Calif. teachers urged to pass students (to help NCLB stats)

[rainbow4321]

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/nation/11899849.htm

SANTA ANA, Calif. - A high school principal asked teachers to reconsider the grades of failing seniors to help the school meet federal requirements under the No Child Left Behind law.

Saddleback High School Principal Esther Jones sent teachers a memo on Thursday asking them to reconsider the grades of 98 students, saying "please review your records for these students and determine if they would merit a grade of 'D' instead of a failure."

Jones added that the school needed 95 percent of its seniors to graduate to meet federal requirements. In fact, the school needs a graduation rate of 82.8 percent and will graduate nearly 84 percent of its 500 seniors on Wednesday, school officials said.

Santa Ana Unified School District Superintendent Al Mijares has told teachers to ignore the memo. "Principals and teachers are expected to hold the line with regards to grades that are necessary to the high school diploma, and under no circumstances will teachers be pressured to change a grade," he said.

[dr.zoidberg]

1. This...this is not good.

I can't believe they have to do this. The standards are ridiculous. I don't mind there being federal standards, but do they have to be that high? I'm amazed at those standards, especially when you consider how stupid kids are today.

[Roland99]

2. NCLB is the most ridiculous set of unrealistic standards EVER.

[longship]

3. Former CA HS math teacher

What's very much worse is the meat grinder that they are putting the students and teachers through in the name of NCLB.

Testing has become everything. First, there's the HS exit exam, mandated by the state who claim it is necessary for NCLB. They include algebra on the exam. It's given first during sophomore year. So they put every 9th grader into the academic mathematics program regardless of the student's qualifications to take such a rigorous program of instruction.

In my school, the result was a failure rate of the district academic exams in mathematics of 75%. This past year the failure rate was over 90%! Upon repeating the class, the failure rate was even higher.

Not all students can hack academic mathematics. But that doesn't stop the state board of education from upping the standards to require geometry also.

The result is a meat grinder with students taking a course of instruction for which they are completely and utterly unprepared. The faculty must then deal with pissed-off students whose only goal is to throw the biggest monkey wrench they can find into the system. It's a nightmare teaching those classes. The end result is that all good students are left by the wayside and the system collapses--nobody is learning. The collapse of grades at my school is a perfect example of what can happen.

It's sad. NCLB is a fucking nightmare.

[Hapameli]

4. It's SUPPOSED to fail because they want to PRIVITIZE the public schools

The standards are eventually supposed to go to 100% or else the school "fails".

The real joke is trying to get your own kid transferred OUT of a failing school, the "law" states the parent can do so if the school fails two years in a row. Well, my kid's school failed and there was no way in hell that they were going to transfer him to any of the 5 schools I requested. NCLB punishments will not be enforced until the school fails in the 4th year and gets taken over by corporate "management".