From today's New York Times:
When 81% Passing Suddenly Becomes 18%
Here's a snippet from the article:
There were large drops in passing rates across New York, reflecting new requirements intended to correct for years of inflated results. The exams, state education officials said, had become too easy to pass, their definition of proficiency no longer meaningful. Citywide, the proficiency rate in English fell to 42 percent, from 69 percent last year; 54 percent reached grade level in math, down from 82 percent.
This is the brain trust that thinks it ought to be able to control homeschooling?!? Yipes!
They are failing the kids they already have in their clutches!
Why do I homeschool? A myriad of reasons, actually, but the utterly appalling things I read about the state of education in the New York Times would be enough...
I do not fault the teachers, who have their hands tied behind their backs by a broken system that demands accountability in the form of test results, prevents teachers from devoting themselves to meaningful curricula at the expense of test prep, and then jiggers the test results anyway, because, not surprisingly, test prep mania does not result in real learning.
I love educating my son. But I could never, ever, teach. As in, in a school environment...
Because my head would explode when the powers that be stopped me from actually teaching.
This is a disgrace. Our national education policy is a joke. Sleight of hand is not going to give us an educated citizenry. There needs to be a complete rethink. Stop blaming teachers, the kids, the parents, and look at what the educational bureaucracy has accomplished for all its self congratulatory scheming and demands for accountability via a measure that even they acknowledge is meaningless. The NEA says standardized tests are not an accurate measure of a student's knowledge or a teacher's performance. Why have the powers that be made them into the gold standard at the expense of all else? The educrats have broken things to the point that a simple bandaid and some bluster can no longer hide the gaping holes in their precious system.
This is the educational equivalent of The Emperor's New Clothes!
Showing posts with label the system is broken. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the system is broken. Show all posts
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
Clean Your Own (School) House First...
The New York Times reports that New York is in a quandary about what to do about tougher Regents Exam requirements for obtaining a high school diploma, which are soon to take effect. You can read the full article here.
Here's a quote:
If the new standards had been in place for the class of 2009, the city’s graduation rate would have been roughly 45 percent, instead of the nearly 60 percent that city officials boasted of, according to city statistics. Among black and Latino students, barely more than one-third would have qualified for diplomas.
A Regents diploma is supposed to signify that a student is prepared for college. Today, most New York City graduates who enroll in an associate degree program at a City University of New York college need to take remedial courses there.
“This is the question that everyone is asking everywhere, not just in New York but nationally: Should high school graduation mean that a student is successful in first-year college courses?” John B. King Jr., senior deputy state education commissioner, said. “There isn’t a state answer at the moment, and that’s what we have to grapple with.”
There isn't an answer?!? Since when has there been *doubt*? When did high school graduation cease to mean prepared to take on adult responsibility, whether that is entering the working world or being college ready?
That the educrats seemingly accept this state of affairs is appalling! And these are the people who presume to regulate Homeschooling??? They are only graduating 60 percent of kids who attend, and "most" of them need remedial help to be able to hack a 2 year college program at a city college? The system is a failure. It is nothing short of hypocrisy for it to presume to tell homeschoolers how to educate!
Here's a quote:
If the new standards had been in place for the class of 2009, the city’s graduation rate would have been roughly 45 percent, instead of the nearly 60 percent that city officials boasted of, according to city statistics. Among black and Latino students, barely more than one-third would have qualified for diplomas.
A Regents diploma is supposed to signify that a student is prepared for college. Today, most New York City graduates who enroll in an associate degree program at a City University of New York college need to take remedial courses there.
“This is the question that everyone is asking everywhere, not just in New York but nationally: Should high school graduation mean that a student is successful in first-year college courses?” John B. King Jr., senior deputy state education commissioner, said. “There isn’t a state answer at the moment, and that’s what we have to grapple with.”
There isn't an answer?!? Since when has there been *doubt*? When did high school graduation cease to mean prepared to take on adult responsibility, whether that is entering the working world or being college ready?
That the educrats seemingly accept this state of affairs is appalling! And these are the people who presume to regulate Homeschooling??? They are only graduating 60 percent of kids who attend, and "most" of them need remedial help to be able to hack a 2 year college program at a city college? The system is a failure. It is nothing short of hypocrisy for it to presume to tell homeschoolers how to educate!
