Chicago's math and science scores worst ever...years of reform not working?

[madfloridian]

As a retired teacher I can take no pleasure in students failing. It's a sad thing and tragic. Worse though is the fact that for close to 20 years in Chicago they have done the same things, pushed the same reforms, hoping for better and different results. It doesn't seem to work that way. Sorry Rahm, Arne, Daley, et al....time to change course from those corporate reforms.

From an education blogger...cause the news media won't tell you this stuff.

Chicago math and science scores worst ever

It's been 16 years since Mayor Richard M. Daley took control of Chicago's school system, bringing with him a school-reform agenda focused on school closings, mass teacher firings, privately-run charter schools, and increased reliance on standardized test scores as the main means of judging schools and teachers. Now Mayor Emanuel has taken the reins with his own brand of corporate-style reform.

Each campaign, from Renaissance 2010, to Turnaround Schools, was supposed to produce big gains in measurable "student achievement." The mayor's hand-picked, politically faithful school CEOs, from Paul Vallas, to Arne Duncan, to Ron Huberman, were all quick to make claims of miracle "turnarounds." uncan even rode the myth of Chicago "miracle" all the way to Washington.

But facts are stubborn fellows, as they say, and now comes news that nearly half of all Illinois public school students failed the annual 11th grade Prairie State Achievement Exam, the worst statewide performance recorded in the test's history. This news comes on the heels of a report from the Consortium on Chicago Schools Research, showing, "No real progress in CPS grade school reading in 20 years."

The latest results not only show the bankruptcy of corporate-style school reform in Chicago, but the failure of No Child Let Behind as well. Chicago's failure to meet NCLB standards makes the district part of the 80 percent nationwide who are anticipated to be left behind.

We already knew that back in September 2010.
Data explodes "Chicago turnaround miracle myth" that Arne took to DC and the nation.


The CPS document stolen by the Tribune shows the grade ranges that corresponded with the schools' numeric standardized test scores. Shades of the Tribune Co.-owned L.A. Times' release of internal rankings of supposed value-added, based exclusively on students' standardized test scores

So the sneaky bastards at the Tribune somehow got hold of Ron Huberman's secret stash of school ratings and published them. Oh, goody!

.."Because this time around, it's Huberman and outgoing Mayor Daley who are being (apologies to Shakespeare) hoisted with their own petard. Huberman came up with the A-B-C-D-F rating system for schools, to use to justify his massive school-closing scheme under Renaissance 2010. This, after the legislature forced the district to show some rationale for its arbitrary punishment and closing policies .

Among city elementary schools, 47 of 474 received As, while just 4 of 92 high schools met that mark. Meanwhile, 104 elementary schools and 39 high schools got Fs. But these grades have little, if any validity when it comes to judging the quality of individual schools or teachers. In most cases they are just coded measures of school or neighborhood poverty. Without mentioning any school names, I know of several excellent schools that received grades of C or C-, based only on standardized test scores.

Huberman said he did not release the grades because they need to be more nuanced. The data does not take individual student growth into account, and school-wide comparisons can be imperfect, he said.

Wait, is he saying what I have been saying here for ages? That not enough criteria are used to grade students, teachers, and schools. I do think he is saying that. Yet the DOE under Arne Duncan is continuing to push for more tests and more money to pay for more testing.

[Fumesucker]

1. "Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?"

[madfloridian]

13. That picture....

:rofl:

[Fumesucker]

16. Glad I could lighten your day a touch..

:hi:

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

19. A few hours later...

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

20. Do you think he knows that the helmet goes on his head and he should be riding the bike? Not the

other way around. :evilgrin:

[Reader Rabbit]

2. Day-um, the unreccers are out tonight!

My rec brought you to 0!

Arne? Michelle? Is that you?

[madfloridian]

5. They start the moment I post.

Before anyone has time to read it. :shrug:

[Reader Rabbit]

7. For the nth time: You shouldn't be able to unrec without posting an explanation.

No stealth bombers. Have the guts to disagree in public.

[Tansy_Gold]

3. Calling Captain Renault!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1DEG6BWgp0

[Demeter]

4. Oh, It's Working

The goal is to destroy public education. The goal is NOT to educate the next generation. So far, it's 2 for 2.

[Tansy_Gold]

6. .

:hi:

[Demeter]

9. Hi, Yourself!

:hi:

[Starry Messenger]

21. +1000

[bbgrunt]

8. money trumps facts.

