Washington
I recently bumped into a former student of mine outside the high-poverty public high school where I used to teach math. Quaniesha, as I’ll call her, was on her way home, and I was on my way in for the SAT tutoring sessions I hold with athletes trying to become “NCAA-eligible” so they can accept sports scholarships.
Quaniesha feigned anger as we walked past the school’s metal detectors: “Why you do me like that, Doc? I gotta start Credit Recovery next week.” She was smiling and knew full well how our back-and-forth was going to go.
She’d say I failed her in math. Then I’d say no, you failed yourself. She’d say I was a bad teacher. Then I’d ask her how often she had come to class, done her homework, or even brought her notebook and done the class work rather than cursed and fought and joked around.
Once I invited her mother to school for a ceremony celebrating Quaniesha’s award as “improved student of the week,” but her mother said she couldn’t come because she—the 30-year-old mother of the 15-year-old student—had been barred from the school for cursing and fighting with security guards.
But if Quaniesha was feigning anger, I was really angry, because the Credit Recovery program she was starting is a fraud to which I alerted the chancellor of Washington, D.C., schools last summer in a memo and at a one-on-one meeting.
In Credit Recovery, students who have failed a semester-long course attend a special class after school for a few weeks and magically earn credit for it—without taking a mastery exam. It is a big reason why the 50% of high-poverty, public-school students who actually graduate from high school are generally helpless before a college curriculum.
The dirty little secret of American education is that not only do half of students in high-poverty high schools drop out, but most of those who graduate—as I found in my two years teaching and testing students—operate at about the fifth-grade level in academics, organization and behavior. These graduates must then take noncredit remedial courses should they try to go to college.
Of my ninth-graders last year, only 10% were present in class more than three days a week, and a full 50% attended two days a week or fewer. When they did attend, the chronically absent did virtually none of the class work or homework. As a result, I thought it remarkable that a mere 68% of my ninth-graders failed—which, by the way, was typical across the ninth grade in the math department.
Instead of insisting that students retake failed courses and actually work, the school system allows students to take Credit Recovery or equally bogus summer-school courses. Thus students “age-out” of middle school with second-grade skills and “D-out” of high-school courses they rarely attend.
That explains why my so-called precalculus class of seniors last year entered with an average fourth-grade math level, just like my freshmen: They had learned little in the previous three years while “passing” algebra I, geometry and algebra II/trigonometry.
What can be done for the Quanieshas of the world, of whom there are literally millions segregated into the high-poverty public schools of America?
Clearly, if students enter high school with elementary-school skills, graduation is a long shot and college is a mirage. Schools should drop the fraud of pretending they are doing grade-level work. Instead, schools should rework their reading and math curricula to prepare them for trades that can support a family, such as being a bricklayer, hairdresser, plumber, nurse’s assistant or computer technician.
From my experience, 80% of high-poverty high-school freshmen are at elementary-school level, which includes the 50% who are going to drop out. The remaining 20% who are within striking distance of high-school standards should have the option to remain in the academic track. These well-behaved and well-prepared students have been cheated of most of their learning time throughout their school careers by the disruption of the disaffected, and they can probably get to grade level—and to college—if the disruption ends.
Triage? You bet. For now, at least. I don’t know anything about teaching in elementary school, but I suspect that an end to standardization and a change to relevant curricula would help there, too.
In any case, when the majority of high-poverty high-school students are within two years of grade level in their skills, then we can try the “college is for everyone” thing again. For now, let’s end the fraud of Credit Recovery so students can be taught where they truly are, not at the level where we pretend they are.
Mr. Rossiter is an adjunct professor at American University and an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies.
