Thursday, July 22, 2010

NYC schools still suck

From the Daily News:

Over the last four years, the number of children deemed "proficient" on standardized English and math exams has steadily climbed, particularly in the city. In English, 57% of city eighth-graders scored proficient in 2009, up from 37% in 2006. In math, the number rose to 71% from 39%.

While the gains reflected rising achievement, there is fresh and stunning evidence that New York's definition of "proficient" has been a fraud.

To wit: Almost half the eighth-graders who scored at the lowest level eligible to qualify as proficient will never graduate from high school.

To wit: Almost three-quarters of city teenagers who make it through graduation and go on to City University community colleges require remediation before they can tackle course work.

State Education Commissioner David Steiner is about to use these and many other dismal statistics to explain why New York must dramatically overhaul how it measures whether students are actually on track, not only to graduate from high school, but also to attend college.

The exercise will be painful, starting with soon-to-be-released results of this year's standardized tests. As Steiner put it in a meeting with the Daily News Editorial Board, "a lot" of students will be notified that they are sub-par - even though they previously had been graded as proficient.

Instructors who had been satisfied with their students' performance will discover they have not really been getting the job done.

Schools that have seemed excellent will confront being rated as mediocre.

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is Joel Klein's and Bloomberg's meddling with the scores to look good. Ask any teacher how the tests were dumbed down.

FlooshingRezident said...

My nephew, a Francis Lewis attendee, has never heard of of the Civil War and can not make change from a dollar. AND HE'S 17!!!

Having attended Mary Louis, I find it frightening that a kid with so little on the ball is being moved through the system. He should be in 3rd grade!

This kid needs a scary nun with a big ruler!

Anonymous said...

but really, there's only so much the schools can do to make up for shitty parenting.

Anonymous said...

The number one problem of NYC public schools is the parents.

The more parental involvement, the better the school.

Less, the worse the school.

This data-driven system they've created inspired by Bill Gates, Eli Broad, hedge-fund managers etc.. is all about not improving the current system, but destroying it so that unions will be broken, senior teachers will be let go and schools can close in order to open smaller schools and charter schools. Don't forget people investing money in these schools make a lot of money.

These creeps know that teachers in the end are not the culprits of failing schools, but someone needs to take the blame in order for the master plan to work.

What a mess...

Anonymous said...

Me neever ave a high school back home, so is ok if me sun Hulio no do well. Is like a bonus to even ave one!

Anonymous said...

As a parent with a 6th grader in school, I'll tell you the biggest problem right now: even if your kid scores high enough to qualify for placement in an advanced program, there aren't enough seats in that program for all the kids.

How do you answer that, Queens Teacher? I've filled in the gaps and put the effort into making sure my kid is near the top of his class, and now he either has to win a lottery to get into a charter school or go to a substandard middle school. I know the Intermediate school in my district is substandard because my kid's guidance counselor told me so.

Anonymous said...

Another Bloomberg lie exposed!

Didn't he promise (LOL) to improve our schools?

Flooshing Rhodent said...

"I likee Mayor Broomberg...I givee him my support...he givee me more garbage to eat".

Anonymous said...

@Anonymous:
I feel your pain. My child got into the District-wide Gifted & Talented program this year only to be told a few weeks ago that there was no placement available. After I called the DOE, the attitude there was like "too bad". And this was after my other child couldn't get a spot in the Pre-K program. Try Round 2 in the admissions process the letter said.

The only solution as far as I can see is to put my kids in private school. It's expensive but I can't bare to think of the alternative.

My child was receiving such a poor education in school this past year.
For example:
~No Science
~No Social Studies
~No Art
~Little Music
~Little Computers
~Writing (if you consider Teacher's College a writing program)
~Math (from Everyday Math- probably the WORST math program ever created)
~No textbooks of any kind - everything in the form of sheets stored in folders
~Spending most of the day on the floor in the "meeting area".
~Ridiculous field trips
~And the worst thing of all - a (young)teacher who didn't give a shit.

cherokeesista said...