[Liquorice]

10. Standardized test scores are certainly no way to measure teacher performance. I don't believe

"failing schools" or "failing teachers" are at the root of most of these bad scores. In many cases, it seems to be failing family structures, a de-emphasis on education in the community, and overall poverty (and the things that come with that), causing the low scores.

It doesn't matter if every single teacher in a "failing" school had a PhD in education from Harvard, if the kids are not prepared to learn from their home environment, it's usually not going to happen. In many of these cases, the school is not failing and the teachers are not failing--it is the parents and the community failing the children.

[madfloridian]

24. They took all the accountability from students and parents, blamed only teachers.

Your post is right on. They did ignore poverty as a main factor. Looking back I see they had their reasons....the reform agenda did not include experienced tenured teachers. So they put all the blame on them. :hi:

[Oasis_]

33. Outstanding post

Spot on.

Oasis

[RaleighNCDUer]

11. Of course reform is working.

It has progressed a long way to completely privatizing the school system, and making corporate profits is the entire object of eductaion, right?

[madfloridian]

26. Yep, making public education profitable as a business.

Death knell for depth of learning, I fear.

[madrchsod]

12. the entire state is failing....

the three high schools in my area are failing again this year. around here it`s the army,part time,and having a baby.there`s no jobs for the kids and their parents. the community college is sold out every semester with people hoping when they finish they`ll have enough money to finish or find a job.

welcome to the jungle

[chervilant]

37. AND,

those who obtain financial aid to finish a higher degree will find themselves struggling to make their monthly obligations because the job they get (if indeed they GET a job) will not pay enough to cover basic monthly expenses and the ginormous loan payment they'll look forward to for the next two plus decades...

[Blecht]

14. Just like trickle down economics

Disastrous results that are easy enough to see. Too bad nobody (outside a few of us here) really gives a shit.

[madfloridian]

15. I feel the same way.

I wish more cared.

[madfloridian]

17. More from Chic. Tribune

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-state-test-scores-1020-20111020,0,5375024.story

"About half of Illinois public high school students flunked state exams in reading, math and science this year, the worst performance in the history of the 11th-grade Prairie State Achievement Examination, statewide test results show.

The record-low results, scheduled to be released Thursday, come after Illinois closed loopholes that kept academically weak juniors from taking the exams, a practice revealed in a 2009 Tribune analysis. Some local school officials attributed their declines in part to the larger testing pool that included less-prepared students.

At the same time, grade schools posted the highest passing rate in a decade this year — 82 percent across all Illinois Standards Achievement Tests given in third through eighth grades — revealing a disconnect between elementary and high school performance that has not gone unnoticed by educators.

.."The federal standards require increasingly higher percentages of students to pass the exams to avoid sanctions. This year, 85 percent of students from varied demographic groups had to pass reading and math tests, a figure so high that state school Superintendent Chris Koch earlier predicted that a "major increase" is likely in the number of schools and districts not making what is called adequate yearly progress."

Yep, they keep raising the standards whenever success is met. The final 2014 goal has been 100%.

Now if they grab Arne's new waivers, all they have to do is follow the reform goals like becoming a charter or turnaround the staff and teachers.

[joeglow3]

18. No comment on the obscenely short school days?

[proud2BlibKansan]

22. Lengthening the day won't help

They need to have a plan in place for what they intend to do with the extra time. So far, they don't plan on using it for academics. And children will be going home in the dark.

As they say, the devil is in the details.

[joeglow3]

23. So, football, basketball & scouts are more important that academics?

If the day ended at 3:15 (as most schools do here in Omaha), there would still be plenty of light. Those faced with darkness after 4:30 in Chicago, would be those doing extra-curricular activities. The entire school should NOT be planned around a parent wanting to sign their kid up for an extra-curricular activity.

Additionally, I completely reject the idea that 300 extra hours of learning time in a year will have zero impact. And I can solve your problem of what to do with the time: spend it on the crap the kids obviously are not learning that they should be learning. As I learned at my college prep high school, "repetitio est mater studiorum (repetition is the mother of study)."

[Goblinmonger]

35. Certainly, all studies point to skill and drill as being awesome.

Oh, wait, they really don't.

[joeglow3]

42. Certainly, all studies say 5 hours of study is as effective as 7.

Oh, wait, they really don't.

