KidsHappen Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 To avoid bias on my part here is the email in full that I receive from the school district today. I have removed the county's and certain individual names. _____________ Schools has plenty to be proud of according to the 2011 State Report Card. The yearly report provides a profile of each school district throughout the state, using various standardized assessments and collected statistics to award grades. The 2011 Report Card is based on performance and statistics from the 2010-11 school year. Below are some of the district highlights from the 2011 Report Card: *Straight A's in Achievement *Improvement in Growth Areas: *From a D to a B in reading *From a D to a C in math *Maintained a B in social studies *Maintained a D in science *All A's in writing for 5th, 8th and 11th grades *Composite ACT score grew by one tenth of a point to 22.8 WCS Superintendent ___________ says he is pleased with the improvement, however the district will continue to focus on areas like reading and math while also putting more emphasis on social studies and science. "I think this is an opportunity to thank the teachers and the principals in the buildings for working so hard and having such a focus on student achievement in ___________," said Superintendent ___________. "I want to thank our elected officials for giving us the resources and to our students for stepping up to the plate and proving once again that ____________ rocks." Firsst of all, if my child came home with this report card I would not be pleased. I certainly would not be bragging. Secondly, If any individual student came home from the school with this report card the state would legally mandate that said student be legally required to attend detention. The law on this is as states: SENATE BILL 414 By Barnes AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 49, Chapter 6, relative to remedial instruction for students. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE: SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 49, Chapter 6, Part 30, is amended by adding the following as a new, appropriately designated section: This part shall apply to a student's attendance at any remedial instruction that is required by the student's school, including but not limited to programs conducted during the summer and after the conclusion of the regular school day. The decision to require a student's attendance at such instruction shall be made by the principal of the student's school in coordination with any teachers who provide instruction to the student and any other appropriate school faculty. The student's attendance shall be required until the principal determines that the student is no longer in need of remedial instruction. SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it. The principal can legally requite student (subject to state attendance laws) to attend detention without limit on his/her sole discretion for as long as he/she sees fit. As I have mentioned several times, we live in the richest county in TN and one of the richest in the country. We have bright students, good teachers and actively engaged parents. Teachers (although I am not sure this is of their own accord) make themselves available to struggling students. Parents can and do pay for additional tutoring and students are carryng heavy homework loads. I think it is safe to say that we do not have a large percentage of underacheiving students in our district. I strongly feel that this is a case of a failing school district. Last year the school made it a stated policy to send home homework on subject material that had not been taught. We are actively involved in politics in our state and obviously will be directing more attention to this particular issue so mostly this is just a vent about a subject that I am outraged about now. Please forgive me if I am not expressing myself adequately right now as this is literally off the cuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snickerdoodle Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 The yearly report provides a profile of each school district throughout the state, using various standardized assessments and collected statistics to award grades. People are always talking about how well or not the kids are doing on the tests. Test scores are up! Test scores are down! I just want to know what is on these tests. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 It's all how you spin it. WCS Superintendent is probably not so well pleased behind closed doors. I'd say someone in admin knows how to write creatively. :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meriwether Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 A's in Achievement? What is achievement? Composite ACT score grew by 1/10 of a point. Math isn't my strong point, but isn't that statistically the same? I mean any given class could be within a range and it wouldn't mean the school was doing better/worse. It is good that they are doing better, but it looks so much like something I would have seen in my teaching days that it makes me a little nostalgic. There is no other institution quite like a public school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommyof4ks Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 This has been the topic of discussion on another board, and my mouth is still hanging open. I don't know what they think will be accomplished by this tactic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluegoat Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 Kids can get mandatory detention for that kind of report card? I guess they want to be one of those places where all the students are above average. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parker Martin Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 Seeing this thread got me to look up what would be our assigned government elementary school on greatschools.org. :eek: Holy. Cow. So glad we're homeschooling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tex-mex Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 (edited) A's in Achievement? What is achievement? Composite ACT score grew by 1/10 of a point. Math isn't my strong point, but isn't that statistically the same? I mean any given class could be within a range and it wouldn't mean the school was doing better/worse. It is good that they are doing better, but it looks so much like something I would have seen in my teaching days that it makes me a little nostalgic. There is no other institution quite like a public school. :iagree: Reminds me of the "spin" in the local paper when our standardized test scores came out when I was a public schoolteacher. Ah, memories... :lol: I read the law portion the OP posted and interpreted that as the reason students could be not in "detention" but in summer school, mandatory tutorial sessions (i.e. TAKS), or detained (held back) a grade -- due to poor grades. Retention. I could be wrong... my eyesight at this time in the evening gets bad. ;) Edited December 3, 2011 by tex-mex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy22alyns Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 Wow, especially given the county you live in! If anyone wonders why we're homeschooling... here's Exhibit A. :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Twain Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 The school district in which I live is reputed to have "good schools." We also live in an affluent area where most of the parents are hightly educated. However, the education going on (or not going on as it may be) is atrocious in my opinion. From my experience, it seems like a lot of the school day is taken up with teaching p.c. subject matter. In public school, my kids had relatively extensive teaching in Kwanzaa, Islam, a pagan Hindu holiday, Santa Claus, dreidels, Mardi Gras, why bullying is bad, and the school system's definition of what a family is. The little bit of history taught consisted of things such as Thanksgiving is about when the Pilgrims said thank you to the Indians. I never saw a single geography worksheet come home. There are about thirty students in each class with one teacher. There is nothing done for the students who are ahead. Those students just waste time not learning much until the others catch up to them after a few years. If I were trying to improve the school system, I would throw out all of the p.c. agenda completely. I would concentrate on reading, writing, and math, as well as try to institute a quality, systematic study of basic history, geography, and science. I would separate the kids starting in kindergarten into different groups or classes based on skills and ability. I think this could actually be done in the publics schools if half of the goal of public school was not just to indoctrinate the students into the Department of Education's worldview. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joyofsixreboot Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 This reads like the annual report the local paper runs on our school system. We are not affluent or urban. I think I feel better about our school system now. We're not any worse (faint praise). As for what is being taught. The states mandate about every thing teachers can do. Some committee finds the curriculum teachers must use. Let's not even get into what teacher education looks like (dd is an elementary ed major). Parents influence grade inflation and often complain if school work is " too hard". I don't know how to fix it without blowing it all up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KidsHappen Posted December 3, 2011 Author Share Posted December 3, 2011 (edited) Detention and remediation are not the same thing. I realize that it is just at my children's school they have stated that any child that is failing any subject shall be subject to after school detention for the purpose of remediation. Now if I was a small percentage of students then I might agree that, hey, those students need the help although personally I would still have a problem with the state mandating how a parent should handle this. But when the overall school system if failing so miserably, it is obvious to me it is not the students but the system and student detention and remediation is not going to help. Homework on subjects not taught is usually test prep material here. Those students who are included will do that work with their rTi or sped teachers. The rest have it as take home. The fed goal is to narrow the acheivement gap - not give each child a year+ growth. Nope, in our school this was actually material that was supposed to be covered and was part of the TCAP test for the year. The teachers simply did not have time to cover it in school. They are now also tying individual students grades to the overall TCAP grades. To me it seems that they are trying to make the students soley responsible for how the district (state) are meeting the benchmarks. Of course, I am not behind closed doors at the school so I don't know what is going on there but this is just what is coming home to the parents. Edited December 4, 2011 by KidsHappen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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