A version of this article appeared December 1, 2012, on page A13 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: How Washington, D.C., Schools Cheat Their Students Twice.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
the total failure is in pre k to third grade. This is nothing new. If they are not at grade level by that time failure is almost secure. There are national studies on this and any one who knows anything knows this fact. We call it “The Prebirth to Prison Pipeline” not the School to Prison Pipeline as it really starts before the mother becomes pregnant. The promotion is commonly called “Social Promotion.” What are we doing to our youth? Are we out to destroy them and ruin their self worth by telling them they are doing good and then they get crushed? Let us also blame the so called university experts for they are total failures to not understand this dynamic. At CSUN in L.A. something like 90% have to take remedial classes because they come from LAUSD. At the best high school, according to API scores, Grenada Hills High Charter School with an 8971 API their dropout rate is 34%. LAUSD, in 2010-11, had over 102,000 students not come to school everyday for a lost revenue of over $1.15 billion in that year alone. In 2002 LAUSD when they had 156,000 more students than in 2010-11 had only 14,500 not come to school everyday. And the Board of Education has the nerve to call themselves the “Reform Board”, I call them the “Deform Board.” This is with a Board President, Garcia, they have elected many times and with a superintendent, John Deasy, who has a phony PHD. He quit his Prince Georges County superintendents job one week after the stories broke and within one week of quiting he was hired by the Gates Foundation. Is anyone else seeing massive corruption and lack of concern for our youth?
Thanks to Caleb Rossiter for bringing up the issue of credit recovery in the DC Public Schools.
This crime against students and teachers (students tell teachers, “I don’t have to attend your class. I’m in credit recovery.”) was introduced by Michelle Rhee. One of its features is “there will be no traditional homework.”
In 2008-09, as many as 2/3 of dcps students were enrolled in CR classes. They were allowed to enroll late (the course hours are already only 2/3 the length of a regular credit class.). Some CR teachers had 4 and 5 different subjects assigned to them during the same class period. Students who had never failed a subject were allowed to “recover” credit.
I wrote the following description of credit recovery in September 2010 on the Fordham Institute’s Education Gadfly site: http://tinyurl.com/czcbufr
“A” for effort shouldn’t count
Erich Martel / September 16, 2010
http://www.edexcellence.net/commentary/education-gadfly-weekly/2010/september-16/a-for-effort-shouldnt-count.html.
In the District of Columbia Public Schools, where I teach social studies, “credit recovery” (CR) is a program of after-school courses for high school students who have failed the same classes during the regular school day. CR enables these pupils to receive credit towards graduation; but the “recovery” courses have distinctly lower standards than the standard kind. As a result, any increase in graduation numbers achieved through this means may well yield a false impression of improved student learning.
The ideas behind credit recovery are nothing new; for decades school systems have offered summer and night programs where students can pass courses while—often—doing less work. Credit recovery is simply the latest incarnation of this approach. And it’s not just taking hold in the nation’s capital; CR programs are being launched all around the country and enrollment is booming. But these efforts haven’t been scrutinized for evidence that students are actually meeting the same standards that “regular” courses would demand of them.
In many public school systems, including DCPS, students who fail key high-school courses such as Algebra I or English 2 are scheduled into double periods to give them additional time to master challenging subject matter. Credit recovery does the opposite; it creates separate credit bearing courses, but with 25 to 40 percent fewer scheduled classroom hours. A typical two-semester course (1.0 Carnegie unit) offered during the regular school day in most DCPS high schools is scheduled for 120 to 135 seat hours. In credit recovery, meanwhile, the total number of teacher-student contact hours is eighty-two to ninety-two hours. (Contact hours are important, especially given that most of the students enrolled in CR courses had deficiencies in prerequisite knowledge from the get-go. For these students, expanded—not constricted—classroom time is critical for success.) Plus, CR courses come with the additional restriction that “there will be no traditional ‘homework’ assigned in Credit Recovery. All assignments will be completed during class time.” (Emphasis mine.)*
In her October 28, 2008 “Chancellors’ Notes,” DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee described the expansion of CR from the previous year’s trial run of 200 students in seven high schools to “over 1,400 students…[in] all 16 high schools.” Enrollment was open to all students, grades 9 through 12, including many with no lost credits requiring “recovery.” By the end of that school year, easily more than twice the chancellor’s original estimate of 1,400 students had enrolled in CR. (The actual number of students who received credits under these conditions has not been reported and is difficult to estimate, since many CR teachers reported drop-out rates of more than 50 percent.)
