Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The cheating administrators, teachers and students are the symptom of a much larger disease, i.e. the Dept. of Education.
reason #1,897,395,201 to eliminate it.
You know, the Department of Education isn't all that old. Jimmy Carter created it in 1979. My question is whether education has improved since it came into being. If the answer is "no" let's get rid of it. Surely, compared to the rest of the world we were doing a lot better in the old days. Plus, I bet it creates a lot of headaches for teachers and administrators with bureaucratic red tape.
"A number of other urban school districts and states have been caught up in cheating scandals in the last several years, including Baltimore and Houston, and Texas, Michigan and Florida."
Appears that those that NCLB was intended to help the most have been involved in trying to cheat their way around it. Poor kids. Everybody suffers with too much Central Planning and attempts at governmental control. Time to put an end to the Federal Dept. of Education.
You have told them the whole truth here and I bet not one of THEM realizes that you have.
You know, the Department of Education isn't all that old. Jimmy Carter created it in 1979. My question is whether education has improved since it came into being. If the answer is "no" let's get rid of it. Surely, compared to the rest of the world we were doing a lot better in the old days. Plus, I bet it creates a lot of headaches for teachers and administrators with bureaucratic red tape.
That bureaucratic red tape is the very thing that forced my wife out of the place. Too damned many forms that mean nothing had to be filled out weekly, monthly and yearly.
"Educators at nearly four dozen Atlanta elementary and middle schools cheated on standardized tests by either helping students or changing the answers once exams were handed in, according to the results of a yearlong state investigation released Tuesday...The report said that 178 teachers and principals cheated,..."
"Problems have mounted, some experts say, as teachers and school administrators -- particularly those in low-income districts -- bow to the pressure of the federal No Child Left Behind requirements and see cheating as the only way to avoid sanctions."
I have been pretty involved in my daughters homework. This past year in 7th grade, she had very little homework. I always questioned it. Her first report card and her math was down. Barely passing.
Math has always been her weak spot. Fractions for her was a nightmare.
I tested her and she did know crap. Basic algebra.
Even for me she wasn't getting it.
Tutoring and she improved, but still struggling.
TAKS testing day and she was nervous. I know damn well she didn't pass it. She got the minimum passing grade on the math TAKS.
All year I was having a major problem with homework, not getting assigned.
I myself could not evaluate my own daughter on what she knew.
Is this their new tactic? No homework, so the parents cannot see where their kids are lacking, or to criticize the school for their lack of educating our kids?
The wife and I are seriously thinking about taking out a loan, just so our daughter can go to a private school.
I have been pretty involved in my daughters homework. This past year in 7th grade, she had very little homework. I always questioned it. Her first report card and her math was down. Barely passing.
Math has always been her weak spot. Fractions for her was a nightmare.
I tested her and she did know crap. Basic algebra.
Even for me she wasn't getting it.
Tutoring and she improved, but still struggling.
TAKS testing day and she was nervous. I know damn well she didn't pass it. She got the minimum passing grade on the math TAKS.
All year I was having a major problem with homework, not getting assigned.
I myself could not evaluate my own daughter on what she knew.
Is this their new tactic? No homework, so the parents cannot see where their kids are lacking, or to criticize the school for their lack of educating our kids?
The wife and I are seriously thinking about taking out a loan, just so our daughter can go to a private school.
Here is the latest homework policy for Los Angeles Unified Schools and also apparently the growing trend around the country. Basically its lowering the expectations because many students just don't do their homework. So, the schools have decided that in order not to risk losing out on getting Federal Funds which are contingent on students performance, they will just expect less from the students; i.e., lower the bar. This is how our educational system now works.
"Los Angeles Unified is pressing forward, joining a growing list of school districts across the country that are taking on homework —"
"Homework will now count for only 10% of a student's grade.""The L.A. approach is intended to account for the myriad urban problems facing the district's mostly low-income, minority population. It's also aimed at supporting L.A. Unified's increasing focus on boosting measureable academic achievement."
"The homework change accompanies another policy being tested: More than three dozen campuses are experimenting with boosting a student's grade for improved performance on state standardized tests."
Take out the loan. It will be the best investment you ever make.
No they are not. You've got kids pushed from grade to grade without having attained their skills and you end up with functionally illiterate school children that couldn't even learn if they were left back.
By 16 an 8th grader is automatically sent to high school regardless of if he passes. Now he goes into Algebra and can't even do his times table.
NCLB also has set the goal for 100% proficiency by 2014. Perfection in school tests. No one fails..got that..no one. The only way to pass that bar is to bury it underground and carry those kids across it.
NCLB never raised the bar...it ended up lowering is so that more kids passed, so that "No Child was Left Behind.".
A decade later and we have a sad, broken education system that pushes them through.
Bullk****. First of all if your 16 and just getting into 9th grade you've already got problems. This is a systematic problem. The teachers aren't doing their friggen jobs. No it didn't raise any bar it just forced teachers to teach and they couldn't even do that. A decade later? You think our school system was fine before NCLB? If so your lost. The reason it was implemented was because so many were being spit through the system without being taught anything. Now the teachers work harder at cheating the new rules than teaching the kids. Its pathetic. But they keep their damn jobs because they can't be fired. There is your problem with schools......UNIONS.
In comparing the inverse relationship of increased government spending versus falling test scores, one might conclude that to "jump start" education excellence, all public funding (and meddling) should cease.
No parent directly paying for education will waste resources on a school that won't / can't / doesn't teach their child to their satisfaction.
But Free Choice is not an option under socialist government.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
