I’m wondering what the point of this kind of charade is in a place like New York. To me, a high school diploma in NYC doesn’t mean anything unless it is a state Regents diploma — which means the person with the diploma has passed a series of state exams to demonstrate competency in a bunch of subjects regardless of what grades are shown on a report card.
Here in NC we have NCFE’s (North Carolina Final Exams) for most courses. These are state-produced exams that supposedly test students on certain competencies. This year my Juniors took the exam and some individuals (who were horribly failing my class, by the way) achieved proficiency scores in the 40% range (answering 20 or so out of 50 items correctly). These students received scores in the 80’s for their final exam grades. I’m sure that a similar scoring practice is used in grading the Regents Exams by now.
Competency, proficiency has nothing to do with education these days. The system does not care whether students learn or not (and, thus, proves that it does not care about children). The system only cares that you BELIEVE it cares, that you BELIEVE it educates. My feeling is that more and more people do not believe and that this system is getting ready to implode.
The point is that administrators get a bonus of thousands of dollars for having good stats, which include high passing grade stats and low "troublesome student" stats (wouldn't want parents of prospective students to shy away from Ghetto Thug High, would we?). They could care less about the future of the "graduates" they turn out who are functional illiterates and can't do even the simplest math. They can't reason their way out of a wet paper bag, answers A, B, C, or D not hovering above real-life problems. They just want to move 'em on out like cattle. It is a total farce that they claim to be interested in the kids' welfare or education. How could they be, when they are pointedly harassing the veteran teachers out of the system by giving them unsatisfactory ratings based on fabricated observations and bringing them up on absolutely bogus charges based on students trying to get some "get-back" for having been told to put their cell phones away or pay attention or any other basic piece of classroom discipline? The administrators also change grades behind the teachers' backs if the teacher doesn't play along with this farce. It is a morass of total corruption ironically labeled "Education" and was ever a source of absolute frustration to those educators like myself who were sincere about wanting kids to learn.