Moreover, many CR class teachers were assigned courses they were not certified to teach. During the past two school years, students enrolled in different subjects were assigned to one teacher and grouped in a single classroom. In some cases, non-instructional staff members, such as counselors, were assigned to “teach” CR classes. The clear expectation of school officials responsible for these assignments was that students would spend most of their time completing work sheets with little active teacher instruction.
Many students were simultaneously enrolled in two courses, even though one is the pre-requisite for the other, as in math, Spanish, and French. Some students, mainly ELL/ESOL, were enrolled in as many as three English courses at the same time. CR teachers reported a range of direct and indirect pressure by administrators to pass students enrolled in these courses despite failing grades, extensive absences, and late enrollment.
In my experience, CR as practiced in DCPS leads to a decline in actual student learning, teacher morale, and institutional integrity. It certainly mitigates against high standards. When some of our most academically challenged students are offered shortcuts that allow them to receive course credits for only partial content mastery, knowledge and the work ethic on which it is founded are devalued. Like ancient gilded lead coins, each recipient of CR credits is deceived with an inflated sense of achievement, which will burst the moment he or she learns that full college acceptance is conditional upon completion of remedial, non-credit courses. This is, of course, completely consistent with the lamentable pattern of giving kids diplomas that purport to attest to achievement and readiness but actually do nothing of the sort—which is arguably the origin of standards-based reform and external accountability in U.S. education going back to the flurry of high school graduation tests that started in the 1970s.
Simply put, credit recovery, in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere, makes a mockery of local and national efforts to improve our country’s knowledge base.
* This no-homework clause was listed on a 2007 version of the DCPS website as one in a series of bulleted “details” about credit recovery
Erich Martel is a social studies teacher in the District of Columbia Public Schools and serves on the Executive Board of the Washington Teachers Union. He can be reached at ehmartel@starpower.net.
I cannot judge how CR is managed in DC but I tutor/teach in an after school credit recovery program for high school students. I think the biggest mistake administrators make is that CR is a magic pill and do not devote sufficient resources to it. Very few students can sit down in front of a computer and understand all the material with interventions from a real human being. That said, when CR programs are properly run, they can be a useful tool for students, especially those with special issues like working after schools, language barriers and gaps in basic skills, to get them back on track for graduation. The principles that apply to a real classroom situation are also true for CR: you need trained, certified professionals assisting students to manage and direct their own learning.
Michelle Rhee is a joke when really looked at. First, she was only a teacher for three years and not a good one at that. I found that at least once she put tape over her childrens mouths. Then suddenly some big money comes in behind her to wipe out teachers. Did you know that she gave up custody of her own children? What kind of woman does that? Just think about it. No one does their homework on these people. It is all out there. Just as LAUSD superintendent John Deasy has a phony PHD. All you have to do is enter his name. I called every LAUSD board members office and not one had done that simple thing. They knew this before they made him superintendent. One week after he quit his Prince Georges County superintendents job when the stories break he is hired by the Gates Foundation. What does that say about the ethics of the Gates Foundation? One year after that he is at LAUSD where there are $27 billion in school construction bonds in which construction is 2-3 times the average cost in L.A. County according to the Jan. 2008 Office of Public School Construction (OPSC) report on the costs of school construction. This is all about money and destroying teachers unions. It is just that simple.
Off-Topic: Follow up to Orlando charter school scandal (principal given a $500,000 parachute when the school closed for failing).
Now, the media has uncovered issues with that principal’s husband. He was paid $460,000 over a few years for “management” services.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/os-northstar-charter-high-husband-20121201,0,7745898.story
The U.S is totally corrupt and education is one of the most corrupt places due only to the money involved and how easy it is to steal especially in construction bonds. The general fund of U.S. public education is over $700 billion and DOD is about $642 billion. Does that make it clear.
What a surprise!!!
America, in general, I think is the most corrupt in the world. Who else but us could bring down the finances of almost the entire planet and have endless war for no real reason?
And read this..
Charter Schools vs Public Schools in DC – by Erich Martel
by gfbrandenburg
A very insightful analysis by retired DCPS teacher Erich Martel:
Mike,
As you know, although I am a supporter of DCPS and DCPS teachers, I have been a strong critic of the management of DCPS and those who openly colluded with management to undermine standards of achievement and behavior. Only recently, have I looked more closely at DC public charters.
