Every year we have the “Education Nation”….that is when millionaires get together and tell us all about the advances in education, all the new ideas and all the need for good education. And every year it is nothing but talk….nothing gets done and educational programs get cut, both federal and state programs…..but yet it is the most important issue in every campaign….and then it is quickly forgotten once the election is over…….typical American problem solving.
But one school has found a creative way to see that students make good grades……..
(Newser) – Tennessee Virtual Academy, a for-profit, online public school heavily supported by state Republicans, has found a novel way of boosting student performance—just delete bad grades, reports News Channel 5 in Nashville. A leaked December email from the school’s VP appears to tell its middle-school teachers to erase some scores that don’t measure up. “If you have given an assignment and most of your students failed that assignment, then you need to take that grade out,” it reads.
“To me, this appears like it’s grade fixing,” said one Democratic state representative. Virginia-based parent company K12 is refusing to talk, but the TVA principal said the deletions were intended to “more accurately recognize students’ current progress.” But as the two-year-old school will receive $7.5 million in funding from the state this year, many Tennessee lawmakers are outraged. The Knoxville News Sentinel reports that a House bill that proposed shutting the school altogether was killed yesterday; a second was passed by the House Education Subcommittee. It would allow the state to shutter a virtual school that records sub-standard student performance two years in a row. (Meanwhile, a Lehigh University student is suing over a bad grade.)
There you go…save money on educational programs and just gaming the grades…..sounds like a plan we Americans can embrace…….the easy way out!
Holy crap, this is disturbing.
Another “No Child Left Behind”……..
“typical American problem solving”, more correctly it sounds like a typical government problem solving process.
Don’t worry, grade fixing is not limited to just private education systems, take a look at what Florida did last year with FCAT. When a majority of kids failed the reading portion they “re-graded” that portion and guess what? more kids passed. Each generation is becoming dumber than the previous… wonder if that is why Democrats are winning more with the youth (sorry, couldn’t help stating the obvious).
FL, once again……”No Child Left Behind”……and this prez is no better…..we talk about a better education for our children and vote for people who could care less….so in the long run it is the American people that are not fault……
I didn’t vote for people who could care less. I spoke to the candidate I voted for to represent me in congress and I believe he would have done something for education, but he loss. As for the president, neither candidate would have done anything real for education so there was no option there.
I agree that “no child left behind” was a failure form day one, but Bush is not president, so I will critize the person who has the oppertunity to do something TODAY and not cry about the past. Obama is the failure TODAY, and I didn’t vote for him so I will blame all those that did vote for him for his failures.
You may be one in hundred voter……in my state all the candidates were all about jobs and education…once elected they have created few jobs and are considering cuts to education……most Americans believe the BS because the candidate is from their party……and seldom hold them responsible for their failures….if they did then we would have less morons in office…..
Obama may be a failure as well as anyone before him….but it is the state officials that deserve the blame for they make it worse with each passing election….and yet we still vote for them….that is why I warn the voter every election to beware of false promises and remember then vote…..if not then no amount of voting will repair the problem……
Remember the historical “Taxatioon Without Representation”? Watch the blog will be updating that …..
““To me, this appears like it’s grade fixing,” said one Democratic state representative. Virginia-based parent”
Well duh!!
I also love the statement of the obvious….
How is this different than the bell curve hailed by liberals when it was discovered that minority students were lagging behind?
Terrance, why just let the students decided what they want….why should there be any standards for excellence? You know damn well this is not the same thing…….
Just read an article where a geneticist says that we are being dumbed down genetically, both through biology and environmentally.
http://myscienceacademy.org/2013/02/17/leading-geneticist-human-intelligence-is-slowly-declining/
FL, I saw that and I believe that I posted on it in the past….