A nice piece on social promotion:
http://betrayed-whyeducationisfailing.blogspot.com/2008/11/social-promotion-fails-students.html
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4 comments:
There's also a parallel alternative system in your state that fails more kids then it pretends to graduate. That would be the alternative programs. They use the same 'constructivist' curriculum only without direct teaching, so students are 'self-taught'.
Here's an example of one of Bergeson's 'probabilities' schools, Burlington Edison Alternative School last reported 22 Hispanics and 27 Non-Hispanics and a 6% graduation rate.
Halloween Effect:
1. How many Hispanic males are still at this school?
2. How many teenagers are now pregnant?
3. How many students have already dropped out?
4. How many students are new enrollees?
Washington has two types of schools - Probabilites and Possibilities. That's Carkhuff's Model and Bergeson implemented it on your state, using the Achieve standard and the WASL ($165 million in outstanding contracts).
Public schools in your state are an institutional disaster. It will take billions to undo what's already been done. You can thank your lawmakers and the first task is repealing the laws and replace them with something more sensible. The standards movement is a failure because it fails to deliver what it initially promised - acceptable curriculum.
Consider first the costs of educating all the kids who were promoted that failed to get an education. Then imagine all the kids who didn't get promoted, but dropped out at various times, because they weren't ever given an adequate education.
A good example of bad legislation passing double standards is the American Disabilities Act. Teams of attorneys are currently exhorting money by suing small business owners for failing to meet the exacting standards of the ADA.
This is not one or two businesses, but entire blocks within a city. The plaintiffs will gladly settle with each business they sue, if they each were to pony up $4000.
Its very easy to sell a piece of legislation like the ADA. What person does not feel some empathy for a disabled person. But consider Pandora's box, before you say yes that you agree with the ADA (concept is good, but the law is bad).
The ADA constitutes an absolute legal nightmare for small business owners who by necessity live on shoestring budgets. (e.g. A store that makes picture frames and employs 3 or 4 people in a shop. There should be a weighing of benefits and costs to our society. Will putting 4 people out of work, be beneficial to the community, so the law can be followed. What happens to that business space if those people leave, since the law applies to the next renter?)
We might say well too bad for him, that's business, but on the flip side did a disabled person ever care to visit that person's store in the first place. The world is a big place and I for one, have no desire to visit all the stores in my fair city. I can only think of four.
NCLB and the Standards Movement has created something similiar and it has to do with curriculum. What person would disagree with the statement that all schools should be accountable or that all students should be successful versus the reality which is far from perfect AND constantly changing.
My gut feeling is that there are two standards at work in a school. One has to do with grades, and the other is an intrinsic standard. Each individual knows their true worth, and grades are a community standard, hence it will always be inflated or relative to the community.
The standards movement is attempting to align the community standard to an absolute scale. If you received the WASL report card lately for your child, you will realize that even that is absolutely meaningless crap.
Education is a sliver of what my child knows and tells me that despite my child going to school 6hours per day for 6 years total - US schools aren't very efficient. They are beyond all help and are not helping minorities or marginalized children (which constitutes over half the children in the US).
This next generation of kids has less chance of graduating high school then their parents.
Children are more likely to finish at a different high school, then the one they started at. But unlike business, there are very few alternatives for most kids, especially in small towns.
The laws provide standards and accountability, so long as schools continue using approved consultants, purchase the exemplary curriculum, and do standardized testing, then schools and administrators are protected from being sued by (fill in the blank).
I don't think this is what lawmakers intended. Repeal NCLB. Adopt one curriculum, like Singapore, and institute a math end of course exam if you want to raise achievement in the US.
Excellent points are made above. Unfortunately the "Unwritten Rules" that are followed today come to us from "Club Ed".
"Club Ed" is an arrogant group unconnected to reality that focuses on a philosophical allegiance to Edu-Nonsense. School Directors seem equally disconnected from academic achievement and as such most are "Club Ed" groupies.
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