Paperwork erases Glades score. Read about it HEREDick D, one of our Lake Worth High School alumnus' sent this link to me this morning. This is one way to skin a cat. Because the Glades school is an alternative school, it somehow got to change its grade from an F to an A. The school got to "work" the system.
When I was a student I always thought it was the teachers. If they were good, we would learn something; if not, we would be mediocre. I was in a school system in New Jersey that was ranked top in the nation at that time. Kids got motivated by grades, not football. We didn't have cell phones and the like to distract our attention from the goal. We had to dress very conservatively as well. My ninth grade math teacher told me not to bother taking algebra--I would never grasp it. I had to take it for college. The next year, I walked back to the Junior High School (High School was 10th, 11th and 12th grades) and showed him my report card--an A. I hope that he learned something that day.
Now, with the illegal immigration situation that is predominate in some of our cities that are ranked poorly, kids can't even read or write English and have a problem even in their own language. Children come from homes where parents are not focused on their education as previous generations have been. I believe now that it is the students' fault and the parents' fault. The rest of the problem stems from too much text messaging--too much lack of attention to education--too many students coming from families that have been in entitlement programs...the wrong message growing up.
Some of you in education may feel differently. Let's hear from you.
The whole A or F school rating seems so irrational to me anyway. I know it is all about Federal dollars, but some richer districts don't need it and don't bother, and they send thier children to Ivy league schools, so they must be doing well educating our youth. It is certainly difficult to educate students from other countries because of language barriers,but often those students are driven with a passion for success to achieve what their parents fought so hard to achieve, they are respectful, and they expect to do homework....the American dream! However, it is as difficult to educate many students from lower socio-economic familes, low educated families in this country because of the sense of entitlement American kids feel... to have teachers go easy on them, parents expectations of the school to parent their kids, students do not expect to do homework, do not expect to be respectful in the classroom,are minimally socialized, and have no real drive to succeed. Parents are way too busy in most households to spend time teaching their children the basics,Just trying to make it, and the lower socio-economic children suffer the worst because they have no exposure to education prior to entering kindergarten. Wrap that all up with underpaid, overworked teachers who have administrators breathing down their backs to bring up test scores and no financial support to buy supplies, supplements and you have American Urban Schools.
ReplyDeleteAs you have read, the State is going to try and close LWHS if the D grade is not improved on. Of course we all know what the circumstances are with all the ESOL students LW has . It is very hard to teach these students to speak the language and then to read it in a short time. Dr. Ian Saltzman is the Principle and has done a marvelous job under these circumstances. He is on his honeymoon on a Cruise. Dave has informed me he has been conversing with him and he is very down over this. Just thought it might be nice to email him and tell him we are behind him and know he has worked very hard. It might help him to know that we do appreciate him and all he has done. I wrote a letter to the Post and delivered it in support of our
ReplyDeletePrincipal, teachers, and students. I know of one more person who has done the same, It would be helpful if anyone of you could also write a letter in support Thanks and please say a prayer for Ian, Teachers, students and Old LWHS
Thanks
Dor
Lynn,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on this one. My partner is a teacher in the Public School system. He volunteers his time two nights a week at his school to teach english for free to parents of his students. It is not fair to the students who don't have a language barrier. I come from a single parent household. My mother was never on public assistance, she worked in construction and put herself through school at night. Education was a priority in our home. Mom would make my sister and I stand in front of a blackboard that was on the living room wall every day after school and for one hour each we had to teach her what we learned that day. Every Monday she would make us pick out 10 words from the dictionary and by Sunday we had to know how to spell those words, know the definition and use the words in a sentence...in English and Spanish!!! The parents are responsible for the academic success of their children. We have become a society of pointing fingers and blaming instead of contributing to solutions!