. The district told me just a few weeks ago that this is a rigorous curriculum, and they do not need books. I was then asked if I know how much a book costs. It almost floored me when I saw the article on the front page of the paper, 62% failed aims science. Well do they need books or not??

[ibarrio]

SCIENCE has been ignored because of the Reading, Writing, and Math AIMS. I will bet you that any state implementing a science test for the first time will show failing results.

Simple, when you don't teach something enough the students will fail...

[CodyW]

As to the subject of books; Actual textbooks serve little purpose unless the teachers decide to give assignments out of them. Most learning I've ever done in high school and middle school has been through notes and lecture.

Yes, there will be the occasional direction to read a chapter in class; but in my personal experience, it's not very often. And the class I've experienced this most in was History, and not science.

Lastly; I'm curious as to where these students who failed the Science portion of AIMS; Every person I know that has taken the test (myself included - Showing my age here.. eeeeek) has passed or exceeded.

I got a 539. Exceeding by a total of 2 points. Go me.

[luckyrooster]

I think that is great that you are exceeding, but if you have only been educated in this state, then you don't have a lot to draw on. I am saddened to see that so many people feel the public education here is fine. If we compare our better schools to the education kids get in other countries, they are still lacking. I know something needs to be done, but slapping excuses on things gets us no where.

[jd433]

Boy what a great state though with it's low property taxes!!!!!

They will be even lower now that home prices have gone down. That menas less money for Schools.

Maybe we should start passing more levies. Oh thats right all those retired people won't wan't to pay for your kids to go to school. Looks like Arizona has something in common with Florida.

Oh well who needs good public schools anyway. All we need is the great weather, right??

[azkylady2]

I help my child with homework, all this stuff is mass copied and handed out, there have been times where some of the copied papers were so bad parts of questions or words were missing. There have been times that a book was needed instead of relying on what my child thought the teacher said about how she wants this or that done! I Tell you what, with out the strong support of the parent's they would not have this excelling status. They spend no real money on the students, they are lucky to get ONE field trip per year, And Science, what is that? lol Its been low priorty, which is to bad because the male students might have enjoyed that more then Judy Bloom series in grade school. And don't even get me started about the frozen tator tot, franken sausage, waffles, hotdogs, frozen pizza style lunches. My school serves up some of the most disgusting lunches I have ever seen. Obviously no money spent there for nutrition either.

[azkylady2]

Originally Posted by CodyW

As to the subject of books; Actual textbooks serve little purpose unless the teachers decide to give assignments out of them. Most learning I've ever done in high school and middle school has been through notes and lecture.

Yes, there will be the occasional direction to read a chapter in class; but in my personal experience, it's not very often. And the class I've experienced this most in was History, and not science.

Lastly; I'm curious as to where these students who failed the Science portion of AIMS; Every person I know that has taken the test (myself included - Showing my age here.. eeeeek) has passed or exceeded.

I got a 539. Exceeding by a total of 2 points. Go me.

what about grade school? kids need books more at this level then any, sure you can get by better when you are older, theres the internet, your old enough to find information you need all by yourself.

[snowthedirtbub]

Originally Posted by luckyrooster

I think that is great that you are exceeding, but if you have only been educated in this state, then you don't have a lot to draw on. I am saddened to see that so many people feel the public education here is fine. If we compare our better schools to the education kids get in other countries, they are still lacking. I know something needs to be done, but slapping excuses on things gets us no where.

Well if you gonna compare the schools to other countries, then the entire country is lacking. The science AIMS test was only in its first stages and was being tested. It really didn't count, and ONLY students in biology took it. The AIMS test didn't really matter, so the teachers didn't really prepare the students for it. When AIMS is coming up, the math and English do AIM review work sheets, take practice tests, and do a lot of review and covering everything thats gonna be on the AIMS. The science teachers didn't do that. You can't except to have excelling scores in the first year its taken.