re: WAFB investigates students being given grades in an EBR School

I have repeatedly written that the school ratings have shown some slight improvement since we got out from under the federal oversight of our schools. I've also posted that we've got a long way to go before we can be satisfied or claim to have a good system.

I've said if the SG ISD happens there is a good chance the feds will step back in and take over the schools again and that is the one thing I want to avoid happening.

But you just go ahead and believe whatever you want to believe. That seems to be a pattern with St George fanboys.

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If you really dig deep there are four sides here

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Four sides and three causes...

1. Shitty people raising kids in a shitty way.
--Many of these are in shitty communities where the pressure to join in the fecal fiasco is a constant. You can have the best teachers in the world at a school but if the kids are getting bombarded with constant negative reinforcements from their community and (often) their family, those teachers face a Sisyphean task.

2. Shitty administrators.
--This one focuses on the shittiness of administrators that won't administer but rather play favorites and the politics of avoidance so they can keep getting by with doing as little as possible. This is what happens when you put weak-willed people in positions of authority.

3. Nationwide standardized testing being the be-all/end-all.
--As these tests become more and more important, schools feel more and more pressure to teach just to that test. Shitty administrators will come up with ways to cheat the test (thus defeating the purpose of the test in the first place).

Solutions:
1. The federal government needs to put less emphasis on national standardized testing. Not every school is standard, nor are all children. If the federal government is going to give money to schools, then give it on a per-student basis, the end. Accountability MUST come from only the state and local levels as this one-size-fits-all business from the federal government has done nothing but LOWER scores over the past 40 years.

2. Any school district with a school that receives a grade C or lower for 3 years in a row will be subject to the following:
---A complete, public review of all administrative staff (including school board members and the superintendent) with the full transcripts being made available for download on each school's website. During this period there shall be no closed meetings of any sort of the school board.

3. The return of corporal punishment and shaming.
---As the ability for teachers to discipline in the classroom has diminished, the unruliness in the classroom has increased. A teacher CANNOT teach in an environment where kids feel free to mock, or even strike, a teacher with impunity.
----For those parents against paddlings, they can either pay to send their kids to a private school or homeschool them.

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3. Nationwide standardized testing being the be-all/end-all.
--As these tests become more and more important, schools feel more and more pressure to teach just to that test. Shitty administrators will come up with ways to cheat the test (thus defeating the purpose of the test in the first place).

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Discipline problems aside, standardized testing in schools is one of the biggest problems with our education system today.

In addition to what you mentioned, it is also creating a generation of young adults and college students who have no ability to think critically and take on tasks with minimal or no supervision. I see it every day, and it's terrible.

So in the end, PC is what is going to kill public education?

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Articles like the original post just show that we need common core and testing. Then you won't have students just given a "C" for free and shuffled upward and then graduating without knowing how to read or add.

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How would that work?

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I think he's more in the "it's not perfect but we're gonna try really hard to make it better in the future" camp.

Whether that movement will pan out remains to be seen, but I seriously doubt it ever comes to fruition. Keep the status quo, don't rock the boat, business as usual.

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Can we just be honest? That position is dumb. There is a reason that the school system is the way it is. Demographics. But no one wants to say that and rock the boat. Plain and simple...until you actually come out and be honest, and force the scum within the school system to pass or fail, it will never be better. And as long as the same teachers keep teaching, and the same trash keeps attending, it will never get better.

It is a cultural problem.

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Just curious, but how do you propose schools should be "graded"? Because currently, most of a school's grade is based on student performance on standardized tests, which as you said, not every school is standard, nor are all the children. It has been widely argued that in general, schools with a higher poverty level have lower scores on standardized tests, which is why you might see lower school (and district) scores in BR or Baker as opposed to Zachary or Central. (Although this is not the case in schools with selective admissions or more parental involvement, such as Forest Heights Elementary, which has a high percentage of free/reduced lunch students but still scores an "A".)

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I was mainly blowing off steam and hadn't really thought more deeply on it. If I had to be pinned down on it I would think that having some sort of statewide graduation\promotion rate would have to be a large part of it. How would graduations and promotions to higher grades be monitored would be the question. Statewide exams? Blind records reviews by other schools? Some of both? Neither? Something else? I'm open to ideas.

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I have repeatedly written that the school ratings have shown some slight improvement since we got out from under the federal oversight of our schools.

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Just out of curiosity, are you including the schools now in the RSD?

How do you put more disipline in public schools without the parents filing some ridiculous law suit? Louisiana needs to put their foot down and give the teachers more power inside the classroom. If a student hits a teacher they should be expelled and send to a military school. If a student fails, they fail. Quit handing out grades to pushing them through. Also, we should reward the better teachers with raises (no maximum salary) and be able to fire the bad teachers. It is getting absurd how bad some of these public schools are getting.