[GailA]

TENNESSEE SCHOOL REPORT CARD MEMPHIS RANKS LAST Click Here

Memphis gets the MOST money from the State and Still ranks LAST. Now this MORON wants to lower the standards even MORE.

[gulfcoast6]

Being next door in MS I read the Memphis paper a lot. This has been an on going proplem and I suggest that they just give the students a passing for just showing up, at least 20 days out the year.

[garbanzo]

If I didn't live here, I'd think you were making this up. I just heard from a friend of mine that Memphis teachers are among the most highly paid in the country. One would hope that the parents of Memphis would rise up and drive Watson out of town. But most will just move to the county and the others won't care.

[Phantom Lord]

Want low standards? Come to NC where 31% is PASSING on end of year exams for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade.

[The Duke]

Unfortunately, a more worthless piece of paper from the Memphis school system is not going to make a difference in a job interview.

[Khepera]

bump

[LurkedLongEnough]

"the time has come that we need to stop letting half-baked testing determine what we teach and how we teach. It's controlling the school system..."

What is supposed to control the school system, anyway, Mr. Superintendent? Politics? Arghhh!

[ffrancone]

This problem is not unique to inner city schools. Douglas County, Colorado--a very affluent, rapidly growing ranch-burb--recently released it's CSAP results. Those results are tied to graduation. In math, which is the only number I remeber, 81% of seniors who hoped to graduate did not pass the 10th grade math test.

Parents are now agitating to dumb down the standards there.

[mbb bill]

The kids are getting too smart?? The department of education allowed them to learn???

[box221]

I thought people (kids) went to school to learn, not to just pass tests.

[Logophile]

Sociologist James S. Coleman sparked a national debate with his 1966 study concluding that the differences in student achievement had more to do with home life and family wealth than what goes on in the schoolhouse.

Educrats point to such studies to excuse lackluster student performance in the schools. Then they beg for more of the taxpayers' money.

But if it is the home environment that truly matters, why bother giving more money to the schools?

[Ahban]

However, Memphis Supt. Johnnie B. Watson likes Fogelman's idea. "I'm all for accountability," Watson said. "But the time has come that we need to stop letting half-baked testing determine what we teach and how we teach. It's controlling the school system."

I agree with that statement at least. Accountability should be accountability to the locally elected school board, not the state department of education. In my state the "state" department of education gets 93% of its funds from the FEDERAL government.

Accountabiltiy yes, but to the local people, not the feds. Will some schools water down their standards below what you and/or the people in the Beltway like? Sure, but they're NOT your kids! Will local control of schools be a panacea that will solve all problems? No, but neither will all the grandiose testing schemes cooked up be the power-hungry educrats. Local control will at least ensure a community gets the schools it deserves.

[callisto]

Fogelman wants Memphis's standard to be the 40th percentile. Right now, a 40 is an F on the state report card.

Well, isn't it refreshing to see that the state school board members hold such high goals for the education of the students. [/sarcasm]
I now understand why everyone I know who lives in Memphis, actually live outside of Memphis.