Tuesday, December 14, 2010

What's happening to our public schools?

I suppose this isn't really a news item, but I felt like ranting and had nowhere else to do it, so here goes. This morning I went to Donorschoose.org in order to make a donation. I came across the following request: http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=430063. If you read the request in detail, the teacher says that students in her 5th grade class are reading 2-3 levels below the 5th grade level. The thing I don't understand, is WHY are students who are reading at a 2nd and 3rd grade level allowed to be in 5th grade? I suspect this is a result of the lovely "No Child Left Behind Act" that has proven time and time again to be ruining our public schools, and yet is not repealed. (Of course it was brought to us by George W. Bush, who posed the question: "Is our children learning?") The main flaw is that schools are pressured into allowing students to pass to the next grade, regardless of whether or not they actually have skills to do so, because if the schools do not, they risk losing funding. The system encourages corruption, as seen in these recent news stories: here, here, here, and here. I can only hope that the system is changed, before it's too late.

Addendum: Now I'm really scared. This proposal asks for flash cards for multiplication tables for HIGH SCHOOL students: http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=457663. I am at a loss for words. We, as a society, are failing our kids.

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