Shame on that federal law mandating that our students need to be proficient. What's wrong with Basic? Basic means are students are "minimally prepared." According to the Post and Courier, SC State Superintendent Jim Rex "criticized the federal law..." Rex blames the federal law for making our schools look bad. Well thank God somebody thinks basic isn't good enough for our kids.
Our state report cards define Below Basic as: "did not meet standards, must have academic assistance plan, the local board policy determines progress to the next grade level." Yet, according to our own Burke Middle 2007 report card, 62.4% scored below basic in English, 62.9% in Math, 77.8" in Science, and 76% in Social Studies. NOW HOW DID THEY PASS TO THE NEXT GRADE LEVEL??
According to the state report cards "Proficient" is defined as "well prepared to work at the next grade level; met expectations."
The top score is labeled as "Advanced", meaning "very high score; well prepared to work at the next grade level; exceeded expectations."
Forget that. We're not asking our kids to be advanced. That crazy federal law is actually asking for schools to increase the percentage of kids "well prepared to work at the next grade level." Now from what I understand from the Post and Courier article in today's paper, elementary and middle schools must have 58.8 percent of its students score proficient in order to make AYP as opposed to 38.2 percent last year.
Wow, we're actually expecting more than half of our students to be "well prepared to work at the next grade level" as opposed to barely one-third. Sounds like those high expectations of the federal government are getting the best of the low expectations of the local school system.
I say, "Thank God for No Child Left Behind." Get off your behinds, CCSD, and get with the program. Our children deserve more.
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Amen. Let's not hear more whining that increasing the percentage of students who are prepared simply can't be done or will take 100 years. They need help NOW.
When they signed on to NCLB, school districts like CCSD understood the game. The rates of annual improvements would be difficult but not impossible if they laid the groundwork. They would have to do some real heavy work in the lower grades in order to meet the expectations when those children started to hit the higher grades. Instead self-absorbed and report card driven bureaucracies like CCSD chose to use its resources to play with the numbers...and make no substantial commitment to improving what they were doing in the classroom. Kids are seen as widgets. Teachers are given a Faustian choice. While administrators play musical chairs with everyone just so the historical base lines are erased every few years.
Case in point: When they closed Rivers Middle and folded its students into Burke High, CCSD # of failing schools when down by one. Burke Middle got a bye for at least 2 years since it was a "new" school. Burke High, also failing as per NCLB, got a bye as well, because the influx of former Rivers students and teachers was considered a reorganization. In the end, the same students (and teachers) at left with more of the same, or worse. The people running this nut house from 75 Calhoun are still idiots. The inmates (students and teachers) trapped in this system are only what management says they are, a self-fulfilling prophecy of low expectations. It's a tragedy when the same students and classroom teachers discover they have been pegged in advance and aren't permitted to reach for the potential they might have. Each of them could become something much more than the system allows, but only when there is competent leadership in the front office.
NCLB has become a farce because the people in charge have played its numbers only to measure themselves and leverage their careers. In the case of CCSD, NCLB has never been a tool to measure or encourage the progress of individual students. Just look at what CCSD tolerated, NO...what CCSD actively promoted, at Sanders-Clyde for years. As long as it looked good on the surface, no change or substantial investment from CCSD was needed. Just hold it together for a couple of years, long enough until the next administrative reshuffling. Blame the past and give the new people a pass. Pass the trash. NCLB has no teeth or it would hold administrators individually liable for this sham with civil and criminal penalties, even after they move on to other places.
One more thing.... I find it interesting that certain board members cry about how NCLB rules are stacked unrealistically or SC's AYP measurement standards are the most difficult to meet in the US. They quickly change their tune when a charter school is seen as slipping (the label applied by Gregg Meyers). Suddenly it's all a bad thing that 100% of NCLB's highest goals are not being met. Never mind that 75% of the schools and 80% of the students and teachers under his direct control are trapped in a failing system.
We won't have success in the average CCSD classroom until there is a commitment to the success of individual students and teachers. Just playing the numbers isn't a good long-term game plan with NCLB. The odds for winning in Atlantic City are better.
The intent of NCLB was to give individuals a better than average chance for academic success, but it was left to be carried out by people who hold no stock in that commitment.
"Thank God for No Child Left Behind"!! Are you kidding?!!
Don't you mean " No child gets ahead?!"
Are you so diluted as to believe that that program has been successful?! Even Biden during the debate admited this program was a failure.
There's no doubt that NCLB has been unsuccessful in closing the achievement gap between whites and minorities, but we have to ask ourselves why. I believe increasing the expectations of student performance is the key to improving our schools. We’ve been pouring money into our low-income schools since the Elementary and Secondary Act of 1965 under LBJ establishing Title I and Head Start (and I think we all know how Head Start is working for us). Clinton reauthorized the Act with the Improving America’s Schools Act of 1994 and then came No Child Left Behind. Yet where are our successful schools on the peninsula? If you ask me, we need more accountability not less. NCLB is giving us that. Currently we have no receiving schools in District 20 (unless you want to count Sanders-Clyde and Buist, but CCSD doesn't so I won't either). Yet currently you have to be zoned for Fraser, Mitchell, or Burke to qualify for transportation off the peninsula. Our parents are trapped and our children are trapped. While some states may not need NCLB (and they can opt out of complying if they choose), it is needed in SC. No child should have to attend a failing school. Until CCSD and the state of South Carolina admit mediocrity is not okay, we need federal law to tell them.
Well the school we can send our kids to instead of the failing school is now failing as well!
Get real
Kids should never leave kindegarten unless they ass a test. The same for 1st
I wnt to school with kids 2 years older
NCLB means kids on a 3 year old level at 6 get to be in first!!!
get real NCLB is a failure
Schools aren't safe either
a teacher was assaulted twice as well as serveral knives in ELEMENTARY school.
Drugs were found in my kids class last year.
CCSD needs new principals new leadership
and needs no NCLB
Bringing in new principals from out of state that sit on their duff all day hasn't helped either
how about we get one of these hardworking asst principals!
Sheesh It's a crime. They talk about how much downtown gets for funds. WHAT about BRIDGEVIEW
Some of them do nothing and make more then the principals. Half need to go!
IN one category their are 6 levels for a job that only needs one person. It is crazy there.
One person or coordinator at bridge view would pay for 6 teacher salaries
Until that crap is fixed nothing will happen
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