Scary statistics…
I’ve decided to try to blog once a week about current events of importance to parents. I read a lot daily along those lines and probab;y don’t pass along as much as I should!
So I was talking to my mom about this subject and decided to blog about it b/c it’s absolutely frightening.
I read this scary, but not surprising article in the Times last week which states that:
“Academic standards vary so drastically from state to state that a fourth grader judged proficient in reading in Mississippi or Tennessee would fall far short of that mark in Massachusetts and South Carolina, the United States Department of Education said yesterday in a report that, for the first time, measured the extent of the differences.”
Yikes! Texas ranks in the lowest third in almost all of the tests conducted. I’m not surprised as I don’t consider the work ZB does outstanding or particularly challenging (remember I talked about how academically ordinary he was?) yet I feel powerless to change it beyond the work that I do at home with him. I’m amazed that our school is considered one of the better ones in the district. Not because the teachers aren’t good or the families aren’t involved, quite the opposite. It just seems to me that the bar for “good” has been set quite low. I do offer him the best I have the means to. Don’t most good parents? And like a wise mama said, public school is not the devil. I would love to pick up and move somewhere with excellent public schools but that’s just not feasible right now (or sadly, maybe even ever). I’m doing the best that I can. Writing that reminds me of threads I would read on MDC by absolutist mamas telling the poster seeking advice that she positively must do a, b, and c or bad things would happen. If life was as simple as being able to change a not so good situation into a fantastic one with the flick of a wrist, there would be a lot less trouble in the world, no?
9 kids in ZB’s class did not pass to 2nd grade this year. That’s almost half of the class! Half! His teacher said she had never had that many students fail before and frankly, it’s just appalling! She shares an aide (don’t look so shocked or so smug) with another teacher and so I can imagine it would be difficult to manage a class that size on one’s own on a regular basis. Anyway, I heard all this from ZB’s best friend’s mom. She is very active in the school and a very involved parent. Anyway, her son did pretty well but was a little weak in math, a “B” student, so she elected to have him go to summer school to become stronger in that area. The teacher said that the majority of the children who were supposed to be in summer school, were not there! Now, we do live in a somewhat transitional city as a fair amount of the population is military, but if I remember correctly, the majority of ZB’s classmates did not come from military families. Broad generalization to follow: I know part of it is socioeconomic. We live in a working to middle class neighborhood and so financial, social, and educational issues probably come into play when deciding if to send one’s child for the summer or not (duh).
The question is, what do I do now? Become more active within our own school? My involvement has been limited thus far b/c of Bebe/childcare but I do as much as I can. Find out what the hell Texas (if anything) is doing or plans to do about this? That seems like a good idea. Challenge every person reading this to do the same in their state? That would work too. After all, no matter what type of school or unschool your child attends, the level of education every child in this country receives affects us in the long run, no? It’s a little cliche, but true.
