FW students protest TAKS decision | Latest News | WFAA.com — The signage says it all.
About a dozen young people, carrying signs and chanting, began picketing at 8:30 a.m. Thursday. They represent the 613 Fort Worth seniors who did not pass the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exam.
Crystal Martinez complained that while she finished at the top of her class with a 3.5 grade point average, she is now blocked from graduation by failing the TAKS test.
“We know we’re not going to get our diplomas, but we just want to walk across the stage,” Martinez said. “That’s all we ask for right now.”
Everyone is a winner in the USA.
found by Mr. Justin
I – R – A – GRADUAT
“What’s not fine is rarely is the question asked, are, is our children learning?” –GWB, South Carolina, January 2000
1,
That picture is so practical and it never gets old…
Some of these kids could be programmers one day, so instead of Skynet Ill welcome our Gabber Robots overlords. Make your time!
I saw this on WFAA TV last night and couldn’t stop laughing. There kids should not be allowed to walk. Its just a shame. Our we going to let this to continue to ruin are country?
It appears they’ve been left behind.
Excellence or equality, you can’t have both. That bell curve is a bitch.
Well, excellence has a price… and since McDonald’s Store Manager is a better paying gig than public school teacher…
At any rate, I wouldn’t let these kids cross the stage until they can protest with proper grammer and spelling. But let us no bemoan the future because the lax standards of today. None of us here come from a smarter generation. Stupid is as timeless as it is universal.
I find it funny that 1 test can destroy your 3.5 average.
WHO didnt teach these kids What was needed to PASS the test?
The teachers or the School?
It looks like the movie Idiocracy is more than just a comedy … it is prophetic.
I am not sure why this strikes a chord with me. but are these people fucking crazy. If you don’t graduate then you don’t walk. If these people were diagnosed mentally retarded and you want to give them their retard degree but they didn’t pass then fine, but it seems these are normal able kids.
Honestly I think the 3.5 average is a lie. I graduated from High School here in Texas the last year of the TAAS test, with both tests all the curriculum is is teaching the test. I say we should do away with this damn test and really teach. and this coming from someone who was always in the top 1% during his tests.
I will try to keep this brief as I could go on and on about it. I am a teacher in Texas and I can attest to the difficulty of the TAKS test. In the district in which I teach we had 13% of our seniors not pass the test; the state average was 16%. It is unfair to teach students about specific subjects then not test them on it for 4 years and expect them to do really well. Because of this test it seems like most teachers have to spend the majority of their time prepping students to pass it then actually teaching things they might need to know in the real world. As a side note, the state is looking at getting rid of the test and replacing it with end of course exams. If you don’t pass the exam, you don’t get the credit for the class. Sounds fair to me.
All of that aside, this sucks. Several parents petitioned our school board so their kids who didn’t pass the test could still walk and our board caved in. Here is the kicker, the kids have until the end of the summer to pass the test or the state credits them as being drop-outs and they will count again the schools.
Bottom line, if you don’t meet all of the requirements you shouldn’t be allowed to walk. Where the hell are all of the parents and students who did pass and why are they not petitioning to keep these kids out and destroying the meaning of graduation. As for this kid’s comment, “We know we’re not going to get our diplomas, but we just want to walk across the stage,” how about actually earning the recognition that goes with that walk.
I don’t know what to say about this… I was the freak of nature kid that did poorly to bleh in school, but I have the test taking gene. As far as I can tell there are a lot of us with the test taking gene, and we mess with the curve on these standardized tests, and screw the kids over who actually study hard and do their homework…
meh.
This would explain the change in immigration policy, where we prefer smart immigrants over dumb ones
aka
programmers from india = good
laborers from mexico = bad
Yeesh, who would want to be a teacher these days? A family member taught, made 20k, quit, sold text books, was promoted to manger, and is now making 10X that amount.
GregA is right. Some people just take tests better than others. How about an alternate pathway like verbal exams or projects to make up for whatever they missed?
When you start flunking 15% of a class who shows up and does the work, you are going to see a lot of kids saying “Why bother?” and dropping out.
In the mean time, I think we should have data to see if the TAKS test and tests like it have made a difference. Somehow I think the end result is that these tests have been a total waste of time and money.
Please tell me that is one of the parents and not a 3.5 student in the photograph.
#16. Right there with ya, man. Something about filling in those ovals with the #2 pencil just made it all click for me, from grade school to the Multistate Bar Exam. I always tested much higher than my grades would suggest I should
Generally, I think spelling flames are cheap, but that sign is a classic.