[Goblinmonger]

51. Do you have a study that says

that just adding more time is going to increase learning? Because I don't think so. It is about what happens during that time, not the amount of time.

[joeglow3]

55. No fucking shit.

Lets just assume they will spend it better than picking their asses.

[Goblinmonger]

62. You want them to skill and drill

which studies very clearly show doesn't work so they might as well be picking their asses.

Are you a teacher? It amazes me the number of people that think because they went to a public school they are education experts.

[joeglow3]

64. PLEASE tell me you are trying to be obtuse on purpose

Use WHATEVER method of teaching you choose. Those 2 hours of REASONABLE additional time are better spent than the kids running the neighborhood.

[sulphurdunn]

44. Doing more of what doesn't work

doesn't make better work.

[joeglow3]

45. Are you shitting me?

If I study a concept once and don't understand it, I should never look at it again? That has to be one of the most idiotic things I have read in a while.

[sulphurdunn]

49. The only thing idiotic here

is your apparent inability to grasp simple concepts or to note why you should not make a simplistic Horatio Alger analogy from your personal life to a complex bureaucratic system. What is worse than continuing to repeat the same error over and over while expecting that doing so will make things right is to add additional time to the duration of the number of errors. The CPS is systemically fucked up, adding time to the school day not only fails to address any of the structural flaws that make it that way but is in fact designed to direct attention away from them. Get it?

[barb162]

53. The CTU is systemically fucked up too

because they just love their very short hours, their very big pensions and protecting the many tenured, nitwit, incompetent teachers in their union. Every last one of them should be tested to see if they are capable of teaching the grade or subject they're teaching. And if they're not, kick them the hell out of teaching whatever they're teaching. Did you ever hear a third grade teacher saying "he don't do that" and you wonder what kind of crapass school gave a degree to the teacher. And what school administrator then gave a job to the nitwit? Houston, we have have a problem.

[sulphurdunn]

54. How about some definitive

data from a peer reviewed, objective educational source to support your allegations.

[joeglow3]

56. Wow.

Show me eliminations as a percentage for any 5 major professions and compare that against teachers. I agree there are many issues to be addressed, but anyone who thinks this profession is a bastion of competent employees justifying the radically lower numbers is lying to themselves.

[sulphurdunn]

61. No profession

is a bastion of competent employees. Which 5 professions did you have in mind? With people who hold opinions like yours this society should be thankful anyone goes into teaching and shouldn't wonder why more of the so called "brightest and best" don't.

[joeglow3]

65. Yeah. Those damn fools who believe in statistics.

You know damn well all fields should be statistically even. However, the actual stats certainly do not hold this up to be true in the current environment.

[sulphurdunn]

70. Cool.

Now show me some statistics.

[joeglow3]

75. Do you have to work hard at being so ill informed?

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/03/05/why-we-must-fire-bad-teachers.html

[sulphurdunn]

76. Do you know what statistical data is?

This is an opinion hit piece written by a pair of journalists, regarding a social topic for which mountains of research data exists, but it fails to cite any. It is a subjective, persuasive article that posits only one point of view. It fails to cite a single credible source to support any of its contentions or allegations.

[joeglow3]

77. Like I asked, do you have to TRY to be that obtuse?

http://www.afterschoolallstars.org/site/pp.asp?c=enJJKMNpFmG&b=854685

SOME of the Studies cited:

Bureau, Urban Institute Estimate, 2000
Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, 2002
YMCA of the USA, March 2001
Ferrin & Amick, 2002
Friedman & Bleiberg, 2002
Invest in Kids
After-School Alliance Poll, October 2003

Seriously, what type of a childhood did you live? I am not aware of ANYONE who lived through those years who did not know this crap happened and it happened between 3 & 6.

[joeglow3]

79. Awww, hell

I replied to the wrong thread... Ignore that post.

[sulphurdunn]

82. Jesus Christ!

Can't you stay on topic? Let me repeat again: After school programs are useful because they help ameliorate the negative socioeconomic effects of dysfunctional communities upon children. Your link contains no evidence that any of that is caused by teachers, bad or otherwise.

[joeglow3]

80. Do you know what common sense is?

one out of a thousand? You honestly think there is a reasonable statistical probability that only one out a thousand theachers is a poor teacher?