Monday, June 21, 2010
But Aren't You Worried About Socialization?
Um, no, not when the schools have lost their minds:
"Most children naturally seek close friends. In a survey of nearly 3,000 Americans ages 8 to 24 conducted last year by Harris Interactive, 94 percent said they had at least one close friend. But the classic best-friend bond — the two special pals who share secrets and exploits, who gravitate to each other on the playground and who head out the door together every day after school — signals potential trouble for school officials intent on discouraging anything that hints of exclusivity, in part because of concerns about cliques and bullying. ... That attitude is a blunt manifestation of a mind-set that has led adults to become ever more involved in children’s social lives in recent years. The days when children roamed the neighborhood and played with whomever they wanted to until the streetlights came on disappeared long ago, replaced by the scheduled play date. While in the past a social slight in backyard games rarely came to teachers’ attention the next day, today an upsetting text message from one middle school student to another is often forwarded to school administrators, who frequently feel compelled to intervene in the relationship."
From this article in the NY Times. Please read the whole thing.
Structured recess, stupid zero tolerance policies than involve zero common sense, and now control over kids' friendships! Am I worried about my homeschooled child's socialization? That would be a huge NO!
I cannot fathom how schools can ignore actual bullying (to the extent that some targeted kids are driven to commit suicide), but get all "proactive" about intervening in purely hypothetical cases because two kids may be too close for some administrator's taste and maybe, just maybe, someone might possibly feel left out at some time in the future.
This is the oft-praised socialization that only school can teach? We'll pass.
It's quite ironic that one of the most frequent digs directed against homeschoolers is that we are trying to protect our kids from negative social interactions that some people feel are necessary to positive character development and being able to get along in "the real world" later in life. In "the real world", has anyone ever told you you are not allowed to have a best friend? This latest trend just highlights the fact that "school culture" is a manufactured and artificial microcosm that bears little resemblance to reality.
Now the Nanny State is sheltering kids from the "hard knocks" we homeschoolers are so often told we are wrong-headedly depriving them of, in the absence of any actual harm. Why do people think government regulation of every aspect of our lives is preferable to individual responsibility? What are schools really teaching kids? That they are incompetent to make even the most basic decisions, about who to spend their time with? That they cannot possibly be trusted to think for themselves even to this extent? Talk about dumbing down! Now it isn't just academics that have to be dragged down to the least common denominator level? We need to do it to social skills too?
People are inordinately concerned over the "socialization" of a tiny percentage of school aged children who are homeschooled, yet turn a blind eye to how the fantastical machinations of government schooling affect the development of the vast majority of children. It is completely illogical to think that, in the absence of probable cause for a finding of illegal activity, they are entitled to know or control what happens in private homes, and yet, to simultaneously accept the statistically far more significant potential harm to multitudes of children under the rubric of "school as norm", rather than critically examining state action (in which, unlike my living room, they are actual stake holders since it is bought and paid for with all of our taxes, and government, at least in the USA, is supposed to be answerable to the people, not vice versa.)
Am I worried about socialization? Well, now that you mention it, yes, I am. I'm worried about what passes for socialization these days in the schools!
"Most children naturally seek close friends. In a survey of nearly 3,000 Americans ages 8 to 24 conducted last year by Harris Interactive, 94 percent said they had at least one close friend. But the classic best-friend bond — the two special pals who share secrets and exploits, who gravitate to each other on the playground and who head out the door together every day after school — signals potential trouble for school officials intent on discouraging anything that hints of exclusivity, in part because of concerns about cliques and bullying. ... That attitude is a blunt manifestation of a mind-set that has led adults to become ever more involved in children’s social lives in recent years. The days when children roamed the neighborhood and played with whomever they wanted to until the streetlights came on disappeared long ago, replaced by the scheduled play date. While in the past a social slight in backyard games rarely came to teachers’ attention the next day, today an upsetting text message from one middle school student to another is often forwarded to school administrators, who frequently feel compelled to intervene in the relationship."
From this article in the NY Times. Please read the whole thing.
Structured recess, stupid zero tolerance policies than involve zero common sense, and now control over kids' friendships! Am I worried about my homeschooled child's socialization? That would be a huge NO!