#12 – It looks like the movie Idiocracy is more than just a comedy … it is prophetic.
I would recommend this movie as well… a scary scenario…
#17 – …we prefer smart immigrants over dumb ones
Recommended reading.
—–
Sign of the times…
So this is Bush’s famous no child left behind. 16% not graduating.
Somethings not working.
The only people that oppose graduation tests are the teachers and school managers that are afraid of having their utter incompetence exposed. Yes, there are excellent teachers out there, but there are also many many teachers that have no qualifications, either academic or social, for that title. Better schools start with high standards for the teachers.
In my opinion….
Looking at Class grades and then TEST passing, SHOWS how well the school system is working MORE then HOW the kids did.
And a Short course on HOW to take a test SHOULD BE TAUGHT…
Multi choice Questions…
Its NOT ALWAYS which is right, ITS Which is NOT right..
RELAX, have fun with it…Take a Hit man, Anything to make you relax..
This post was also in Digg. From the comments at Digg, it seems like you don’t even need half a brain to pass the TAKS test. Most commenters there we saying that it is a very easy test.
@ #15 – Most countries do teach for 4 years and then take an exam that covers all 4 years of the curriculum. It works fine there, it should work fine here. Maybe its not the students!!! The quality of education is just appalling in most of America’s public schools.
@ #15 – You needs to go backs to school and learns to spell and using the correct words. Being a teacher and making spelling mistakes or wrong choice of words is just bad!!
I wonder how long it will be before the student with a 3.5 gpa sues the district for failing the test.
on the other hand, is a graduation ceremony only about getting a piece of paper – which these kids realize they haven’t earned – or is it also about the ritual of passing from childhood into adulthood? And is that worth recognizing? Whether or not these kids ever pass the test they will no longer be part of the mainstream school system. In my mind graduation is more than a piece of paper it is a rite of passage.
#23, Awake
Better schools start with high standards for the teachers.
Ya right. And where are you going to find them. And who is going to decide who is a good teacher and who isn’t. It is always so easy to blame the teachers.
I think that overall you will find the quality of teaching in America is very good. The problems are usually parents that don’t back up the teachers, political influenced curriculum, old / not enough text books, poor classroom environment, and that ubiquitous student quality.
Teaching is not just a job. It is a profession. It requires a special breed of people, definitely something not everyone is. Truth is, almost all teachers can make much more in the private sector, but not many in the private sector can teach.
In order to attract better qualified teachers would also require much higher salaries. Since 75-80% of the education budget goes to salaries, yup, that would mean increasing YOUR taxes. How much are you willing to pay?
#27 I work for a school system, our teachers average $52k for 6 hour day 180 days a year. Four years ago the state test showed our schools where below the state average in math. We hired teachers, to teach the teachers how to teach math. This years scores are above average. The kids didn’t get smarter the teachers just didn’t know how to do their job. By the way we had to pay the teachers to take the course to learn to do what we pay them for.
#25 “@ #15 – You needs to go backs to school and learns to spell and using the correct words.”
“Most commenters there we saying that it is a very easy test.”
#27 – A better argument has never been made for school privatization. Three cheers for capitalism!
Let’s call a spade a spade: The student who got that 3.5 GPA couldn’t have gotten a 2.0 in a decent school. A teacher simply cannot fail all of their students, or they will draw negative attention on their teaching skills.
The concept of the bell curve never really went away, its message has just been softened with time… and by very powerful unions.
I’m not a huge fan of NCLB since it doesn’t set national standards on how to grade over time, only how to take big picture snapshots at various points in a student’s progression. I’d like to see the system refined, but not destroyed (which I fully expect to happen if the left wins in ’08).
…And who is going to decide who is a good teacher and who isn’t….
I can answer that one. Students are the best judges. Really.
Years ago I remember filling out a poll when I was in high school to rank our instructors. One of the questions asked to rank teachers as “easy”, another to rank teachers as “good”. The assumption was that students will rate easy teachers as the best. That didn’t happen. The teachers who students ranked as “learning the most from” were favored by the students as the “best”. The “easy” instructors were the least popular. As you can imagine, an “easy” teacher filed a grievance with his union and the administration with regards to the survey. To my knowledge it has not been tried in my old high school since.
Today our college surveys students with a “customer satisfaction” survey. As department head and former student, I take these opinions seriously. Students teach me something new all the time.
IF you give Students from an Early age, LEARNING, and intelligence, and a Happy way to learn…Which isnt that hard to do…
they will search it out, and LEARN. AND remember.
current problem is WHO is answering their questions.