Posted on 12/12/2006 7:19:09 AM PST by TitanicMan2003
Superintendent of Grand Rapids Public Schools Bernard Taylor is looking for ways to improve after an instructional audit showed high rates of failure in high schools.
The audit shows more than 50 percent of students at all four high shools did not meet district standards on writing assessments. Also, more than 65 percent of freshmen are failing classes.
(snip)
Other numbers in the audit indicate the number of freshmen with a grade point average below 2.0 increased and more than 40 percent of high school students missed more than 10 days of school in core classes.
Taylor said he won't blame anyone, adding the purpose of making these findings public is to be transparent and solicit community help.
"I'm going to put it out there," Taylor said. "People will respond or they won't. My purpose was not to point fingers or assign blame, (but to) look at what we need to do and figure out how we're going to get there."
Parents want to know how the situations will be fixed.
(Excerpt) Read more at woodtv.com ...
"some of these schools are SO bad that you can't blame the children for not wanting to attend"
There aren't any schools in Grand Rapids that fit that description, unless one counts the thugs that attend there.
Ryan, I thought about my post to you last night and decided it was kinda mean. So sorry!
From my understanding, the GR public schools have a healthy budget. So throwing money at it is not the solution.
I wonder if they compared the Christian schools in GR data vs. the GR public schools. My money is on there being a big difference!
I went to a Christian school in Kalamazoo. Struggled to get B's and C's, but when I went to University I had a MUCH easier time than my friends who were getting A's at Public schools!
In order to accomodate additional class offerings, a new rolling 8 period schedule was introduced this year. Each day has a letter designation, ie: "A-day, B-day...", and each designated day begins with a different period and the 8th period drops off. So on A-day, we begin with 1st period, end with 7th, and the class scheduled in 8th period does not meet that day. On B-day, we begin with 2nd period, end with 8th, and the class scheduled in 1st period does not meet, and so on.
To do this, time between classes was reduced to 4 minutes. This is a large school, with close to 2,500 students housed in 4 separate houses on four floors. Classes are NOT confined to the "home" house.
Failure to arrive at class on time results in a "unexcused late". 2 "lates" equals an unexcused absence. 3 unexcused absences results in a full grade reduction.
I had the unpleasant opportunity to be in the hallway when the inter-period bell rang. Kids flew out the doors, all but sprinting to their classes. Kids were knocked into walls and lockers...I hate to think of the stairwells. They had no time to get to their lockers, or hit the bathrooms. When the bell sounded again, fully a third of the student body was still in the hallway, and therefore, penalized.
I've written to the school, and to the superintendent, and the rest of the school board about this ludicrous attempt to pack more into the existing schoolday. An extra minute between classes (as was the case last year) would do a lot to normalize things. I guess the teachers just don't want to stay those extra 8 minutes though, because so far, they won't budge.
GRPS is a total joke.
When my family moved to GR from the burbs in the late 80s, I saw quickly how low the standards were compared to where I came from.
Im glad I was finished with the place before it really went into the toilet.
wow, and we are lead to believe that only white people are racist and hateful. (sarc) as if I didn't know.
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