[colleeng47]

Originally Posted by mkfarnam

Now how does this go?
A K12 school must meet some quota or that school will become a Ward of the state of some kind?

According to the wonderful NCLB law (thank you Mr. Bush), every school in the country has to prove their students are "moving forward" by passing standardized tests each year. If the school misses the mark three years in a row, they are taken over by the State Board of Education, which is a disaster. Now, keep in mind, no child can do well in school when their home life is a train wreck. I've worked in schools where the best part of the kid's day was school. Drugs, alcohol, missing parents, poverty, shootings, and all the rest of it makes up a good part of some students home life. Now, take a school that has a large percentage of its students living like this, and tell me how that school is going to be responsible for improving tests scores.

Or take a good school, in a prosperous neighborhood, with involved parents, who have a certain percentage of its students who simply can't grasp physics or chemistry. These can be very bright students, but their talents and abilities lie elsewhere. Those students still have to pass these tests, or it brings down the school's scores. So -- you have teachers teaching to the test. The amount of pressure that is put on the students for a good month or two before these tests are administered is horrendous. My kids would lose sleep over the tests and be a wreck while they were going on. The teachers would push and push these kids until everyone was miserable.

I have worked in classrooms at every grade level and in two states and I have yet to meet one teacher who things NCLB is a good thing. BUT -- the politicians thinks so, so guess who wins? Certainly not the students.

[Goodpasture]

Originally Posted by colleeng47

......... I've worked in schools where the best part of the kid's day was school.............

I tutored a young woman once....4th grade.....at the request of a church outreach. I would meet her in the morning once a week for about 2 hours, with the permission of her school. One morning, sitting there, she wasn't paying attention, I had an epiphany and asked her what she had had for breakfast. Nothing, she said. I asked what she had had the night before, for supper. "A slice of bread and peanut butter when I got home." "Is that all you ate?" "That is all we had in the house." "What time did you get to bed?" "At 3. One of momma's boyfriends came over and they played music all night" Every time we met after that she had a couple of muffins and a glass of juice......her grades improved 100%

9 years old, momma's a hooker, no food in the house, but lets cut the breakfast and lunch programs, and put the money into a standardized test..........

40 years ago, I was teaching at a one room school in South Carolina. A boy came to school one day when it was spitting snow, wearing a t shirt, and shivering. I asked him where the jacket was I had seem him in the day before. "It's my brothers day to wear it."

Why doesn't our people focus on what is important?

[mkfarnam]

In reference to schools, listen to this.
U.S. Border Schools Get Tough on Mexican Students
U.S. Border Schools Get Tough on Mexican Students : NPR

[okie in tx]

I feel for the Mexican childre, but that money needs to be spent on our children, we have kids that need help and don't get it.

[TU 'cane]

You know border schools in Arizona are refusing to teach American history, saying that it's insignificant and they need to learn latin history.. The point is, they're in America, in our schools and they refuse to teach American history because it's insignificant to latin. Total b/s in my opinion.

[mkfarnam]

Originally Posted by TU 'cane

You know border schools in Arizona are refusing to teach American history, saying that it's insignificant and they need to learn latin history.. The point is, they're in America, in our schools and they refuse to teach American history because it's insignificant to latin. Total b/s in my opinion.

Tell them to move those school to the south side of the border so we won't have to pay for them!

Schools who teach anything other than english and US history are the school that my kids would never attend....................if I had kids that is.

[colleeng47]

Originally Posted by TU 'cane

You know border schools in Arizona are refusing to teach American history, saying that it's insignificant and they need to learn latin history.. The point is, they're in America, in our schools and they refuse to teach American history because it's insignificant to latin. Total b/s in my opinion.

I'm sorry, I dont mean to be argumentative, but I would have to see proof of this.

[Synopsis]

Originally Posted by colleeng47

I'm sorry, I dont mean to be argumentative, but I would have to see proof of this.

I am against illegal immigration as well, but I would like to see a link or something to back this up. It doesn't mean I'd be surprised, but I do want the facts and not heresay. Do you have references to back this up? Thanks.

[mkfarnam]

Originally Posted by TU 'cane

saying that it's insignificant and they need to learn latin history.. The point is, they're in America, in our schools and they refuse to teach American history because it's insignificant to latin. Total b/s in my opinion.

Arizona just passed a new Immigration Law 01/01/2008.
Can you verify this?

[debbie at bouontiful]

Does this mean that the the highway is off topic now?