Posted on 09/19/2024 6:31:31 AM PDT by SharpRightTurn
It’s easy to see why the State Education Department stalled on releasing the latest English and math test scores for grades 3-8, and why New Yorkers won’t get the final (whitewashed) results until November: They show fewer than half of all kids statewide scoring grade-level-proficient or better in English; just 52% in math.
And, for those that took the science exam, even worse: just 35%.
The kids took the multiple-choice tests back in April and May: SED has no excuse for the absurdly long time in releasing even preliminary results; officials’ protest that they’re trying to produce them “as quickly as possible to improve classroom instruction” is total smoke.
(It’s already too late!)
....
Once upon a time, the tests helped determine if students were ready to advance to the next grade; now “social promotion” has become the rule, with academic merit and achievement out the door.
All the tests do now is help expose the failure of public schools to educate our kids (especially those in poor and minority neighborhoods) — which is why SED, the Regents and the unions are pushing to ditch standardized testing entirely.
The educrats should be so ashamed they’d commit seppuku.
Instead, Education Commissioner Betty Rosa, Regents Chancellor Lester Young & Co. just push for ever-greater school spending.
Yet the state has jacked education aid by more than $6 billion since the 2021-22 school year, much of it concentrated on the least-wealthy districts.
New York leads the nation in education spending but ranks near the bottom when it comes to student achievement.
Families fed up with New York’s public schools are fleeing to private academies, charter schools, home-schooling — and other states.
....
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
The promise given for the creation of the Dept of Education by Jimmy Carter, was to bring lower performing states results up to that of higher performing states. Typical of big government it did the exact opposite.
Here is another reason: The effective control (thru credentialing) of the K-12 system by unaccountable and self-promoting professors of education.
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The number of homeschoolers is about 6%. Private schools about 9 and another in charter schools or magnets is another 6%. That’s just over 20% of students in ho chose something other than their local public schools. There are 20 states looking into some type of school choice.
As more kids leave public schools, the public schools will get worse because the more involved parents with the better behaved kids will take the options. Unless the government goes full totalitarian, which is entirely possible, the schools will collapse. Add the number of teachers quitting, colleges closing education programs due to low enrollment, and it will get worse, causing more parents to bail.
It may take decades. I am more interested in a quicker solution, but I suppose withering on the vine may be all we have.
The problem isn’t just your kids’ education, it’s all the dummies being “educated” in the public schools that will wind up being in a position to decide your kids’ fate down the road.
As I noted earlier (post #18), I’m a retired urban public school teacher.
And you are spot on about professors of education. They control much of public education through their worthless and contradictory “research”.
Some ed. professor publishes a trash report. It makes no sense in the real world. Nevertheless, it looks good on paper. Urban school districts latch onto it.
Then a few years later, some other ed. professor publishes his own trash report. This report contradicts the first one. It also makes no sense in the real world. School districts drop the first report, and adopt the second one.
“You must teach exactly this way! It’s the best method. Research proves it!”
Then a few years later: “Forget the last method. This new method is the best method. Research proves it!”
I saw this happen over and over again in my career. 🙁
(The trick is to teach the very best you can, while pretending to follow whatever fad is popular at the moment.)
Abolishing university departments of education and firing every professor there, that would be a HUGE step forward.
(Sorry for the rant. I probably had too much coffee this morning.)
Oh, and one quick addition to my post #27.
Abolish university departments of education. Credential teachers via their own discipline. So if you want to teach math, first get a degree in math. Then apprentice under a good math teacher.
The parent(s) don't even know if their child is IN school, much how they are doing.They don't know when report cards are handed out, much less how their child is doing.
They don't know about special projects or offer help with them. They don't monitor homework.
They don't teach their child how to conduct themselves in a classroom. That includes paying attention, sitting quietly, participating in the lesson, and not creating a disturbance. Also, in these times, not assaulting the teacher. Or throwing furniture out the window.
The students, particularly in certain ethnic groups, would not only cut class, but travel the halls in herds, vandalizing bulletin boards and destroying any equipment they ran across. There was absolutely no pride in having their work displayed.
A lot of the problems were not caused by simply throwing more money at them. They could be solved by enforcing discipline, both at home and in the classroom. Too many parents try to be their kid's "friend" instead of the parent. And far too many have to work 2 or more jobs, leaving little time or energy to see to their child's needs, including the emotional ones.
And, the libtards handing down the dumbed down curricula filled with politically approved garbage, utterly destroy whatever is left.
This is because wherever there is change there is the opportunity for money and recognition. It incentivizes the tyranny of the new and schools of education indoctrinate future bureaucrats and teachers into this mindset.
“It’s easy to see why the State Education Department stalled on releasing the latest English and math test scores for grades 3-8,”
“Full disclosure; I’m a retired non union public-school teacher. I would like to point out that the students tested lost two years of in-person school because of the Wuhan closures. Test scores and general knowledge are much lower in that group because of it. This is not just in big city unionized schools but pretty much across the board.æ
A fair comment.
I think I have seen reports that a lot of students in schools (mostly government schools) that were shut down did not fare well. We have family members whose children go to a private school which remained open all through the Wuhan panic. There were reportedly no problems with children falling behind there.
10 school districts in California recently got rid of standard testing. They say it is bring back joy in learning or something like that. The real reason is to make it impossible to rate the schools and see if the kids can read and write etc.
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