Anonymous said...
but really, there's only so much the schools can do to make up for shitty parenting.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Really:( I'm the parent of a 10 yr old and I'm EXTREMELY INVOLVED!!! My son has never scored below a 95 on anything I make sure he has what the school doesn't give him:) When he was in second grade he took the test for the gifted program with both test combined he scored a 98% but there was NO SEAT FOR HIM so he had to go into a regular 3rd grade class and we accomadeted him at home:) By 4th grade he went into what the Board of Ed calls I.G.C. classess:( Nothing gifted about it at all:( I had to send books for reading because they had NOTHING in the class for the level he reads on:( The work is to easy and he gets bored so they say he TALKS TO MUCH an ASK TO MANY QUESTIONS, WTF!!!! I'm still waiting for those test scores I check the ARIS site everyday and still NO SCORES!!! His 4th grade teacher lost her damn mind I still have work in his homework folder that was never checked:( Not to mention the first grading period she changed his math grade three times using white out:( when I confronted her about this she lied and said she didn't:( Hey Crappy if you want to see the report card you just let me know:) I have no problem showing what that nut did:(

Anonymous said...

FlooshingRezident said:

"Having attended Mary Louis, I find it frightening that a kid with so little on the ball is being moved through the system. He should be in 3rd grade!

This kid needs a scary nun with a big ruler!"

Asinine comment about the lack of "licensed" teachers in private schools to be posted by Italian Girl in 5, 4, 3, 2....

cherokeesista said...

Does anyone have any idea when those State test scores will be available?

Big Hairy Balls said...

Queens teacher:
I agree with your comments fully. My wife & I are teachers too and we see nothing but children who won't follow instructions, are nasty and realize that there are no consequences. I attended NYC schools in the 60's & early 70's before "special ed" nut cases took over the system. All we ever see are parents who treat the schools like free daycare while they sit at home, get high, collect welfare and leave the parenting to us. I'm retiring this year on my well deserved pension & as far as I'm concerned the folks who want to tell me that I can't teach well I say to them and you can't parent. PS. My kids went to private school so they wouldn't have to go to school with the offspring of losers!

cherokeesista said...

Big Hairy Balls said...
Queens teacher:
I agree with your comments fully. My wife & I are teachers too and we see nothing but children who won't follow instructions, are nasty and realize that there are no consequences. I attended NYC schools in the 60's & early 70's before "special ed" nut cases took over the system. All we ever see are parents who treat the schools like free daycare while they sit at home, get high, collect welfare and leave the parenting to us. I'm retiring this year on my well deserved pension & as far as I'm concerned the folks who want to tell me that I can't teach well I say to them and you can't parent. PS. My kids went to private school so they wouldn't have to go to school with the offspring of losers!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

So your saying that all children that attend Public Schools are the offspring of Losers? Seriously that comment is TOTAL BULLSHIT MR.BHB :( I know many GREAT TEACHERS!!!! My child just didn't get one this past year:( Hopefully the new school year will be alot better:) I must agree with you on the behavior of the majority of kids, their parents forgot to teach them RESPECT!!! Please, excuse me and thank you go along way:) My biggest issue is I believe that our teachers have enough to do besides teaching these kids to speak ENGLISH!!! 58% of the children in the school my child attends are ASIAN and many come into the school system unable to speak our language:( and I know it's very frustrating for the teachers:( I'll tell you one thing the best teacher God ever put on this earth is a second grade teacher named Mrs. Snyder :) when she was my sons teacher he couldn't wait to get to school and didn't want to come home:)

Anonymous said...

Wait until Sept 2011, when parents begin to see the Special Ed. populations sky rocket in every school. And parents will be told that their kid will have the "opportunity" to be in a CTT(Collaborative Team Teaching) class where the class is 60%regular ed. and 40% special ed. students.
It's gonna be a long three more years. :(

cherokeesista said...

Hopefully if and when that happens my family will be long gone from NYC:( Education is our number one priority :) Like I said whatever my son doesn't get at school he gets at home:)

Anonymous said...

No not if, but when.

BloomKlein are trying to weaken the public schools as much as possible so that more informed and involved parents like you and I remove our kids from the system. They'll be able to manipulate and close down schools even faster with parents who don't know or even care what's going on.

Look at what they want to do with Bayside High School. Klein wants to send 1000 more kids to that school, mostly from the schools in Queens he was trying to close down and the UFT & NAACP sued. He also wants to increase Special ed. population there by 40%. What do you think will happen to that school if all this happens? Making Bayside a larger school goes against everything Klein has been preaching all along about how smaller schools are the way to go. He is setting Bayside up for failure and future closing only to be replaced by 3 or 4 smaller schools or charters.

I'm telling you it's a mess.

cherokeesista said...

So what else can I do as a parent to help stop this BULLCRAP:(

Anonymous said...

It's very hard for parents to really make a difference the way the DOE has set everything up. Just try and make noise in your child's school. Get in the principal's face and drive the parent coordinator crazy if you have to. At the very least you may be able to make a difference for your kid.