[sulphurdunn]

81. We weren't talking about common sense.

To begin with there is nothing common about sense. Furthermore, we were talking about research based data, something you have not presented. Even assuming you have any sense, before you could assume your 1:1000 poor teacher ratio, you would still need an agreed upon definition of what a poor teacher is. Presently, people who actually know something about educational issues have pretty much determined that whatever good or poor teaching is (based upon empirical data), it isn't based upon standardized testing. What do you base it upon besides your emotional convictions and the opinion pages of News Week?

[joeglow3]

83. Poor teacher should be determined by a principal

I agree that it is not up to me to define a poor teacher (although there are cases where it is clear that some teachers I have been exposed to in my own and my children's experiences are poor). However, how would you define a poor corporate tax accountant? While I would guess you would not have the criteria, my boss certainly does and is able to judge my performance.

I agree that it is NOT looking at standardized test scores of students by themselves. However, if there are 3 teachers in a given grade at a given school and one consistently underperforms the other 2 teachers serving the exact same demographics of students over a period of 4-5 years, that would certainly be one piece of valid evidence. Overall, the judge should be determined by the school principal. They are an admin (just like in every other profession) that is resonsible for judging the performance of those performing under them. When you see a school district claiming 1 in a thousand teachers is underperforming, you NEED to question their evaluation skills. Maybe it means multiple principals needs to be fired as they are incapable of evaluating the classroom instruction of their teachers. Either way, anyone who has interacted in ANY profession with human beings in general knows that it is impossible to have a success rate of 99.9% among your hires.

[sulphurdunn]

86. By whatever measure

you use to determine teacher or accountant competence or anything else, that measure can be plotted on a distribution cure. If it is done right it should follow a normal bell curve i.e. about 72% will fall within the average range, 16% will be above average and 16% will be below. Now, even this measure is flawed, as regards interpretation of the data, since a teacher or accountant who scores 90 (where the mean is 100)is average while a colleague scoring 89 is below average, a score of 110 is average and a score of 111 is considered superior. You are correct about one thing: At some point the subjective judgement of humans must factor into the equation because of all the non-numerical values necessary to make fair and honest evaluation. Maybe, we've just been talking around each other.

[proud2BlibKansan]

60. Because everyone knows

you just get a teaching degree from shit U. & get a job teaching in the Chicago public schools.:sarcasm:

"He don't do that" is an expression that is perfectly acceptable in certain parts of the country. Perhaps you should take a competency test in American dialects to prove your expertise as a critic.

[proud2BlibKansan]

50. Because studying a concept is exactly the same thing as sitting in a class during instruction

You need to give this one up. It's not going too well for you.

[joeglow3]

58. You have not shown ANYTHING

Based on your reasoning, why have 5 hour days? We should just have 3 hour days? Better yet, lets do it in an hour. The extra time is worthless, after all.

It amazes me that a simple concept like the more you practice, the better you become is so fucking lost on grown adults... Makes me sad.

[proud2BlibKansan]

59. Once again. I'll type slowly this time.

School is about more than drill and practice. Time in class should be spent engaging in learning during well planned instruction which focuses on a variety of learning experiences.

Just because you were in 3rd grade once and learned your multiplication tables doesn't make you an expert on lesson design.

[joeglow3]

66. And I will pretend like I am talking to me child

Nothing says you only do drill and grill. There are MULTIPLE different methods and techniques you can utilize in the extra time. It will certainly be a better use of a student's time than them fucking and hanging out from 1 until 3.

[Goblinmonger]

73. God damn kids...get off my lawn.

"fucking and hanging out from 1 until 3" where does anyone advocate that, here? But it frustrates me that the non-education degreed people's answers to everything is longer school days and more homework. We want these kids to have a full time job (going to school 8 hours a day) and then go home for another part time job (homework) and then wonder why they hate school.

[joeglow3]

74. God damn those statistics...

http://blog.teenhelp.com/2009/11/teen-after-school-hours.html

[sulphurdunn]

71. Isn't it about how you spend

time? There are lots of kids who could better spend some time eating a nutritious breakfast or being able to bathe with hot water in the morning than they now spend practicing more of their ABCs.

[chervilant]

52. hmm...

When I'm teaching math, I can tell when a student gets to the point that nothing else is going to register in their tired little brain. I usually do a story stretch, and that sometimes helps.

However, when we have a large number of students who despise school, who feel disenfranchised from 'the American Dream' because they live in poverty, who use their time at school to participate in their I-Phone- and text-message driven social life, and who resist 'applying themselves' to the pursuit of higher learning, adding hours is not going to have the results you imagine.

