re: John White GONE

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Is his harem at DOE leaving too?

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To what degree are we using figurative or literal language here?

Well said auyushu. The desire to have the students labeled as SPED "show growth" is going to be problematic for most districts. What if a student reached their academic potential in 8th grade?

As for John White, it will be interesting to see where he lands. I wonder if the testing corporations will hire him as a "consultant" at a VERY nice rate? As a life-long Republican and fiscal conservative, I can honestly say I am happy that John White is gone.

His vision for the education system in Louisiana seemed tantamount to having students only studying a driver ed manual, but never actually practicing behind the wheel. Teaching to the test, while raising test scores (congratulations Mr. White), doesn't really accomplish much imho.

(no message)

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Unfortunately thanks to No Child Left Behind and linking school funding to student scores on state exams and overall passing rates the exact opposite situation has been created. Grade inflation and passing students when they don't deserve it is rampant across the country.

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If you want to blame something, NCLB deserves a lot more blame than a set of standards.

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Currently my high school is on watch because our Special Ed and Native American population (about 30 kids in a school of 2000) weren't showing enough enough growth year to year in test scores and passing rates. If enough growth in passing rates and test scores isn't shown in these groups in two years, the admin get canned and the government takes over.

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I think part of the problem is that the definition of special ed has expanded so much over the years. I understand the desire to mainline these kids, but not all of them are capable of that.

LSUFanHouston you are 100% correct! People who reference the standards as being bad I can assure you have not read the standards.

Read the Standards

The standards basically state, for example, that by 1st grade, a student should be able to ask and answer a question about a key detail in a text. They do not dictate how that must be taught, nor do they specify a specific curriculum the school or district must use to teach this standard. That is all selected either by the state, district/parish, or school. So if you have a problem with how the math standards are being taught, i.e. Eureka Math, then you need to approach your school administration, parish administration or state administration.

I can tell you right now that many teachers (I am speaking specifically for Jefferson Parish because that is what I am familiar with) are nothing more than presenters of material. This is lower school specifically (K-5). They present the curriculum and then test and move on. There is no true instruction or teaching. It pains me to say it but many teachers are lazy. If you ask for them to help remediate your child because they did poorly on a test, their initial response is "I'm hoping to drop the lowest test grade, so they should be fine." No worries that they obviously did not retain/truly understand anything that was taught to them, we will just move on.

As a parent it is very frustrating. I'd love to say that parochial is better, but they really aren't. They prefer to allow them to take the test again and again until they get a grade good enough to send home. Teaching as a whole has really taken a turn for the worse, specifically in the New Orleans area. Believe me, I understand a lot comes from home, but our school has a very high parental involvement rate, so that excuse truly doesn't apply and the lack of actual instruction is obvious and upsetting.