I cannot fathom how schools can ignore actual bullying (to the extent that some targeted kids are driven to commit suicide), but get all "proactive" about intervening in purely hypothetical cases because two kids may be too close for some administrator's taste and maybe, just maybe, someone might possibly feel left out at some time in the future.
This is the oft-praised socialization that only school can teach? We'll pass.
It's quite ironic that one of the most frequent digs directed against homeschoolers is that we are trying to protect our kids from negative social interactions that some people feel are necessary to positive character development and being able to get along in "the real world" later in life. In "the real world", has anyone ever told you you are not allowed to have a best friend? This latest trend just highlights the fact that "school culture" is a manufactured and artificial microcosm that bears little resemblance to reality.
Now the Nanny State is sheltering kids from the "hard knocks" we homeschoolers are so often told we are wrong-headedly depriving them of, in the absence of any actual harm. Why do people think government regulation of every aspect of our lives is preferable to individual responsibility? What are schools really teaching kids? That they are incompetent to make even the most basic decisions, about who to spend their time with? That they cannot possibly be trusted to think for themselves even to this extent? Talk about dumbing down! Now it isn't just academics that have to be dragged down to the least common denominator level? We need to do it to social skills too?
People are inordinately concerned over the "socialization" of a tiny percentage of school aged children who are homeschooled, yet turn a blind eye to how the fantastical machinations of government schooling affect the development of the vast majority of children. It is completely illogical to think that, in the absence of probable cause for a finding of illegal activity, they are entitled to know or control what happens in private homes, and yet, to simultaneously accept the statistically far more significant potential harm to multitudes of children under the rubric of "school as norm", rather than critically examining state action (in which, unlike my living room, they are actual stake holders since it is bought and paid for with all of our taxes, and government, at least in the USA, is supposed to be answerable to the people, not vice versa.)
Am I worried about socialization? Well, now that you mention it, yes, I am. I'm worried about what passes for socialization these days in the schools!
Monday, March 15, 2010
No Child Gets Ahead, rev.2.0
Have you seen A Blueprint for Reform
The Reauthorization of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act?
The next rev of No Child Left Behind calls itself a blueprint. That's like saying, "we're gonna build a house, we'll make some plans and throw some money at it" constitutes a blueprint. Um, no. A mission statement maybe, but a blueprint? No. Developing the new buzz words "world class education" and "college- and career-ready" doesn't make them a reality, or shed any light whatsoever on how you get from here to there.
At least it acknowledges how badly broken the current system is:
At page 7:
"Four of every 10 new college students, including half of those at 2-year institutions, take remedial courses, and many employers comment on the inadequate preparation of high school graduates."
That's simply shameful. How dare the pointy headed bureaucrats who administer this woeful failure of a system presume to regulate homeschooling?!? Clean your own house first, before you try to dictate what goes on in mine!
Of course, this new policy completely fails to address gifted education. And while closing achievement gaps is certainly a worthy goal, if the stated aim of this scheme is to allow America to compete on the world stage, why are we not supporting the best and brightest, the geeks and prodigies, the kids most likely to innovate and discover? For too long, the focus has been on the center of the bell curve, and tough luck to the outliers at either end. Now we're told that focus will broaden to encompass those struggling at the bottom, but as usual, no provision is made for the gifted and talented kids being held back by the system's failure to adequately challenge them. And no, making them tutor the struggling kids is not advancing their educations. It's making indentured servants of them. We are a culture of mediocrity. We want everyone lumped together and made average. We claim to value diversity, but our system breeds conformity and lowest common denominator thinking.
Instead of supporting new and improved tests and throwing more money at a problem that decades of throwing money at has not fixed, how about government getting out of the way of the actual educators and letting teachers use their creativity and talent to actually teach meaningful curricula instead of spending oh, 70 percent of the school year forced to focus on test prep to secure the precious federal funding that has come to mean far more than graduating kids with actual high school level skills?
The Reauthorization of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act?
The next rev of No Child Left Behind calls itself a blueprint. That's like saying, "we're gonna build a house, we'll make some plans and throw some money at it" constitutes a blueprint. Um, no. A mission statement maybe, but a blueprint? No. Developing the new buzz words "world class education" and "college- and career-ready" doesn't make them a reality, or shed any light whatsoever on how you get from here to there.
