News in UK Paper - US High School in Paterson NJ....only 19 0f 600 College Ready

[Turd Ferguson]

Yep, as reported in the United Kingdom Daily Mail....Paterson NJ School district has a whopping <3% of students College ready based on SAT scores. I guess lucky for me, my family moved from that place to Western PA before kindergarten while my father stayed employed at the Ford Motor Edison plant. Anyhoo.....as you all probably can figure, school board members place blame on a test that "fields questions that hurt minorities and female students". Good news though....the last sentence of the article makes it all good. "The Paterson school district has since said they do not use SATs to gauge student success."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...rsey-school-district-scored-SATs-college.html

 

[CharlesDavenport]

Obviously we, the taxpayers, need to invest in a different evaluation test for underprivileged kids, then grant colleges and universities tax monies for accepting students based on these new tests, possibly create new curricula for this class of students, and finally give tax credits to companies who hire graduates from this program. Hopefully we can get to a point where we have federal mandates demanding that a certain percentage of employees of all companies must be from this program.

And they say government doesn't solve problems.

 

[Confluence]

Is that the home of our resident troll?

 

[Steeltime]

Wasn't this article a theme for a "South Park" episode?

Oh, it's real life? Never mind then. Racist tests ... I feel confident, however, that the student body at that school will be loyal Democrat voters, so nothing else matters, right?

 

[EdReed4Prez]

Is that the home of our resident troll?

Dirty Jersey representin! Highest taxes in the land, shittiest roads, dumbest kids. Clearly those tests are culturally biased. We just need to funnel more $$ into the teachers union.

 

[hamster]

I have no doubt that these kids come from two parent households, and the resposible parents take an active role in their kids education.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

I'm not tooting my own horn and I'm sure many do the same. I get up at 4:20AM and out the door at 4:50 to get to work....I arrive back at 4:30PM. Relieve the babysitter and sit with my elementary age kids for at least 20-30 minutes to finish their homework. Every single night they get homework except Friday. Afterwards when they get their bath and brush their teeth, the wife and I sit with them to read at least 10-15 pages of their assigned reading which is basically any book they choose. This is part of their and our day and the least I can do to be involved. I'm sick of hearing these board members and parents complaining about the tests...LOOK IN THE MIRROR! It starts with the parents.

 

[Superman]

I'm not tooting my own horn and I'm sure many do the same. I get up at 4:20AM and out the door at 4:50 to get to work....I arrive back at 4:30PM. Relieve the babysitter and sit with my elementary age kids for at least 20-30 minutes to finish their homework. Every single night they get homework except Friday. Afterwards when they get their bath and brush their teeth, the wife and I sit with them to read at least 10-15 pages of their assigned reading which is basically any book they choose. This is part of their and our day and the least I can do to be involved. I'm sick of hearing these board members and parents complaining about the tests...LOOK IN THE MIRROR! It starts with the parents.

if you're not married to the mother of two children who are not yours, and both children are not black, then you, sir, are an elitist racist and not worth bandwidth.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

That's probably the 19 white kids. Doing good is school is for suckers. Gotta keep it real.

 

[MT~Forged]

I'm not tooting my own horn and I'm sure many do the same. I get up at 4:20AM and out the door at 4:50 to get to work....I arrive back at 4:30PM. Relieve the babysitter and sit with my elementary age kids for at least 20-30 minutes to finish their homework. Every single night they get homework except Friday. Afterwards when they get their bath and brush their teeth, the wife and I sit with them to read at least 10-15 pages of their assigned reading which is basically any book they choose. This is part of their and our day and the least I can do to be involved. I'm sick of hearing these board members and parents complaining about the tests...LOOK IN THE MIRROR! It starts with the parents.

When do you send the rug rats to headstart so you can get some whoring & drinking time in? ******* like you are the reason the slackers get such bad grades, you skew the grades by making your kids learn the material and get good grades. I hope you are telling your kids that by working hard now, they will get to work harder later to support those who will not support themselves.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

When do you send the rug rats to headstart so you can get some whoring & drinking time in? ******* like you are the reason the slackers get such bad grades, you skew the grades by making your kids learn the material and get good grades. I hope you are telling your kids that by working hard now, they will get to work harder later to support those who will not support themselves.

The truth. We worked very hard to move into the town we live now. Probably one of the smaller homes here but we did it for the great school system. It's one of the top 25 public school systems in Massachusetts but comes at a high real estate price. We waited to have kids until we could afford the home and provide a good life. Now find out the town is being sued to have a 130 low-income apartment complex built in the center of the shopping area. Unbelievable, so disappointed in the whole situation. I'm sure the crime rate will not increase from our almost zero and I'm sure our school system will have no problem adding probably close to 250+ highly educated and motivated children to the student population. Guess we'll have to accept the towns school ratings will be affected but our sports programs will improve drastically.

 

[MT~Forged]

The truth. We worked very hard to move into the town we live now. Probably one of the smaller homes here but we did it for the great school system. It's one of the top 25 public school systems in Massachusetts but comes at a high real estate price. We waited to have kids until we could afford the home and provide a good life. Now find out the town is being sued to have a 130 low-income apartment complex built in the center of the shopping area. Unbelievable, so disappointed in the whole situation. I'm sure the crime rate will not increase from our almost zero and I'm sure our school system will have no problem adding probably close to 250+ highly educated and motivated children to the student population. Guess we'll have to accept the towns school ratings will be affected but our sports programs will improve drastically.

As long as you have a better sports program, all will be good.

 

[Djfan]

I've been teaching for 19 years. I just tendered my resignation today. Honest, today. The deck is stacked against teachers.

