Posted on 09/24/2008 10:31:50 AM PDT by HaplessToad
1+1=3? In city schools, it's half right
Pittsburgh Public Schools officials say they want to give struggling children a chance, but the district is raising eyebrows with a policy that sets 50 percent as the minimum score a student can receive for assignments, tests and other work.
The district and teachers union last week issued a joint memo to ensure staff members' compliance with the policy, which was already on the books but enforced only at some schools. Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers President John Tarka said the policy is several years old.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
Not more training, lower the bar!
that plus making all tests True/False should pretty much assure their success
The teachers and principals who agree to cooperate with this policy are liars.
If they agree to this, then the teachers are lying to the student and his parents.
But....Plenty of government teachers will lie ( and do worse) for money.
1+1=3? In city schools, it’s half right Pittsburgh Public Schools officials say they want to give struggling children a chance,)
You give struggling children a chance by ACTUALLY TEACHING them something, not rewarding lack of knowledge.
Maybe if they cut half of the useless classes the left has instituted to indoctrinate our children and concentrated on reading writing and arithmetic, the kids would not be struggling so much.
I should not care because no one in our family, any part of it, has children going to the Government schools, they are all home schooled or Christian schooled. But unfortunately I have to care because the kids in the government schools my end up being my doctor or accountant etc..
i’z now dun wiff hize skoul,
now i be go-in to duh collej to gitt mor ejukashun
thin, the gubbmint will owes me a job
and you stoopid taxpayors willz be payin me!
till ya die!
Baltimore did this last year.
A policy designed to protect teachers, not students, from failure.
Just set the low score as “passing” and be done with it. Automatic graduation, even if you never show up.
When I was in school, an F was below 75%.
This is also the case in Norman, Oklahoma public schools according to my sister-in-law, a teacher in one of the local middle schools. She is seriously considering retirement this year for this and other reasons.
PING for PKM!!
You give struggling children a chance by ACTUALLY TEACHING them something, not rewarding lack of knowledge.
Maybe if they cut half of the useless classes the left has instituted to indoctrinate our children and concentrated on reading writing and arithmetic, the kids would not be struggling so much.
I should not care because no one in our family, any part of it, has children going to the Government schools, they are all home schooled or Christian schooled. But unfortunately I have to care because the kids in the government schools my end up being my doctor or accountant etc..
Godless liberal schools are so fixated on keeping God out and socializing children that the job of educating them is secondary in a BEST case scenario.
You also have to care because you pay for this failure. TWICE. Once through taxes, then again by mviing your child to proper schools focused on education as oipposed to secular socialization/kindoctrination centers.
The godless liberal lunatics should be the ones forced to go seek schools for their children if they're offended by God, not the other way around.
District Rating: 4 out 10.They need to kick every kid out, level all the schools, and start over.PSSA Results: Scale: % at or above proficient
And get this. Spending per pupil:
- Grade 3 Reading: 59% in 2007
(The state average for Reading was 73% in 2007.
- Grade 5 Reading: 42% (2007)
(The state average for Reading was 60% in 2007.)
- Grade 11 Reading: 53% (2007)
(The state average for Reading was 65% in 2007.)So it sure isn't money. You could throw dump trucks of it at the schools and it wouldn't help.
- Pittsburgh Schools: $14,947
- State Average: $9,675
I’m sitting here at the computer while students are working on an Internet research assignment. All of my students are Alaska Natives, an ethnic group with low standardized test scores.
Here’s why this school succeeds and the ones in Pittsburgh will fail.
Students here are always required to hand in excellent work. If an assignment comes to me with misspellings, poor grammar, or incomplete sentences, the work is handed back until the student corrects those errors. My job is to make sure students are always doing their best, which, at a minimum, means perfect spelling and grammar and a well-constructed paragraph or essay. New students often chafe at being told to do something over and over until they get it right, but long-time students understand that education requires consistent practice, and that learning requires that you do it right consistently.
By the way, that’s a lot of work for the teacher, which is fine. I get a good salary and I am supposed to be there for my students until they get it right. Anything else means that I’m not doing my job well. (It would be nice to do away with tenure so my colleagues who think otherwise could get fired, but that’s another posting.)
If my child came back and told me that 50 percent was passing at his school, I’d sue them for malpractice.
Teachers who disagree with this can defeat it by moving their grading scale. With this rule, anything below 79 percent is an F, since the school leaders have made 50 percent the de facto 0.
Hey, just as long as they don’t teach creation or ID, all will be well.
Pittsburgh Schools: $14,947
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Wow! $14,947? That is **more** than the most exclusive and expensive private school in my state.
The average private school tuition in my state runs between $3,500 and $4,000.
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