The article in yesterday's paper regarding SC State's dilemma said it all, yet few of my friends have made any mention of it. Evidently, a consultant has the key to our higher ed problems. It's a sad day when we need to hire a consultant to tell us college bound kids should be prepared for college. So the word is... SC State needs to stop enrolling students who "lack basic skills" to succeed in order to boost their graduation rate. HUH????
What are we doing accepting kids to college who lack basic skills? Better yet, what are we doing giving these kids high school diplomas? I wonder how many of these kids come from our very own Charleston County?
I'm sick of our state dumbing down our kids. When are we going to say "enough is enough?"
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7 comments:
Best post this site has ever had. Yes, when will it be time that we stop giving out diplomas to kids without reading and math skills of a 12th grader? That said, when will we stop sending 2nd graders that can't read to 3rd grade, and so on.... Surprisingly, this isn't a black issue or a white issue. It's everyone's issue. If we have uneducated kids, we will have an uneducated future work force that will have trouble finding work. That leads to a weaker local economy and higher crime. And that my friends effects all of us.
It would be interesting to know how much each of South Carolina's state universities spends on a per-capita basis remediating its students. That each university admits students who are unprepared, I have no doubt.
I completely agree that this is "everyone's issue." We as taxpayers should be outraged. We're paying for public education, yet clearly not educating the public. It does affect us all.
And as Babbie noted above, it would be interesting to know what we pay for remedial learning at the higher ed level. I have friends at Trident Tech wondering why we're sending them these students. I just wish people would speak out about it instead of accepting it.
I seem to recall that about 20 years ago there was a sad story about a graduate of James Island High School (long before it became a charter school and when CCSD was still in charge). She was the first in her family to finish high school and had signed a contract with an army recruiter to enlist in the service that was subject to her completion of high school and passing the military enlistment aptitude test. (This was still when the all volunteer military had minimum standards.) The J.I. grad was so happy. She had a career and was looking forward to advancing further than her family ever had. Her parents were equally happy for their daughter who had after much struggling through school had finally graduated with a CCSD granted state HS diploma.
Then the bad news came from the US Army. She not only had failed the aptitude test, but it indicated that she was virtually illiterate. She couldn't read, even at the basic level required for a US Army enlistee. CCSD had given her a high school diploma without preparing her to minimum standards for entry level employment of any kind other than a picture coded cash register at a fast food restaurant. Needless to say she was crushed. Her family was crushed. CCSD had lied to her for 12 years and then capped it off by just giving her a diploma. It didn't have to be that way because they could have stepped in 11 years earlier to fix whatever was broken in her education plan...but they didn't. By the time she was 18 or 19 it was way too late to prevent the unnecessary hurt she was given. Did CCSD say they were "sorry"? No. Did she sue? I don't know, but she should have. That was "child abuse" by the system if there ever was. How were her parents to know? They didn't have a formal education either and they trusted "their betters" to "do them right".
And what have we learned since then? Not much. Except that James Island High School has taken responsibility for its own future success...and mistakes...even if CCSD still hasn't.
Wow. I'm speechless. Thank you for sharing that. That story needs to be spoke again...and again...Can you give me anymore specifics?
CCSD had lied to her? Great story, but the failure of education doesn't simply fall on the schools. Yes, it is the school's responsibility to educate, but it is the student's responsibility to learn and the responsibility of the family to assist. While all 3 are not equals, a high school junior should be able to know if they can read at an elementary school level. That story sounds like a case of the school failing, but also the student and family failing to speak up.
Sounds like the group best in a position to know what was going on was the school and the school district. Even some 20 years later CCSD is still sitting in a position to say what is and what isn't with our schools and the education of 41,000 students...not one individual student or even the parents of that student. CCSD is almost totally unresponsive to individual needs unless it it threatened with a law suit or bad press. Just look at the recent history of the discipline school as an example. These kids are all widgets to these educrats. They are to be poked, prodded, tested and assessed according to MAPS, PACT, B-SAP and NCLB until they are processed through the system...after that CCSD isn't concerned anymore.
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