The educational system is just garbage. Expensive, pretty, nicely worded garbage.

I have written questions for standardized tests. I have piloted one at-risk program and worked at another one. I have piloted a K-3 Special Ed program. I have taught kids at a title one school who ended up being int the 90th and 82nd percentile, most of whom scored at or above 9th grade in math, reading and writing when they left my elementary classroom. I have tutored students, coached sports teams, donated countless hours to events and committees, and sacrificed 10-12 hour days without number. I have two licenses in three states, both licenses are "Highly Qualified" under NCLB. I have a master's degree in education.

I am done.

The kids in my current classroom often smell of marijuana. There is nothing we can do. I have been instructed to "just get them in the classroom" and little else. I have had to deal with this crappy "Engage NY" common core junk. I have eight hours a day of teaching, so any grading, planning, meetings, phone calls, copying or compliance time is donated for free, by me. I have been threatened, cussed at, accused of racism and homophobia. I have been hauled before the school board by a nut case who is known in my town for being a loser with multiple disturbing the peace arrests.

I am done.

I have one algebra class with only two girls passing, with grades due in 10 days. I speak with them daily. They both come from traditional families and good homes. The others in my class are street rats, and my school is 87% on "Free or Reduced Lunch" programs, and all get free breakfast. It's a scam. It's a travesty. It's just wrong. When I gave my first Algebra test this year - it was 100% word problems and over eight pages long - only one student from my entire class load passed. He got a D-. That's common core for you.

The whole mess is just crap. The best thing to do is to let it crash and burn so we can start over. I promise you, the K-12 Educational edifice is a farce. Let it fall and start from scratch.

That news report does not surprise me.

 

[Steeltime]

"19 out of 500 are college-ready? Well, that's like 52%, isn't it?"

/s One of the 481

 

[Hineswardkickedurpanzyass]

My entire adult family is in public education. My dad is the only one that is critical of the system. We are lucky in that our system still has not been totally ruined, but you can see the wheels of change churning out more and more losers every year. Gerrymandering districts to get every school to ensure the "Standards of Learning" thresholds are met is my biggest pet peeve. My daughter went to middle school at a "disadvantaged" school. She passed 3 other middle schools on her bus ride there. All because this school was about to lose acredidation. So they placed the gifted program there. In one year they went from being the worst school in a huge school district to being a model for school turnarounds. I guess all you have to do to fix a school is take 200+ kids halfway across a county and place them in a school where they are completely secluded from "general pop" <- her words lol.

The good news is that I never had to warn her about gangs, drugs, teen pregnancy, etc. She learned all about it during the trips down the hallways during her sixth grade year.

 

[Steelerfan]

"19 out of 500 are college-ready? Well, that's like 52%, isn't it?"

/s One of the 481

Hilarious! You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Steeltime again.

 

[Steelerfan]

I've been teaching for 19 years. I just tendered my resignation today. Honest, today. The deck is stacked against teachers.

The educational system is just garbage. Expensive, pretty, nicely worded garbage.

I have written questions for standardized tests. I have piloted one at-risk program and worked at another one. I have piloted a K-3 Special Ed program. I have taught kids at a title one school who ended up being int the 90th and 82nd percentile, most of whom scored at or above 9th grade in math, reading and writing when they left my elementary classroom. I have tutored students, coached sports teams, donated countless hours to events and committees, and sacrificed 10-12 hour days without number. I have two licenses in three states, both licenses are "Highly Qualified" under NCLB. I have a master's degree in education.

I am done.

The kids in my current classroom often smell of marijuana. There is nothing we can do. I have been instructed to "just get them in the classroom" and little else. I have had to deal with this crappy "Engage NY" common core junk. I have eight hours a day of teaching, so any grading, planning, meetings, phone calls, copying or compliance time is donated for free, by me. I have been threatened, cussed at, accused of racism and homophobia. I have been hauled before the school board by a nut case who is known in my town for being a loser with multiple disturbing the peace arrests.

I am done.

I have one algebra class with only two girls passing, with grades due in 10 days. I speak with them daily. They both come from traditional families and good homes. The others in my class are street rats, and my school is 87% on "Free or Reduced Lunch" programs, and all get free breakfast. It's a scam. It's a travesty. It's just wrong. When I gave my first Algebra test this year - it was 100% word problems and over eight pages long - only one student from my entire class load passed. He got a D-. That's common core for you.

The whole mess is just crap. The best thing to do is to let it crash and burn so we can start over. I promise you, the K-12 Educational edifice is a farce. Let it fall and start from scratch.

That news report does not surprise me.

So what are your career plans going forward? (if you don't mind me asking)

 

[ark steel]

So what are your career plans going forward? (if you don't mind me asking)

He should become a government funded climatologist....

 

[oneforthebus]

Obviously we, the taxpayers, need to invest in a different evaluation test for underprivileged kids.

We are already doing this.

They are revising the SAT, and one of the reasons is that too many kids get poor scores on it. Which makes very little sense to me, because if they're just going to make it easier, doesn't that mean everybody's going to do better on it? Which means there will still be a top tier, middle tier and bottom tier?

 

[Gareth]

The only possible way to improve education, and it is not an easy path, is to work to find politicians to support being allowed to utilize teh monetary credits that public schools get per child to subsidize private schooling.

That would make private schooling affordable.

 

[Djfan]

So what are your career plans going forward? (if you don't mind me asking)

I don't mind. I spent a number of months recently getting a few certifications in IT. I just got an offer to be an entry level technician at the new MIcrosoft Data Center here in town. I start 12/29.