To improve the quality of education in America, the graduation rate and the number of students passing the state-mandated tests must fall dramatically.
We've done an enormous disservice to our children by relaxing graduation standards, badgering teachers into passing students who shouldn't, enrolling students in classes they shouldn't be in (thus watering down the content for everyone in the course), focusing exclusively on the lowest-performing students' results on the state-mandated tests, and redirecting blame for failure from students to teachers.
The three step, no additional cost, plan for success:
1. Hold all students to much, much higher standards for passing classes in the core curriculum and for graduating from a "traditional" high school.
2. Provide alternative track educational opportunities for children who do not wish to or are not capable of completing a traditional high school education.
3. Get out of the way.
(Aside: I distinctly recall coming home from school with a bad grade on an English test and complaining that the teacher didn't explain the material. I suppose it's possible my parents called the school to complain and demand she be replaced with someone I could better relate to, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't their first response.)
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