The first issue, whether one wants to employ the competition model or not, is the fact that DCPS is being managed and run in a manner designed to intimidate teachers and produce a continuous, high rate of replacement (“churn”). If this were a sport, amateur or pro, DCPS leadership would be jailed for throwing the game to the opposition. Now in the sixth year of chancellor management, well over 50%, probably 60% or more of the teachers were hired by Rhee and Henderson. They have a contract that enables them to tweak the annual staffing plan so as to throw several hundred effective or highly effective teachers into excess, where they have no right to existing vacancies (so, we’re not talking about seniority, whose demise preceded this contract) for which they are certified and have effective evaluations.
http://gfbrandenburg.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/charter-schools-vs-public-schools-in-dc-by-erich-martel/
If the parents were involved none of that would happen
This was a predictable crisis. Quaniesha’s mother needed support 15 years ago when Quaniesha was born but didn’t get it either because she didn’t think she needed it, she didn’t want it, or— most likely— there was no way for her to get it if she DID want it. The so-called “school reformers” don’t like it when teachers blame parents or poverty, but the same reformers are not prepared to support early intervention and so the parents of the Quanieshas of this world face daunting odds. The conundrum is that a government program is needed to intervene— and spending money on government programs is an anathema to those who willingly spend millions on advertisements for their privatized education programs.
The same thing is done in NYC. Students who fail for the school year go to a bogus summer program where they produce an “authentic” (teacher spoon fed) portfolio. This allows them to go on to the next grade even though this seventh grade student has a lexile reading level of a pre-reader. Then, Bloomberg touts that he has ended social promotion in NYC. Pathetic!
And so how will all these credit recovery cast offs be college and career ready? And who will they blame? When in doubt, back to the teacher…follow our convoluted policies and procedures or else and when the kids still fail it is always the teachers who take the blame.
See today’s Jersey Jazzman….we are tired of being abused.
http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2012/12/atrios-nails-it-teachers-are-sick-of.html
And the umbrella for all of this is Obama/Duncan spewing the idea that EVERY student will be “college and career ready” by, oh say, next year! Magical thinking by Education Deformers such as those two must stop. The magical thinking is simply a way to allow privatizers and corporations (Pearson et al.) to siphon funds for magical assessments and magical statement by deformers saying that poverty is NOT AN EXCUSE.
I do agree that credit recovery is a farce–insisting that students take a course with assessments of their learning in summer school is something else. The suggestion that bringing back tracking by saving the 20% ” who are well behaved” and putting the rest in trade schools is not the answer….it was not in the last century and it is not now. That throw them out attitude without addressing the cause is as bad as the let’s open more charters solution.
The version we have in middle school is on computers and it doesn’t even match the regular curriculum. The kids figure out quickly to score a certain percentage on the pre test and then you skip an entire chapter or section. I have heard they also text of tell each other answers and they cheat just to fly through and be done. It is merely a computerized scam. They pass with D’s and that cut off gets lowered each year. And no one can earn below a 50 even if they never show up and/or produce any work to be read or graded, so we just keep pushing them along. We are called in if we have more than 5% of our students failing (63 or below). Everyone knows what to do….a herd of docile sheep is easier to control.
Carol, thank you for bringing an historical perspective that many readers here seem to lack. Does the author recommend that we revive Life Adjustment? He’s discovered a problem–and like a real reformer, proposed an a-historical solution.
Great piece. I feel so sorry for this dysfunction. We are all to blame because we continue to allow these problems to exist in area that are poverty stricken. We must come up with solutions and stop blaming each other. A poor parent doesn’t care about a charter school or public school debate. They want their child educated and to have a chance a life that does not include jail, poverty and hopelessness.
Solutions:
Don’t allow high school students to take classes they can’t do. Give them placement exams.
High school needs to be five years an include summer with intensive one on one help. Real help.
Create standard base grading so that we are not passing kids because they are nice or fail them when they are a behavior problem. Grade them on what they know.