Generalizing your personal experience to our disenfranchised and disinterested students du jour is not helpful...

[joeglow3]

57. What impact does it have for those who really are trying?

Your point is the failing students won't benefit, so fuck everyone else. Nice approach.

[chervilant]

67. Sad,

and pathetic, joeglow3. NOWHERE in my post did I intimate that failing students won't benefit, "so fuck everyone else." You need serious work on your comprehension skills.

Actually, I get the impression I could wade through the depths of your intellect without getting the tops of my toes wet...

[madfloridian]

25. BTW did you see this?

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-10-20/news/chi-labor-board-sides-with-chicago-teachers-union-in-dispute-over-longer-school-day-20111020_1_president-karen-lewis-labor-board-cps

"A state labor relations board sided with the Chicago Teachers Union today, asking the state attorney general’s office to seek an injunction to keep more of Chicago public schools from lengthening their days.

The nine elementary schools that already have extended their days by 90 minutes will be unaffected by whatever the court chooses to do, the board said in a statement clarifying the ruling.

The union’s legal victory, while not unexpected, seemed to rankle attorneys for CPS, who said the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board already had decided the case before the two sides presented oral arguments at a public hearing Thursday.

“It appears to me that the labor board had made up its mind before we came here. I think that’s extremely distressing,” said James Franczek, lead attorney for CPS’ Board of Education."


Now CPS is really mad at unions.

[newspeak]

85. how about since little boot's no child left behind

the whole school year revolving around passing a damned test? I remember some years ago it was on the front page of the RJ, they had new tests to determine who would graduate--they gave the test to adults (engineers, etc) some failed it. Apparently, a higher percentage of students had done bad on the test. The test was flawed.

In college, one of my professors told the class that he graded his tests on a curve, because he was not perfect and some of his tests could have flaws.

Also, the pressure put on these students, especially the young. I worked at DMV in utah some years ago, and at one time we had open book tests. That's right, you could look up the answer. I actually had people who were so rattled about taking a test, even an open book test. One woman, I attempted to calm her down when she began to cry, and told her to take all the time she needed to locate the answers.

also, I believe the junk bond king and little boot's brother has made profit on no child left behind.

[TBF]

27. K&R nt

[barb162]

28. Too many tenured teachers who don't know what they're doing?

Also from the Chicago Tribune"
snip

Think about this: In 2008 researchers at the Illinois Education Research Council reported what thousands of veteran Chicago teachers had scored on their ACT college entrance exams. The astonishing answer: An average of 19.4 (out of 36). That's about a point below what experts say is the minimum score necessary for college readiness. And it was far below the scores generally required for enrollment at highly competitive universities and colleges.

In a Tuesday visit to the Tribune editorial board, Illinois schools Superintendent Christopher Koch was blunt: "We need to set the bar higher." He told us of a 2009 presentation that documented the inability of many prospective teachers at Southern Illinois University to do basic arithmetic, such as adding and subtracting fractions. The bar can't get much lower than that.
snip

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-06-25/news/ct-edit-teacher-20110625_1_teacher-education-programs-high-school-teachers-illinois-education-research-council

[Goblinmonger]

36. Too many responses running through my head

How the hell do they know what they got on the ACT. I don't even remember what I got, and I graduated HS in 84.

How many of the best coaches in the NFL played at a level equal or better than the people they coach?

I call bullshit on that research because it just smacks too much of a right-wing talking point.

[barb162]

47. You had to submit your scores to the schools, right?

Basic stuff here. The researchers perhaps look through the files or talk to the admissions people on the test scores at their schools. If that's right wing to you, maybe there's a problem and it's not with the researchers. I know a few tenured teachers who lack very basic skills in grammar, punctuation, spelling, math and they have to be doing a miserable job teaching the kids.

[proud2BlibKansan]

48. My ACT scores sucked.

Fortunately I went to a college that asked for SATs instead and my SATs were very good. Maybe I had a bad day when I took ACTs. Who knows. Long time ago.

At any rate, I still graduated with a 3.9 so those lousy ACT scores didn't predict squat. :)

[ecstatic]

69. I don't think that's the problem. Too many teachers stereotype

students. I've seen it while a student in school, and I see it right here on DU and it's sickening. They separate students into groups who they think can "learn" and those they think can't learn. The students who they believe in receive their all, and the others, get almost nothing.

[chervilant]

72. hmm...

