Oregon high schools failing minorities

[Sudden Sam]

https://www.oregonlive.com/education/20 ... color.html

I'm confused. I thought we'd all been in the same school systems since the late '60s.

How is this helpful to anyone? This continues the harming of students who are less inclined to study by allowing them a pass. Why continue these bad policies?

[Innocent Bystander]

https://www.oregonlive.com/education/20 ... color.html

I'm confused. I thought we'd all been in the same school systems since the late '60s.

How is this helpful to anyone? This continues the harming of students who are less inclined to study by allowing them a pass. Why continue these bad policies?

1. My parents went into debt to put us through Catholic school instead of through busing. The kids with athletic talent were scouted by middle schools and high schools. Other people's parent gave relatives' addresses as home addresses, the ghetto version of school choice vouchers.

What school systems were you in since the late 60s?

2. It isn't intended to be. Tracking is old. Ask Malcolm.

3. Stats massaging is almost as old as teaching, Sam.

Teachers are forced to wear too many hats with no support from parents, and less support from administrators. Only numbers matter, and after that only overall numbers matter. Students are overall numbers, not indiviuals. So teachers teach to the goal, to meet numbers, or they exit.

3. See point 2. It's intentional, like why two boys had to die in Mena, and why what they witnessed was approved to happen executively, in the first place.

[Sudden Sam]

You nailed it. Numbers are all that matters. Schools have to produce grads at any cost. And the kids suffer for it.

Raising standards, not lowering them is the only way to fix this.

I went to public schools from first grade thru high school.

[Kierland]

https://www.oregonlive.com/education/20 ... color.html

I'm confused. I thought we'd all been in the same school systems since the late '60s.

How is this helpful to anyone? This continues the harming of students who are less inclined to study by allowing them a pass. Why continue these bad policies?

You are absolutely right. They should take up the Alabama model.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/state ... s-by-state

[Diego in Seattle]

It would be interesting to know the difference in performance between the wet side v. dry side.

[Laxplayer]

You guys have no idea how bad it is in public education with the dummying down of everything. I'm in year 35 and have never seen it this bad. We were told that our district wanted to do something called equity grading. Basically if a kid does nothing, no work, makes no effort, etc...they want us to give a minimum of 50% so they don't fall too far behind. We've also been told to lower grading scales, go to standards based grading which one school in the district does. That basically means a kid can get 20% which on that scale equates to a D. All the districts care about is graduation rates. I have so many kids in my class that can't do basic math, they can't put sentences together, they don't punctuate etc...however we're told not to grade them on that because their grades would suffer. If you have too many kids failing in a class the principal will call you in and ask why so many kids are failing and what you're going to do about it. It's become such a joke that a high school diploma means nothing these days. This generation of kids will struggle to survive in the real world. We've handed them everything, removed adversity, removed any challenges etc....I'm glad my kids are done and out of college. It's only getting worse.

[Sudden Sam]

That’s pitiful, but not surprising at all. We’ve all seen what a high school diploma means. Cracks me up to see what a big deal it is to some folks to show off cap and gown photos of their kids. Doesn’t mean they can even read. Sad.

Public education is a joke and I feel for anyone trying to teach these past 35 years or so.

My wife has a bitch of a time hiring anyone who can (or will) do the job.

[Laxplayer]

I've got two years left after this one. I'll hang em up and maybe go work at a private school.

[Mikey]

You guys have no idea how bad it is in public education with the dummying down of everything. I'm in year 35 and have never seen it this bad. We were told that our district wanted to do something called equity grading. Basically if a kid does nothing, no work, makes no effort, etc...they want us to give a minimum of 50% so they don't fall too far behind. We've also been told to lower grading scales, go to standards based grading which one school in the district does. That basically means a kid can get 20% which on that scale equates to a D. All the districts care about is graduation rates. I have so many kids in my class that can't do basic math, they can't put sentences together, they don't punctuate etc...however we're told not to grade them on that because their grades would suffer. If you have too many kids failing in a class the principal will call you in and ask why so many kids are failing and what you're going to do about it. It's become such a joke that a high school diploma means nothing these days. This generation of kids will struggle to survive in the real world. We've handed them everything, removed adversity, removed any challenges etc....I'm glad my kids are done and out of college. It's only getting worse.

I think you can trace a lot of these problems to the advent of smart phones and social media. For a technology that had such promise, it has mostly served to dominate much of the attention that kids should be applying to school and schoolwork.

[Sudden Sam]

No doubt you’re right in that the distraction of cell phones contributes, Mikey, but the public school system went to hell long before that technology was introduced.

[Mikey]

No doubt you’re right in that the distraction of cell phones contributes, Mikey, but the public school system went to hell long before that technology was introduced.

I don't know. Our kids were born in 1990 and 1992. We are in a semi-rural, largely agricultural district, with a very "diverse" population, but our kids had excellent schools and teachers up through graduation. In fact, they were both National Merit Scholarship finalists. I think smart phones started to become widely available around 2010. To me, at least, I see come correlation there.

[Sudden Sam]

You were very lucky to have good schools available. My kids (ten years earlier than yours) were lucky to have some excellent teachers in an overall terrible school system. Granted, they were in Alabama public schools which are notoriously bad, but the few good teachers they had did a good job. Plus, I continued my parents insistence upon reading way above “normal” levels with my own kids. They were exposed to far more than what was offered in school.

Friends who teach have lamented the piss poor writing skills of students at all levels. They can’t read…thus they can’t write. Passing these illiterate kids has become the norm and it’s not doing the kids any favors. They graduate high school with 3rd grade level abilities. They’re useless in the workforce. Yet they think they’re smart because they “graduated”. Sad.

[Smackie Chan]

I’m glad I don’t have kids going to school around here. This state is the worst.

[Sudden Sam]

I’m glad I don’t have kids going to school around here. This state is the worst.

Worse than Bamalama?!

[Smackie Chan]

I’m glad I don’t have kids going to school around here. This state is the worst.

Worse than Bamalama?!

According to the link Kierland posted.

[Laxplayer]

The basic knowledge of kids has sunk so low it's actually pretty sad. Kids have no idea how to research things. People where I work say kids are so good at technology...well then why can't they look something up via google? Why can't they find simple things on the internet? I teach a college career seminar class where we do job, college research. We buy a car, we buy a house, we do real life things. These kids have no clue how to research a college that has their major. They can't do basic math. I asked a kid how many months in a year and he legitimately looked at me and didn't know. Forget asking them to figure out how much they're paying for a car over the life of the loan plus interest. We're afraid to fail them, we've lowered the standards so much and are now dependent on technology to do just about everything. People ask me about my google classroom and how kids know what they're supposed to do....I say...well I hand it to them and they turn it in.......It's going to get worse as well. Our district is so stupid that they banned cell phones in Jr. High....well why not go the extra mile and ban them in high school? Now with the wonderful news from the Gavinator you can't suspend kids for being defiant. Where are the consequences......2 years and 28 weeks........

[Sudden Sam]

No consequences. That pretty much explains most of the bad behavior we see, not just in schools, but everywhere.

[Mikey]

Damn, with so many idiots and fools entering the job market in the coming years, who's going to pay into our Social Security?

This is getting serious.

[Screw_Michigan]

Damn, with so many idiots and fools entering the job market in the coming years, who's going to pay into our Social Security?

This is getting serious.

Don't you worry, the GQP is trying to absolve you from having to be concerned about that.