Let’s look at the schools that have a high pass rate percentage with low level kids and hold them accountable. The problem Is no one stands up for schools that have high failure rates because kids, teachers and administration are put in a f-up situation to blame each other. Let’s join forces. It’s a catch 22. So maybe vouchers are a good thing because it can end segregation in our poor schools. (i know you did not want to hear that but i really believe this) finally give these school money so that kids can have a damn chance. Thanks Dianne for all the work you do for kids, especially poor kids. That will get you into the gates of heaven….light…
The poor parents in this article don’t seem to care at all. They don’t even send their kids to school nor show up for special events.
What I love about this sad story is that is is REAL…Real life example of real student who really isn’t responding to a real teacher and a real classroom for reasons beyond the control of said real teacher. Like Katie’s stories about the kids she and her colleagues teach in special ed, these examples are the inconvenient truths that the deformers don’t want to hear. But those are the kids who walk in the door every day. Typically the teachers are not the ones who are failing these kids (even if they give them F’s), the system is. I believe we need more real stories, not fairy tales.
Caleb Rossiter’s piece about Credit Recovery is excellent. Schools are under so much pressure to have kids graduate, that a diploma can become meaningless. Where I teach in Maryland, the focus is so blindly on “college readiness” that we are not preparing students for real life.
Many of my students (all English Language Learners) struggle to pass the High School Assessment. My seniors have three or four chances to take this high-stakes exam. If they have failed twice then they are eligible for a Bridge Project, for which they need one-on-one teacher supervision. I’m required to develop an Intervention Plan to meet with students at lunch and after school. If they don’t graduate in 4 years, then why are we considered “failures”? Some of my students opt to stay an extra year to improve their English language skills and take more advanced classes. They should be given this option so that they can better contribute to society when they graduate — not feel like failures because they’re not going to college.
To emphasize your point, I would rather choose a person to work for me who had common sense, dedication, loyalty, willingness to learn, honesty, and trustworthyness (solid character traits) than some who could only show their worth with good grades and lip service. On the same note, we also have to bring up our children with strong character traits. Currently, we put competition before character and that is where we fall short. Our beliefs and values reflect what we practice for good or worse.
These loopholes were created because reformers needed a way out knowing that their expecting that ALL students would pass high-stakes testing in the 2014 would not succeed. After all, what would their solution be for those who didn’t pass these “hoop jumpers, not to mention high-stakes tests?
Credit Recovery and programs like it are patronizing to students whose odds are stacked against them from the get go. Realistically, can a person be successful in life having an understanding of 5th grade math?
My 5th and 6th graders wanted to ask the president (during the recent campaign) why do kids have to take harder math as they get into high school when they are better at reading, art, or music? Are we truly as student-centered as we say we are?
Yes we are teaching kids for tomorrow’s jobs. But does that mean every kid? This is an exaggeration and a scam from those want to privatize and profit from K-12 education. They stirred public panic and all of a sudden we need everyone college ready.
When a system is structured (gamed) for one class of people, the losers are always losers. Who likes being a player on a football squad that plays without helmets, pads, cleated shoes, not to mention the jersey that represents who you are? Certainly not the elitists and their children.
Unforturnately, the elitists have the head start because they know the game better in many ways. They can monopolize the system even though their rules are blatantly unfair. Trite as it might be, they have always done so since there was power & corruption. The question is can this unjust of a political dominance and social injustice be made immobile as this where these systemic issues begin.
How can we design schools for the variety of individual needs if admission to schools is determined geographically? Perhaps what we need is a variety of schools that students might be able to choose between to match the individual needs and interests of the student.
Individual needs? Did you read the article. There are a host of problems and needs. Students that are this low performing would do even worse is a suburban school because most of the students there perform around grade level. The students profiled had so many issues that changing the location of the school wouldn’t matter.
The comment above is concerned that “the system is structured (gamed) for one class of people”. Presumably the problem is that a system structured for one class does not work for another class. That suggests multiple designs are required if we are going to do the best for students of each class. You may disagree, but your disagreement is not with me, it is with JonS.
