Quasi Dictum

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Location: Vancouver, WA, United States

Teacher

Tuesday, March 30, 2004

Here is some good news from Portland: Schools shift gears on grades

No more A's, B's or C's for Portland middle school students

Starting in fall, all 17 middle schools will give report cards that tell parents whether students meet grade-level expectations in writing, reading, math, science and other subjects. They'll get separate marks for the effort they put into class projects, participation and homework.


This is not new. I found an old elmentary report card that had different skills and benchmarks on it that were marked with a +, -, or /.

This is a good move for middle schools. It would be good for high schools as well but harder to implement.

Tuesday, March 23, 2004

The counter against retention?

Teachers foresee `retention time bomb'

The state's new plan to ensure that third-graders can read before they are promoted will have a dramatic consequence: An explosion of older students in elementary and middle school classrooms.

Educators say they are bracing for a 'retention time bomb'' stemming from the state's clampdown on social promotion that took effect this school year. A few years from now, the 16-year-old who lingers in eighth grade while his peers study for the SAT and worry about a junior prom date is likely to be a bundle of disruptions.


This is a stupid reason to promote/pass a student:

``You will have a 16-year-old in your classroom and outside of school he may be hanging out with kids who are 18. And he's next to a 13-year-old in class. . . . If they are disruptive, they can destroy a class. Some of the other kids will really look up to them.''

Key word: IF

So, promote a kid who cannot read because he may be disruptive?

There has to be a middle ground between retention and promotion. Maybe its the (outdated) system that needs changing?



OUCH

Teachers come up short in testing

In Philadelphia, students aren't the only ones struggling to pass tests.

Half of the district's middle school teachers who took tests to become certified as highly qualified under the federal No Child Left Behind law failed, district results show.

Math teachers did the worst: Nearly two out of every three failed that exam, while more than half flunked the science test, 43 percent the English exam, and 34 percent the social-studies test.

Here is a vast understatement:

"It's obviously very discouraging," said Betsey Useem, a research consultant who has studied Philadelphia teacher staffing. "People should be able to pass this test if this is the subject they're teaching. They shouldn't be skating on thin ice in terms of content knowledge."




Thursday, March 11, 2004

I'm surprised that this didn't happen earlier: Was FCAT dumbed down? Key senator wants to know

The top Democrat in the Florida Senate called Wednesday for an independent analysis to determine if this year's version of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test given to third-graders was watered down in an attempt to show statewide improvement.

Senate Minority Leader Ron Klein of Boca Raton said he has fielded many calls from teachers who believe this year's FCAT is considerably easier than last year's when thousands of third-graders failed and were retained.


Thanks NCLB

Wednesday, March 10, 2004

TEACHERS' LETTER BOMB

Courageous teachers at a Brooklyn high school - fed up with unprepared and even illiterate students - made an impassioned plea to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein yesterday to end social promotion.

The teachers at Clara Barton HS sent Klein a plaintive letter - signed by half of the 120-member faculty - saying it's impossible to educate students who were allowed to graduate from elementary or middle schools without having learned the basics.

The result: the teens have a dismal future because they can't pass state Regents exams to earn a diploma and are prime candidates to drop out - or worse.


IMO teachers are being proactive not reactive.

Wednesday, March 03, 2004

States and districts have to decide, solve the long term or the short term problems?

From an abstract at the University of Washington:

The data show that while almost all teachers hold at least basic qualifications, there are high levels of out-of-field teaching—teachers assigned to teach subjects that do not match their training or education. Moreover, the data show that out-of-field teaching has gotten slightly worse in recent years, despite a plethora of reforms targeted to improving teacher quality.

And the beat goes on. When will there be a solution to any of these problems?