WHERE DID INTEGRITY GO IN AMERICA? You won't believe this story. Now we have teachers telling kids to cheat and showing them how. Just how much more can Americans take hearing? This about did me in. SO, we have middle school kids who are barely doing a first grade performance and the teachers are afraid so they're changing answers on tests, telling dumber kids to sit near smarter kids to cheat, etc etc. I"m not kidding, read THIS LINK
Of course, God forbid they say "Under God" in the Pledge or God forbid they allow a moment of prayer....But have teachers asked to perform to a certain level and they'll teach the kids to cheat. No problem.
And they're blaming NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND!
The article says that "Parents of children enrolled at the 44 schools say they are frustrated and angry." So parents didn't realize their child wasn't reading at too low a level? REALLY? What parent who spends ten minutes a day on a kid's homework wouldn't know that? Then there's this:
"For teachers and their bosses, the stakes were high: Schools that perform poorly and fail to meet certain benchmarks under the federal law can face sharp sanctions. They may be forced to offer extra tutoring, allow parents to transfer children to better schools, or fire teachers and administrators who don’t pass muster."
God forbid they fire teachers and administrators who don't pass muster, huh? Is THAT what the big problem with NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND was?......... the expectation of the excellence we had in our schools in American when we were growing up? WHAT HAPPENED?
How much more depressing news can we take? How the heck do we reeducate thousands of kids? And we wonder what's wrong with America? How many of them do you think will be Democrats voting entitlements? We're growing voters for that party with our tax dollars! WOW.
If this made you as mad as it did me, please look at my Sunday Faith Blog below........I think it's a good reminder and very refreshing!
z
15 comments:
From the linked article:
In Georgia, teachers complained to investigators that some students arrived at middle school reading at a first-grade level. But, they said, principals insisted those students had to pass their standardized tests. Teachers were either ordered to cheat or pressured by administrators until they felt they had no choice...
This kind of thing has been going on since at least 1996 -- and even in some private schools. Indeed, the last private school where I worked encouraged teachers to help children cheat -- and the administration boosted the grades we turned in every quarter.
Yes, I walked at the end of the school term (contract applied).
Is it any wonder that I now work with homeschoolers?
Perhaps what a lot of schools do to look good isn't as blatant as what is outlined in the linked article. On the other hand, teachers who have jobs aren't willing to risk losing their jobs these days.
This is why all education should be privatized.
Students should not graduate, they should qualify for the next level by getting a certification from an independent organization like CompTIA.
The bad school would quickly be out of business and the crappy teachers would be looking for another line of work, and crappy parents would be faced with their own horrid crapitude, and maybe be forced to actually teach their kids manner and discipline and get involved in their kids' educations.
What an outrage!
Why didn't the teachers go on strike for cheating being demanded of them? They'll go on strike for more money! They'll storm buidings at the behest of their unions!
I question if they really care. I'm not so sure most of them didn't go along with cheating because it benefitted them to "look" good.
It may be true there was some intimidation, but why did they take it? Did their union look the other way? Probably.
As far as I can see, the whole system was corrupted by inadequate teachers who may not have been strangers to cheating themselves, administrators who were also looking out for themselves, and no doubt a union, which cared only about money, and power to demand more.
Who loses? The children.
Children are not in school to provide jobs for teachers, they are in school to be taught, and hopefully, parents who want their children to be taught.
No Child Left Behind got a chorus of objection from teachers, and school districts alike. Why? Because the program held them accountable. Wow, what a concept!
If kids came to middle school with barely a first grade performance, it proves the entire system is frought with incompetence, and mediocre teaching skills.
The kids were probably passed on, with little or no achievement, or higher standards until the No Child Left Behind program came into existence.
By then, it was too late for many of them. No wonder the drop out rate is so high. How sad for the children, who are the only victims in this scandal.
I'd get rid of tenure, give raises for only merit, and demand higher standards. You can't dumb down, and expect students to excel.
What a tragedy.
Z,
I am ashamed of my profession. It is telling that it is a urban school district that pulled this crap.
We work hard at our school to pass the test and we have been rated "excellent" by the State of Ohio three of the last four years. There are those of us who work to be excellent. Atlanta is a disgrace,not just to their district but to those of us who teach our students to achieve by hard work, not shortcuts.
