Mar 08 2008
Sure, we can trust the government with our children….
In one year Alabama jumped from 22nd in the country to fifth. But interestingly the test scores didn’t change all that much. Alabama, like many other states, is simply redefining what it means to be successful. The temptation to fudge the scores to meet the required progress in federal law is too much for some states to overcome. Gary Palmer of the Alabama Policy Institute says his state could not resist.
“Under No Child Left Behind we’re showing about 65 percent of fourth graders being proficient at reading. When you look at the NAEP scores that goes down to about 30 percent.”
NAEP is a private standardized test most schools take to gauge progress. Palmer says the National Governors Association is implementing another voluntary standard to measure the graduation rate.
“Instead of an eleven percent dropout rate what the new standard will show is that Alabama’s dropout rate is somewhere between 35 and 40 percent.”
Kevin Carey of the Education Sector says Alabama is particularly adept at changing the definition of success.
“And really when you look underneath the test scores, it’s not because the students are learning more, it’s just because the state has gamed the system particularly well.”
Read about it here.
A state appeals court has decided California parents without teaching credentials do not have a right to home-school their children.
The 2nd District Court of Appeals ruling could affect up to 200,000 home-schooled students in the state.
“The court is guilty of an imperious assault on the rights of parents,” said Dr. James Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family. “How dare these judges have the audacity to label tens of thousands of parents criminals — the equivalent to drug dealers or pickpockets — because they want to raise and educate their children according to their deeply held values?
“The case before them involved one couple — the ruling should have been confined to that one couple, not used to punish an entire class of people, the vast majority of them religious conservatives.”
Read about it here.
[From me]
For those who think the government is the answer to the ills of the world–think again! I spent 2 years teaching in the public school system and it was one of the better schools in my state. We had lots of NASA engineer children. You can’t get any smarter than a “rocket scientist.” We had great parental involvement. If you were looking or a school for your children, this was one of the top 5 in the state. But because of discipline issues and the fact that the Principal wanted the school to have the appearance of being successful we fudged grades. I taught 2 Senior Economics/Government classes and was told by my Principal to give my failing students extra credit or whatever it took to allow them to graduate. I didn’t think that was right but he reminded me I was non-tenured. That is one of the reasons I left teaching to enter the business world.
I feel for teachers. Most are dedicated and loved what they did when they entered the profession. I would say 99% of them want to teach but they are not allowed. When you have over 30 students how can you effectively teach each one? What is going on in Alabama is going on everywhere. Teachers are being forced to teach for “TESTS!” It is not about education anymore, it is about politics and looking good.
So we can’t trust the government only to educate our children. If schools are educating so well, why do I always hear complaints from parents about all of the homework? Shouldn’t the education be occurring at school? Why should a student come home from being at school for 8 hours and have to spend another 2 to 3 hours doing work at home?
I’m sure there are some fantastic schools around. Even if 99% of the schools were doing great jobs in educating children, what right does the government have in telling a parent how to educate their children? Parents know what is best for their children not politicians! If someone wants to send their children to public or private school–great! But if they want to home educate then they should be allowed to do that too!
What do you think?
3 responses so far
Don’t get me started.
This is definitely a case of reckless legal opinions. If sanity prevails, which is a major assumption in our times, the courts in California will come back and give a strong affirmation of a parents right to choose in education.
On the other hand this situation highlights a real problem for the homeschooling movement. Some families are abusing this right and giving a bad name to all homechoolers. In my state, Indiana, school administrators have even encouraged teens who can’t pass the graduation exam (or lack the HS credits) to do their Senior year at home. This allows a workaround so they can show higher than actual graduation rates.
The best I can tell, the whole case revolved around child abuse. The parents were abusing the kids. That is fact. The parents then claimed that they had a right to homeschool the kids & the state couldn’t interfere with that. The court said no. That finding of abuse overrides the parental right to decide the educational status of the kid.
The parents then claimed their religious freedom was being violated, claiming their faith demanded homeschooling & the state couldn’t interfere. The judge rejected this argument, claiming that CA law did not grant that exclusion for religious reasons & that CA law required credentialed education. The couple did not meet that requirement.
The ruling further said that the quality of the education the kids received was, well, a sham, & was being used as a means of circumventing the law & further deprive the kids.
[url=”http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/07/MNJDVF0F1.DTL”]Here’s the news article.[/url]
The ruling is not a slam on homeschooling but was a ruling in a child abuse case: parents may not use the homeschooling argument or religious argument as an excuse to abuse or educationally neglect the kids.