Edu-friggin-cation these days

[LJ3]

This is from my kids HS Principal. Note there is no indication or emphasis that the County is concerned with students learning useful math skills. It's just about the SOL (standard test flavor for Va) scores and how the school is rated. "Dear Parents, do your part to raise our test scores."

Give me a fucking break. To our Teacher brethren here. I'm sorry if you have to try and thrive in a shit environment like this.

"This is Pamela Paul-Jacobs, Principal of Tuscarora High School calling to share information regarding Tuscarora High School. As you know, Tuscarora’s SAT, AP, PSAT, and ACT scores are at or above county, state, and national averages. Most of our students come into high school in the higher level math courses. However, our scores on SOL math tests are not in an acceptable place. Consequently, we are requesting that parents partner with us to make sure that students are focusing on math homework for practice and that students are responding to the extra help that we have in place for them. We have restructured the instructional delivery in our math classes and amended our homework and retake policy in math. Students who are unsuccessful on a test will be retaught information through FLEX, math lab, and before and after school tutoring. Teachers can offer a retake on an individual basis to ensure mastery of the content. Test corrections will be a part of the re-teaching process. We have numerous opportunities still in place for extra help, but we need your help as parents to ensure that students take advantage of the opportunities.

We will receive a rating of accredited with warning this school year in the area of SOL math. We are fully accredited as a school but scores indicate a need to adjust instruction to meet the needs of Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2 students. Please be assured that we have made adjustments to our overall math instruction, while also addressing the gap groups where deficits show the greatest weaknesses. Our SOL scores in every other subject area are solid; we are at or above LCPS schools and well above the state average. We fully expect that our SOL math scores will be in an acceptable range when we test this spring.

We thank you in advance for your confidence and assistance as we come together as a community to make our SOL math scores reflective of the expectations we have for our students."

[Buckrub]

Who knew there was S*** Outta Luck Math?

[Chicken Dinner]

As long as they don't do something stupid like teach to the test ...

(Imagine the kaniption they'd be having if we'd adopted yhe Common Core...)

[Niner]

So, I'm guessing that "management's" bonus schedule must have gotten tied to the SOL scores.

[Captain]

Shit Outta Luck Math. WTF?
Sounds like my math skills.

Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner

[Captain]

"Pamela Paul-Jacobs"
That's the first problem, a woman with a hyphenated last name!

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[DeputyDog]

Niner, the problem is that ALL teachers wages are based on test results. My wife teaches in Michigan, and their evaluation and any step increases in salary due to longevity all are based by a large percentage on "student achievement" AKA test scores. If your students scores don't show improvement from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, you get a not so good evaluation and thus don't get any longevity increase in salary. Her district fired a teacher last year after they caught him falsifying scores for his students. He was deliberately scoring them lower than they should have been at the beginning of the year so that they would show big improvements by the end of the school year. I'm surprised more don't do that considering how much their wages are based on scores.

Another thing is funding for the schools is also based on scores. Both state and federal funding depends on how much improvement your students are showing.

[Buckrub]

Shit Outta Luck Math. WTF?
Sounds like my math skills.

Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner

What else would "SOL" math mean?

[Niner]

There's BIG news down here...actually the story has been going on for a couple of years now.
A BUNCH of teachers and administrators in the Atlanta City Schools got busted for changing grades on tests so it would look like the students were doing better than they actually were. AND since student performance was tied directly to their raises and bonuses.....it's kindof a big deal with the courts.

Here's a few articles about it.....
https://www.google.com/#q=atlanta+ci...eacher+scandal

[BarryBobPosthole]

This all started with NCLB, this whole idea that all you have to do is raise standards and a child's education will improve. No teacher development, no improving the quality of teachers by better screening and raising salaries, none of the normal things you'd do in any business to improve results. Just test more and test better and kids will be smarter by I guess, osmosis or something. Its the stupidest (most stupid to be grammatically correct) thing I've ever saw. Oklahoma got rid of teacher tenure because they (the conservatives in our legislature) said the problem was the union kept bad teachers. Then they said it was the pension so they'regoing away with pensions and replacing them with 401k type plans. This has improved education by a grand total of zero. Then they brought in Common Core and now they say its an Obama plan and they repealed it (it wasn't, it was our stupid governor's plan). Its flabbergasting the ignorance of what we're doing as a society to education. All in the name of politics.
Common Core and any other testing standard is just another version of No Child Left Behind and all they do is make companies like McGraw Hill rich.
Disgusting.

BKB