AOW..the idea that parents didn't realize their kids were doing only first-grade level is extremely telling, too.
This is more than just about teachers, which is even MORE scary for our country.
SF, I'm with you.
Pris, it seems that some parents and many teachers don't really care. I completely agree with you and had the same thought: Why didn't the teachers say "This is crazy, I'm not participating in this and you'd better not fire me or I'll expose this and sue the hell out of the school district"
Law & Order, we're surely not teaching our kids what we got in school, are we.
I think of my German husband and his amazing German education, too; that man had such a broad education and such a work ethic and curiosity for learning.
That's GONE from so many of our kids, though I know we all know great kids who are still doing well. I think they're truly in the minority.
And then to blame NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND? WOW
No wonder they pick their names off the back panels of cereal boxes provided in the school lunchrooms.
That's the extent of their reading comprehension I guess.
I actually supported No Child Left Behind. It was not perfect but we needed to do something with our depressingly abysmal education system.
One of the complaints was that it was an "unfunded mandate". I always loved this argument. We have been funding this mandate for over a 100 years, it's called paying teacher's salaries.
As to the cheating, these people are practicing the most insidious form of racism that we have seen in decades in this country. They are saying that poor inner city schoolkids, minorities in the cities that the cheating has been occurring, cannot perform without being helped with cheating. They are unable to learn, so we will just fudge their scores.
Finally, we are dooming these children to a lifetime of poverty. This goes directly to the series I recently wrote. Education is a significant portion of the cycle of poverty we see in the inner cities. These teachers, by not teaching these children, are perpetuating the cycle of unemployment, single parenthood, and incarceration. One of the most important causes of this lifestyle is lack of education.
Quite frankly, I would like to see these educators jailed for fraud.
Sue, we all think education is crucial, we just disagree with the ridiculous amount spent on non-education items. The kids don't benefit but the teachers sure do.
Chuck, if we jailed these people for fraud, that would be doing the conscientious thing and we haven't been allowed to do that since political correctness took hold and slowly eroded everything most of us hold near and dear.
We have definitely doomed these kids to lifetimes of poverty; that's why I suggested the Democrats have grown a whole new batch of future entitlement grabbers...they'll HAVE to.
I so respected Bush's expression about "the soft bigotry of low expectations".
My grandparents came here with no English...grandpa was 9, and he learned it on his own within 3 months....today, they've got English as a Second Language because the teachers get much larger salaries for those classes; and they must think Hispanic children and other foreigners are too stupid to learn the language on their own. That is SO bigoted.
Imp; and they name their kids ANFERNY. man
Z,
the idea that parents didn't realize their kids were doing only first-grade level is extremely telling, too
For decades, the teaching profession has been telling parents, "Butt out! We professional educators know best!"
Now we see the consequences.
Now, I do know excellent teachers and administrators in our public-education system. But they're fighting an uphill battle. And grade inflation has run rampant at all levels: K through graduate school.
I get pressured too -- even within a homeschool group. "If you give my child less than an A, he won't be able to get into such-and-such college." I've stood my ground, and my income has suffered for it. But the graduates that we do turn out! In the past two years, two students got a perfect score on the Writing Section of the SAT! They garnered wonderful scholarships to pay for college.
Cheating...
Isn't how the Left approaches elections, too?
Sue, adults never learn another language well, believe me. I am talking about children here.
AOW...I'm sure you're pressured, too. I guess that's not a new phenomenon but the very idea of teaching to cheat is, I think!?
Speedy..yup, they're growing a cheating generation AND one which will have to turn to government because they're too uneducated to make a living. THe perfect storm for leftwingers/socialists.
Most of the problems in our elementary and secondary education establishments in this country can be attributed to culture. In many situations parents are no-shows in their children's lives.
The teachers are powerless to teach unless they have willing, and disciplined students.
Unions are not helping, either. Members of my family are teachers and I understand it is important for teachers to have protection against arbitrary actions of administrations. That is a legitmate function of a union or professional association (which is what we have in Georgia).
Most teachers unions are trying to control the system for their monetary and political benefit.
Not good from almost any perspective.
Bob: You've made an important point. Teachers are not miracle workers. They need polite, socially adapted children.
Too many parents take no responsibility or interest in their children's education. That is not the fault of our teachers
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