Who is going to pay for the transportation and what is the carbon cost? You have to think it all out. There is no reason to not do it on the local level especially in an urban environment. Teachers should not be allowed to teach unless properly trained. We have been total failures with our youth and will pay the price for it. At LAUSD in 2010-11 over 102,000 students did not come to school everyday at a lost revenue of over $1.15 billion in just that year. This does not include the criminal justice costs and lost tax revenue. When you add it all up the cost of not educating as many as possible it is devastating.
It may well cost too much (in terms of money and/or carbon) to give each class of student an education that is best for them.
No money, no programs. It is just that simple. D.C. is one school district that does not have a revenue problem with about $29,000/student. It is always what you do with the money and how much is wasted or given away for free to your friends for other purposes than education. That is why I say Rhee is a big loser. She also has the problem with test cheating and giving up custody of her own children. Real big problem there. Astroturf rules the day now. Always follow the money and live within your means is a good rule to follow.
My thoughts were that we could avoid building a variety of schools. Instead we add “skill centers” to schools that already exist. Those who choose these alternate career routes should not be required to follow the graduation requirments that others choose for a 4 yr. college program. They should, however, graduate with a basic certificate in their trade which would allow them to work as a journeyman or similar or continue their education at a credentialed trade school. We will continue to need plumbers, mechanics, electricians, nurses’ aides, para professionals, etc., but we need these to be an option before kids graduate.
My point is that many kids look at jr. high and high school as pointless, because the school system is not gamed in favor for them. It is unrealistic to force all kids to be college ready beginning at kindergarten. Many kids dropout because the system offers no other options. Common Core Standards is whose idea? (If I could start over again, I wouldn’t send my kids to school until they turned seven like Finland.) Reformers left out psychological & developmental readiness related to academics as they setforth their agenda.
My 5th and 6th graders already know what their strenghts and weaknesses are and the path they want to take. We should be able to offer these options at junior high and high school where PUBLIC education is free. It”s one way to provide an equitable education. The only ones benefiting from our ed. system now are those who can pass high stakes testing.
I could not agree with you more. Have been fighting for this for a long time. Not everyone is a desk jockey. Moreover, these trades pay better than a college degree and cannot be offshored and have great benefits and retirement packages. What is wrong with that? Most administrators I have known are not much better than criminals they way they do not do their job and lie and cheat at the expense of the taxpayer and students.
Yes, these options are a better deal in many ways. We also need to get rid of ALEC (lot of deceptive behavior there).
I certainly agree that students should be given a variaty of options, especially at the high school level. I really don’t understand why those have to be in the same building, however. Perhaps a high school designed for,those that will go to college, another designed for those who would have a craft, and another for those that are not interested in that level of commitment. This might not be frpeasable in my rural state, but in the more densely populated areas of the country such tracking would work.
When you talk about high stackes testing, are you refuting to the SAT/ ACT Or AP exams? They are the only high stack standardized exams that I can think of that benefit students.
I only suggested that these alternative pathways exist at the same high schools or campus to save money, and bussing problems.
The high-stakes exams I am referring to are the ones students have to pass to graduate. Dumbest idea concocted by reformers of NCLB.
There is certainly a difference between the capabilities of a small rural school district and a large urban one concerning these other trade classes both in capability and financial capability. In urban districts it is shameful to rob these students of a high paying career with good benefits and retirement programs and also they cannot offshore these jobs as they can almost any white collar college job today.
GE jet engines just sent 15,000 engineering jobs recently to India. Right now Russia, China and India have a lot of highly trained white collar people to take those jobs at much lower wages. They are insecure by nature. Not everyone is made to be a desk jockey as we call them. Not all people are the same. Why are we robbing them of what they really want to do and are capable of doing.
I only went to public school once and that was for a summer school for auto mechanics. I am 65 and to this day no mechanic touches my vehicle. I do it all including electrical work. The only thing I send outside is machine work and that goes to the best pros I have known for many years. Give our students a chance.
Ask L.A. County Sheriff Baca what happens when K-12 fails and they enter the criminal justice system. Besides education I also work transportation and the criminal justice system and have done a lot of research on the what I call the “Pre Birth to Prison Pipeline.” It is an unnecessary tragedy.