At least it acknowledges how badly broken the current system is:
At page 7:
"Four of every 10 new college students, including half of those at 2-year institutions, take remedial courses, and many employers comment on the inadequate preparation of high school graduates."
That's simply shameful. How dare the pointy headed bureaucrats who administer this woeful failure of a system presume to regulate homeschooling?!? Clean your own house first, before you try to dictate what goes on in mine!
Of course, this new policy completely fails to address gifted education. And while closing achievement gaps is certainly a worthy goal, if the stated aim of this scheme is to allow America to compete on the world stage, why are we not supporting the best and brightest, the geeks and prodigies, the kids most likely to innovate and discover? For too long, the focus has been on the center of the bell curve, and tough luck to the outliers at either end. Now we're told that focus will broaden to encompass those struggling at the bottom, but as usual, no provision is made for the gifted and talented kids being held back by the system's failure to adequately challenge them. And no, making them tutor the struggling kids is not advancing their educations. It's making indentured servants of them. We are a culture of mediocrity. We want everyone lumped together and made average. We claim to value diversity, but our system breeds conformity and lowest common denominator thinking.
Instead of supporting new and improved tests and throwing more money at a problem that decades of throwing money at has not fixed, how about government getting out of the way of the actual educators and letting teachers use their creativity and talent to actually teach meaningful curricula instead of spending oh, 70 percent of the school year forced to focus on test prep to secure the precious federal funding that has come to mean far more than graduating kids with actual high school level skills?
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Yet another reason to homeschool...
Supervised recess. Stamping out renegade games of hopscotch at a school near you!
Our society's goal seems to be turning out mindless sheep who have been controlled from birth (and before, but that's a whole 'nother rant) to the grave, with nary a second for a stray independent thought, or, heaven help our corporate masters, developing the idea that there *is* a choice, if we don't abdicate it.
By all means, have monitors to keep the bullies from running rampant. Provide the coach to teach games and sportsmanship to the kids who are interested. But tell her to lay off the renegade hopscotch crowd, the bookworms, the cloud watchers, and the like, unless they are brawling, for goodness' sake. (But then, those introverts and rebels are dangerous to the central guiding principle of the disaster that is our public education sector today-- producing identical numbed out cogs with zero self esteem and creativity, who won't question the robber barons' right to control our destinies. They must be assimilated into the mind dead collective.)
Don't kids deserve any time when they are not under someone's dominance and control to relax and just be themselves?
"There is no choice" sounds a little too "Ordnung muss sei" for me. The Nanny State has jumped the shark and started goosestepping. Maybe they should change the name from "No Child Left Behind" to "We are the Borg. Resistance is futile." You will be made into a servile groupthink sheep who fits in the prescribed box, or we'll pathologize and medicate you into submission, or hire a drill sergeant to whip you into unquestioning obedience...
No thanks! This is why we're educational DIY'ers.*** My kid will not be taught *not to think for himself.*
***(DIY'er = Do It Yourself-er.)
Our society's goal seems to be turning out mindless sheep who have been controlled from birth (and before, but that's a whole 'nother rant) to the grave, with nary a second for a stray independent thought, or, heaven help our corporate masters, developing the idea that there *is* a choice, if we don't abdicate it.
By all means, have monitors to keep the bullies from running rampant. Provide the coach to teach games and sportsmanship to the kids who are interested. But tell her to lay off the renegade hopscotch crowd, the bookworms, the cloud watchers, and the like, unless they are brawling, for goodness' sake. (But then, those introverts and rebels are dangerous to the central guiding principle of the disaster that is our public education sector today-- producing identical numbed out cogs with zero self esteem and creativity, who won't question the robber barons' right to control our destinies. They must be assimilated into the mind dead collective.)
Don't kids deserve any time when they are not under someone's dominance and control to relax and just be themselves?
"There is no choice" sounds a little too "Ordnung muss sei" for me. The Nanny State has jumped the shark and started goosestepping. Maybe they should change the name from "No Child Left Behind" to "We are the Borg. Resistance is futile." You will be made into a servile groupthink sheep who fits in the prescribed box, or we'll pathologize and medicate you into submission, or hire a drill sergeant to whip you into unquestioning obedience...
No thanks! This is why we're educational DIY'ers.*** My kid will not be taught *not to think for himself.*
***(DIY'er = Do It Yourself-er.)
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