With all the mixed messages teachers have been getting, I can tell you that this new ruling means nothing. We have it on the elementary level too. But, every June we are required to give this real easy one-on-one performance test. If the student reaches a certain level, the principal passes the child to the next grade. So in reality it's just more paperwork for the teacher to administer this phony test in order to make sure all failing children get promoted.
Like most people, Manhattan BP Scott Stringer and I don't think we should push kids into high school who are not ready. We don't support social promotion. Yet the proposal that Klein put forward for approval had no plan to provide services to the retained kids, let alone deal with the pervasive problems of middle schools. Panel members were asked to put faith in the "forthcoming" plan that DOE is developing to turn around middle schools. The end of the administration struck me as an odd time to start working on a plan.
I've looked closely at all the research on these programs to hold kids back based on test scores and pretty much across the board the research says they don't work. A very comprehensive study in the Chicago school system showed that the retained kids had higher drop out rates, the program overall did not help despite costing hundreds of millions to fund another year of school. We will see somewhere between 5,000 - 18,000 additional kids repeat 8th grade. Tweed has not even thought about where they'll put these kids in middle schools that are already overcrowded.
What we've been saying is to instead find these kids early and provide the remediation instead of waiting for them to fail. DOE has an $80 million dollar student achievement database and the most extensively tested student body in the free world yet they can't figure out which kids need help and give it to them. Instead of paying for another year of school, we should invest in creating middle school environments that are more attractive for both students and teachers - small classes, enrichment programs, real music, art, etc.
It's a big mistake to trust in the good graces of this administration. That's what Randi did, and look where it's gotten us. It's disgraceful that they introduce this program without any aid for these kids, especially since they push us so hard to pass everyone and anyone.
nyc educator:
I find it hard to believe that some of the teachers actually proposed the things you wrote about. This must be humor piece. Right? If it is true the teachers actually proposed these ideas, God help us all.
Oh what a laugh I got. it sounds like the bullsh&t my colleagues say. so true.
Hmmm. where will these 8th graders be housed. Sounds good. more 17 year old freshmen in high school.. joy
I sat at the same meeting as NYC educator. Believe me, he is not making this stuff up. It was an administrator that suggested the cheat sheet.
All of that bothers me. People are just letting kids off easy. Makes me want to roll my eyes hard. But what do I know? Apparently not much being as young as I am ... but had such an awesome foundation for learning that I might want to replicate it for my own kids. Then again, if this is the kind of assessment and education we want to give our inner city kids, then so be it. This was definitely a great piece, man.
Not only was this cheat sheet concept presented at this meeting, but it was actually brought up at other meetings as a way to "motivate" kids to "take better notes". Doesn't that defeat the very purpose of the "cheat" sheet? I couldn't believe my ears at all the crap which boiled down to "pass them by any means necessary".
Now, now all you cynics. Don't you want your AP and principals to get big performance bonuses? You should be ashamed of yourselves!
It was not until I hit the "small schools" that I first encountered the "student copying", whether it was homework or classwork, "should be given credit" mentality. It seems like the DOE is having us prepare many of these kids for jobs at Rite-Aid, nothing more. Unbelievable.
Is the object just to pass tests or that the kids learn?
I like the partial credit for the kids' corrections. If the grades are generally very low, I'd give 2 post test chances. Of course, each subsequent try is worth less but better than nothing.
Man, this is one of the reasons I'm a homeschooler, even though (ironically or simply appropriately) I'm a full-time teacher. Ultimately, I'm sitting here trying to hold my dropped jaw and saying, "But WHY? Why don't parents rise up against this utter nonsense?" Why do we even bother pretending we're educating at all if the standards are going to be so low that passing tests is just a wink-wink, nudge-nudge, get-out-your-sanctioned-cheat-sheets affair?
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