If you don't think public education is going to the dogs, stick with me.
The Florida State Board of Education--and that's an oxymoron--just voted to lower the standards needed to pass the writing part of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test [FCAT], a test that is administered in public elementary, middle and high schools.
And, in the days following their announcement, came the news that nearly half of all Florida high school students failed the reading portion of the FCAT; just 52% of Florida of freshman students and 50% of sophomores scored at their grade levels, while the rest scored below.
Students in the 10th grade must pass the FCAT in order to graduate but can retake it if they fail.
"We are asking more from our students and teachers than we ever have, and I am proud of their hard work," Florida Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson said in a statement.
Hard work? Half the students failed. But, that is actually good news, because the Florida State Board of Education's preliminary findings suggested only 30% would pass.
"As Florida transitions to higher standards and higher expectations, we can expect our assessment results to reflect those changes," Robinson also said.
How proud they are that it's just half the students who cannot read or write at their grade level and not the 70% that was originally suggested.
As I used to say, when I lived in Miami, "It's not the heat, it's the stupidity."
oh, don't get me started on comprehensive, statewide testing!
ReplyDeleteIn Washington we wasted hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars on a ten year experiment. GB's class was the first, and last, group held to the test. Then it was all thrown out. It does not work for many different reasons.
PS - Glad that rat snake of enormous size was not slithering around your neighborhood! Tell Carlos to be on ever alert!
ReplyDeleteyou know what the problem with Florida is?
ReplyDeleteI'll tell you: pywepodk iwlodk oeo dpe's uwqs q!
And that's the triple truth, ruth!
If the Commissioner of Education
ReplyDeletein your state thinks "transition" is a verb, you really can't expect vey much.
How, when, why did our educational levels drop to these depressing scores? We need a re-vamp and we need it yesterday.
ReplyDeletewhat's really sad is that my job (and that of other teachers across the nation) depend on being able to 'raise test scores' and if not enough kids pass then we are the ineffective ones.
ReplyDelete8 hours a day at school do not replace parenting. we can't feed them breakfast, make sure they get to school on time, make sure they have a lunch, make sure they get picked up on time from school, make sure they have dinner and homework help, and then make sure they have a safe place to get a decent night's sleep- we also can't give them the home training they need when they are lacking self control and self respect which translate into discipline problems.
my profession lives and dies by test scores and it's hard to be able to trust the parents to do their jobs so we can teach and help kids learn (instead of policing the class like security guards) because wwe lose our jobs when parents fall down on theirs.
rant over. thanks for the soapbox.
xxalainaxx
that's ridic, but very telling
ReplyDeleteI cannot imagine my life without reading. I picked up the "habit" of reading books in sixth grade all by myself (no teacher encouraged me). I found a whole new world that I could escape to. No wonder so many of today's youth are bored senseless and seek refuge in drugs.
ReplyDelete