It's so easy to type "Too many teachers stereotype students," and "They separate students into groups who they think can 'learn' and those they think can't learn." Too bad (for you) that neither of your statements describes the vast majority of teachers in the US.

No one who participates in these discussions has EVER advocated that we KEEP 'bad teachers'! However, I certainly have had my fill of the ill-informed and biased individuals herewith who keep peppering these discussions with blanket condemnations of teachers, as though each and every one of us is marginally capable of teaching!

STOP VILIFYING TEACHERS! STOP DENIGRATING THE TEACHING PROFESSION!!!

If you want to help rescue our beleaguered system of public education, your first step should be educating yourself about this issue. When you have a better grasp of the facts, you will NOT be regurgitating right-wing propaganda about 'bad teachers.'

(Good grammar will strengthen your arguments...)

[madfloridian]

88. Oh, good grief. That is so not true.

Fact of the matter it is charters who moving in to take on the "inner city" students with the help of TFA recruits. They are re-segregating the schools without calling it that.

[AngryAmish]

78. I would say that is shocking but it is not surprising

In my experience the average CPS teacher is not very smart. Have I met some smart ones - sure, even dated a few. But the number of dim ones far outweigh that number.

The job of the average CPS teacher is hard. So many of the students are not brought up in an academic environment where learning is important.

My oldest is in her first year of pre K this year. She is going to the local Catholic school. Our neighborhood school is crap (for a host of cultural issues). Would we like her to go to public school? Sure. But the local magnet school has so few openings. Our options for public school are 1) rig the admission test for the highly selective public schools (either get her a copy of the admission test and let her learn it OR pull some strings - which has become more difficult). 2) move to a nice suburb which will cost about 100k.

[Exilednight]

29. Yep, and we took their SI and put him in charge of the entire country's education system. n/t

[Jakes Progress]

30. But everything is right on schedule, from reagan and bennet to Obama and duncan.

The programs that began under reagan and are being pushed today are having exactly the desired effect: the public now hates their schools and distrusts their teachers. grover norquist began this task with bill bennet and it is coming to fruition with arne duncan. The "reforms" were never meant to help children. They were meant to provide cover for the corporatization of our education system.

Our dilemma is Obama. Is he complicit in this neo-con game or is he just too clueless to know what is going on?

[madfloridian]

32. Yes, I agree. The propaganda has worked very well.

I would like to go with clueless, but I am finding it hard.

[chervilant]

38. Either

way, he's part of the problem.

[Jakes Progress]

43. Yes, but

one way and I have a really hard time voting for him. Another way and I just can't.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

31. Judging from what I've seen, if the schools get too test-oriented and devoted

to mechanical drilling with no recess and no creative time, the parents who really understand children's needs take their kids out of school and either send them to private school or homeschool them. This brings down the test scores as the children with more sophisticated backgrounds leave.

Sad to say, if I had a child stuck in a public school where they did nothing but drill-drill-drill all day, I'd be sorely tempted to pull that child out and either find an affordable private school or take up home schooling.

The current educational "reforms" remind me of the scenes with the Epsilons in Brave New World: In that highly stratified society, the children destined for the lowest ranking jobs are given aversion therapy so that they avoid books and flowers or any other kind of beauty.

[redgiant]

34. I a retired teacher as well

What's your answer? What will work?

[redgiant]

40. Verbs optional for me. n/t

[chervilant]

39. K&R

[bulloney]

41. Once again, America attacks a symptom instead of the root causes of the problems.

We see declining test scores and immediately attack teachers and schools. Especially in inner city schools, teachers deal with children from dysfunctional families if they have parents or any authority figure in their lives at all. These kids bring their baggage to the schools to the point where teachers have to be probation officers and case workers instead of instructors. The good teachers leave for better working environments and the cycle feeds on itself and accelerates to where we are today. Today, there are too many people in high places that think the profit-driven corporate model is the solution to everything.

[LadyInAZ]

46. nowdays...

lectures, classrooms etc... materials come across to students at lightening speeds... materials are summarized no details are given and its hope for the best.... everything is shorten to accelerate knowledge and no wonder they can not pass basic state requirements.

[Angry Dragon]

63. FOLLOW THE MONEY

[ecstatic]

68. You can't ignore the economy's role in this nt

[KamaAina]

84. Heckuvajob, Arne!

:sarcasm:

[Sportsguy]

87. Perfect

Deserves it's own thread if you ask me.