You meant exams like the New York Regent’s Exams. We don’t have those in my state yet.
Would you require these alternative pathways be run by the public school system or would it be better to have some private organization, say the plumbers union, involved?
That’s a good question whether or not to privatize these alternatives. If it were to be privatized, I would regret it if they began a tuition fee for jr high/high school students as that would defeat the purpose of these optiions. Also, the fact that it could be sold and bought out or runned under different leadership would make it unstable.
On the other hand, it may have to be privately funded as we know state and federal money can only be stretched so far. Which brings me to say how our government must give these alternatives an equal amount of attention and funding by eliminating the waste spent on NCLB, RttT and Common Core.
As a citizen of a state where the state board of education would like to teach my children the earth is 6,000 years old, the Common Core does not seem to be the worse idea in the world.
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We need to stop trying to make everyone college material. Not everyone is cut out for it. We need to teach some young adults a trade,…not force them to do Calculus and read Beowulf.
In the thread “TIME Columnist Mocks Common Core Standards” most folks are arguing that every one should be forced to read the classics and not do the non-fiction reading required by the Common Core standards. Do you disagree?
We need well rounded citizens. There is much to learn from the past and great literature to help you with understanding and having a better life. Many are not cut out for college, however, that does not mean they should not have a complete education in order to be better citizens and voters. When you do not help with critical thinking and this type of education assists critical thinking you are robbing them of the full capability for their future even if they do not understand it at the moment. It helps you to be a capable thinker “Outside the Box.” Go talk to Boeing, JPL and Northrup-Grumman if you do not believe me. They are fully behind art from a very early age for the continuation of their business. This was clearly stated at a recent California Assembly Education and the Aerospace Business Committee Meeting. They need well rounded people, including in the shop, who can think outside of the box to create the new technology.
What’s even more concerning? That “reformed” and “privatized” schools (schools taken over and gutted of teachers and administrators) use these “credit recovery” classes to artificially boost their test scores by forcing struggling students to transfer to “continuation” high schools. A prime example of this underhanded tactic was recently documented in Sacramento News & Review- http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/fail/content?oid=4473392.
The phony credit revocering is happening in urban charters too. Phony graduation rates, students in advanced classes who have no business taking the classes, etc.
The average students in my local high school are scoring >25 on the ACT. My students in my low income high school in the regular track courses were scoring half that. Teachers were routinely confronted by the administration for having too high a failure rate. As a special education teacher my students were coming into high school reading at anywhere from a pre-K to a 5th grade reading level. I know their math skills were no better. Years ago, someone said it was damaging to a child’s psyche to be held back, so we moved to social promotion. Now they graduate without the ability to hold anything but an unskilled job. Vocational education is almost nonexistent because everyone is supposed to be college ready. We are graduating kids who aren’t even capable of handling remedial courses at a community college. The saddest part is they think they are ready for college.
“Schools should rework their reading and math curricula to prepare them for trades that can support a family, such as being a bricklayer, hairdresser, plumber, nurse’s assistant or computer technician.”
I have a big problem with the idea of vocational training, especially since it is so expensive and the job market is constantly changing. I think we can give kids a good cheap liberal education, teach them to read and write well, to think and discuss, to do useful mathematics and reason abstractly, and learn about their history. Equipped with these tools, they can go out and get the training they need to get a job.
I’m most uncomfortable with vo-tech training because I have never met someone who wished it upon his or her own kids. It’s always the poor Other who needs vo-tech. Part of the problem is that high schools have gotten too complicated, too disorganized, too many teachers teaching subjects that shouldn’t be taught.
A lexus, Mercedes and Cadillac mechanic can make $100-120,000/year. That is more than the average PHD and the job cannot be offshored, the benefits are great as are the retirement packages. What is wrong with that. Schools are a mess that is for sure as there is no accountability for administrators. The Fish Rots from the Head. Always has been true and always will be true. Administrators are the head.
Also, I don’t like how teaching kids to think critically is termed “college prep” it is really preparing them to be grown ups and take care of themselves.