Let's fail a kid for a change...

ok, I'm a terrible person, I'm sorry. I can't post regularly to save my life. But to help with that, I am going to start posting some of my assignments that I write about, because you can pretend that they are interesting too. so without further adu...

Name one common practice in schools that you would like to change. Describe why and how you would make the change.

My wife is a middle school music teacher for TUSD and I was pretty shocked when she told me about this awhile back. Her middle school and others, regularly promote children on to high school even if the child has failed one or more of their core classes. The way she explained to me how they get away with it is this: There is no standard credits for admittance to high school. High schools want kids to have taken math, science, reading, etc, however there is no mandate saying that they had to have passed any of those classes. My wife told me of a mother who last year had to beg the school board to hold her daughter back because she failed SIX out of SEVEN classes her eighth grade year. She obviously was not ready for high school however the middle school was willing to say she was. It also doesn't help that TUSD is an open district, meaning that parents can choose which school to send their children to. Shiny 100% promotion rates help make the schools look smarter or more successful than they actually are. What a school won't tell you is that everyone was premoted because no one COULD fail. How would I fix this? It wouldn't be with an entrance exam to high school, I deplore standardized testing. I would simply just require every student have a passing grade in the core subjects before they could attend high school. If summer school is needed for the child to raise the grade, then so be it. It's what they would tell the child to do in high school anyway...

We multiply like we mathmatists...

Yes, the weekend has come and gone. I suck. But I want you all to know, I am researching the topic that I am going to write the president, and my printer ran out of ink. So, I may not be quick, but rest assured, you will have QUALITY. In other news, after considering a hostle takeover of TUSD after what seems like months of stupidity and indescision they might have started to redeem themselves. I still cannot reccomend anyone to enroll thier child in any TUSD school on the eastside however. Time to shower and get ready for the day!

Coming soon to a theater near you...!

So my next post is not going to be about TUSD, it is going to be a letter I intend to sent to our president. What could it be about? Will I thank him for his hard work? Will I ask for front row U2 tickets? Do I just want to say "Hey"? Stay tuned and find out this weekend!