The first thing I would do is try and organize parents. If your child's school is using Teacher's College Reading & Writing and the Everyday Math curriculums, DEMAND that they use proven, research-based, traditional curriculums because TC and EM are not. Quite a few schools in District 25 & 26 have eliminated them. Depends on how much noise parents want to make. If administrators are using them, it's only because they are being cheap and don't want to purchase new materials. They know the programs suck. But they have the prepared explanations readily available as to why they are so great.

Supplement your child's work using workbooks and textbooks. You can get other books from ebay or amazon. "Treasures" is a great reading curriculum. "Saxon Math" and although I've never seen it some say "Singapore Math" is excellent.

Ask to see how money is being spent in your child's school. School Leaderhip Team is supposed to give you this info. Some principals are just hoarding.

Take your child to afterschool programs or weekend programs for extracurricular activities. They learn a lot more there then in school.


Write letters to the papers about what you are experiencing in your child's school.

Of course, all schools are different. Some schools are great and some suck. All depends on the prinicipal and whether or not they put the interests of the kids before theirs. Just remember you are your child's best advocate. If you won't fight for him, trust me, most likely the school won't either.

cherokeesista said...

I really appreciate your kindness:) and yes I'm constantly in their faces:)I was asked to be on the leadership board I became very disgusted when I was told that I didn't need to do anything and I'd get a check for $300.00 at the end of the year:( So I said no.
They are using Teacher's College Reading & Writing and the Everyday Math curriculum and I have a major problem with that:( my son has one year left at this paticular school, so this year I'll be in their faces more than usual:) but I will continue to give him what he needs outside of school:) He's only 10 and he's got his heart set on a great college he wants to make a difference in this world:) And if it kills me I'll make sure that he can:)

Anonymous said...

It's uaually the case that by the time most parents figure out TC and EM stink, their kid is in 3rd or 4th grade and figure it isn't worth the aggravation to fight since their kid will be out soon. Those programs have left so many kids behind in reading and writing. Klein knows it and couldn't care less.

As far as the SLT, they don't want parental input. They figure all parents are stupid and couldn't contribute anything anyway.

For future reference a good person to contact if you need to is Leonie Haimson. She is supposed to be a great advocate for public school parents.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leonie-haimson/#blogger_bio

She also founded the blog NYC Public School Parents. It's very good. Check it out.

Perhaps start a blog yourself. You would not believe who is looking at my blog. You can make waves that way too.

The only thing I can say to you is keep doing what you're doing. They way they have things set up, parents need to do a LOT at home which is a disgrace.
Your child will be a success because he has you.

cherokeesista said...

Thank you so very much:) Even though it's his last year I WILL KEEP MAKING NOISE!!!! I only have one child but there are so many kids out there that have no voice,even their own parents don't care:( but I do:) Remember that old saying "It takes a village to raise a child" I'll never give up:) To bad your not a teacher at our school:) By the way I always let my sons teachers know that I'm here for ANYTHING they need:) I'm a phone call away:) My work schedule is around my child so I'm pretty lucky that I can be at their disposal:)

Anonymous said...

Check out this link to find out how your child's school did on the surveys. Pay particular attention with the section(towards the end) that was filled out by the teachers. They are the ones that will be able to tell you the truth about this principal.

http://schools.nyc.gov/accountability/tools/survey/find.htm

Anonymous said...

Has anyone ever listened to how all these children speak? They eliminate all the tenses,(do they even know what a "tense" is?) forget to add "s" when making something plural and all speak as though they have marbles in their mouths. This is, ladies & gentlemen, the future generation of this country. God help us!!!!!

cherokeesista said...

Anonymous said...
Has anyone ever listened to how all these children speak? They eliminate all the tenses,(do they even know what a "tense" is?) forget to add "s" when making something plural and all speak as though they have marbles in their mouths. This is, ladies & gentlemen, the future generation of this country. God help us!!!!!

Friday, July 23, 2010

Your correct:( I make sure I correct my child, PROPER ENGLISH or DO NOT SPEAK!!! And I'm so sick of hearing Oh snap or My bad:( Thats not English!!! The worst is Yo My Niggah whats up :( I really HATE that word and they all say it,they don't understand how DISGUSTING IT IS:( And for the LOVE OF GOD PEOPLE TELL YOUR SONS TO PULL THEIR DAMN PANTS UP!! It's Disgusting:(