The regents diploma should not mean anything either. The tests have been so dummied down that almost everyone in my school passes. I know that I have taught kids how to pass the math A regents even when they know no math. I currently have a Math B class full of kids who passed the A regents who can't solve an equation.
Hi NYC Educator,
Good points about the local diplomas - one clarification though. I don't think the PSA study has a design that allows us to say that grad rates are higher than traditional public schools - see here:
http://www.eduwonkette.com/2007/...ll-
schools.html
eduwonkette, I wrote this piece, not NYC, so any mistakes are mine.
That said, I was working off the the Post article which said the following in the lede:
"New, smaller high schools graduated 20 percent more students than the citywide average last year, but a report charges that a majority of the grads earned low-standard diplomas that are headed the way of the dinosaur.
A comparison found that 10 New Century High Schools, managed by the reform group New Visions for Public Schools, graduated 78.2 percent of their students in 2006 while 10 similar public high schools graduated 60.6 percent of theirs."
That's where I got that information.
Your statement:
"But what good is graduating students with a worthless diploma that the state is scrapping next year and reputable colleges won't accept for admission?"
What's the difference anymore?
They've dumbed down the tests (already mentioned by Pissedoffteacher),
They've dumbed down the teaching staff -- sorry, but when they waived/modified the regs on licensing, it paved the way for such a high percentage teaching full time who don't have experience or a Masters. You just can't expect the same quality, and anyone who defends this has his head in the sand.
They have dumbed down, or made spectacularly hodgepodge of, some of the textbooks,
And they most definitely dumbed down the Chancellorship, or at least tolerated a political appointee with no ed experience and who is not accredited.
How "dumb" is that?
Worthless diplomas are just a part of their general dumbed-down STANDARDs.
Hold the fort as long as you can.
P.S.:
I forgot about the dumbed down libraries, where they went around throwing out the classics to install books that kids will "want to read." (No problem with adding a section for these, but to throw out - not move, not re-house, not distribute, but THROW OUT the classics - you could have just cried.
Commenting by HaloScan
