Profit model school caught deleting bad grades

[Tonington]

An interesting report of a Tennessee for-profit school caught deleting failing grades:

A for-profit school that was hyped by Republican lawmakers as a solution to Tennessee’s education problems recently admitted deleting bad grades to “more accurately recognize students’ current progress.”

A December email obtained by WTVF showed that Tennessee Virtual Academy’s vice principal instructed middle school teachers to delete “failing grades” from October and September.

“After … looking at so many failing grades, we need to make some changes before the holidays,” the email says, adding that each teacher needed to “take out the October and September progress [reports]; delete it so that all that is showing is November progress.”

“If you have given an assignment and most of your students failed that assignment, then you need to take that grade out.”

Republican-backed for-profit school caught deleting bad student grades | The Raw Story

So much for the superior metrics and performance standards. There is nothing accurate about deleting performance records.

 

[Machjo]

Standardized tests should be controlled by the government of course. I don't know of any government other than what you're referring to here that does not have standardized tests across its jurisdiction. Even Sweden with its 'free schools' funded by its voucher programme and Hungary with its myriad course options all have standardized tests nationwide. Sure it's reasonable to give the school and parents more choice and autonomy, but obviously that should not extend to standardized tests.

 

[Goober]

With so many failing they should be looking at the teachers, what is being taught, the testing and the knowledge levels of the students.

 

[Machjo]

With so many failing they should be looking at the teachers

Do what Sweden does on that front, and once teachers see that parents can realy choose the school they send their children to, they'll smarten up.

what is being taught, the testing and the knowledge levels of the students.

Well-written national exams can help with that on the intellectual side at least, though granted on the moral education and possibly skills side then certainly you'll need quality teachers.

 

[Goober]

Do wht Sweden does on taht front, and once teachers see that parents can realy choose the school they send their children to, they'll smarten up.



Well-written national exams can help with that on the intellectual side at least, though granted on the moral education and possibly skills side then certainly you'll need quality teachers.

Regardless of the profession you will have those that passed, met the min standard, cannot perform in the workplace and that includes teachers. A protected species in Canada.

 

[Machjo]

Regardless of the profession you will have those that passed, met the min standard, cannot perform in the workplace and that includes teachers. A protected species in Canada.

B...b...but we can't adopt those nasty Republican school vouchers. We should emulate the Swedish socialist model...

hmmm... But most US school districts don't have school vouchers whereas Sweden has a national voucher programme...

Now I'm confused... Let me get back to you on that.

 

[Highball]

I wonder if their entry exams were done by performance or orally? This makes one ask.

 

[Tonington]

B...b...but we can't adopt those nasty Republican school vouchers. We should emulate the Swedish socialist model...

hmmm... But most US school districts don't have school vouchers whereas Sweden has a national voucher programme...

Now I'm confused... Let me get back to you on that.

Is there a reason you are focussed on Sweden's model? Education outcomes are the highest in Finland, New Zealand, Australia, Denmark...Canada and the US both perform higher than Sweden at educational outcomes. Outcomes are what really matter, not testing results.

 

[captain morgan]

Is there a reason you are focussed on Sweden's model?

The short answer is that he has a massive boner for all things Swedish.... Apparently, they are the ideologically, perfect template for all things good in the world.

 

[JLM]

With so many failing they should be looking at the teachers, what is being taught, the testing and the knowledge levels of the students.

Generally speaking 50% has been regarded as the passing mark on pretty much any test. That is an arbitrary figure assigned to tests of vastly different degrees of difficulty. Once it can be determined who can be passed and failed fairly, that should eliminate one problem. I think one of the biggest problems with young people today is their inability to accept failure (one of the biggest methods of how we learn................trial and error). If you are only failing 25% of the time you are probably a success.

 

[damngrumpy]

There are all kinds of problems with the education system. First yes tests should be
controlled by the government that include homes school if it does not already. In
addition you can look to teachers and point as many fingers as you like. The truth
still remains however. In today's world and it should have happened in ours is the
curriculum should be of interest and change with the times. Students will learn if
interested and challenged and there should not be this no competition thing.
Education should include what is happening in the real world as well with some hands
on experience. Young people should be treated more like young adults in high
school not like children.
Another thing that bothers me is this. We teach all kinds of things in school and that is
a good thing, its just the system does not explain why they are being taught the things
being put forth.
The object of education is to learn how to learn, therefore if you use the methods and
ability to research it can be applied to anything. Education will affect the pocketbook
the social standing, the life enrichment you will encounter as you age. This is not that
difficult here is an example I once used.

Take small kids toys and the stuff they had around ten and then the electronics of today.
The kid wonders what they have in common. Well you first mastered how the squeaky
toys worked, then the toys of elementary grades and now these, but if you were able to
learn the easy toys the transition to more difficult ones is made easier. As you become
more accustomed to the world around you, you surpass the adults who have a disconnect
between the toys of their time and the electronics of today.
I have a grandson who has told me it made education much more interesting because
something new is always coming along and he hadn't looked at it that way before.

 

[Niflmir]

There was a strange story from BC I had read a while back, where parents would enroll their children in private schools for the last semester before the children would apply to university because the private schools would give the better grades.

The standardized tests of course showed the truth: that the students enrolled at the private schools weren't any better. At the point in time where the standardized tests are graded (at the end of the last year), the universities have often already handed out acceptances and scholarships.

Here is a similar story from Ontario: The Truth About Private Schools: Regulation and Credit Mills | Our Kids Blog
and a current story from BC: Proliferation of

 

[Spade]

Student assessment is a black art few teachers master; but, fortunately for schools, we all are bamboozled by the magic of meaningless numbers.

 

[taxslave]

Standardized tests should be controlled by the government of course. I don't know of any government other than what you're referring to here that does not have standardized tests across its jurisdiction. Even Sweden with its 'free schools' funded by its voucher programme and Hungary with its myriad course options all have standardized tests nationwide. Sure it's reasonable to give the school and parents more choice and autonomy, but obviously that should not extend to standardized tests.

The BC teachers union is dead set against the standardized tests administered in I think grades 4 and 7. They are afraid poor results may reflect negatively on the teachers.

Generally speaking 50% has been regarded as the passing mark on pretty much any test. That is an arbitrary figure assigned to tests of vastly different degrees of difficulty. Once it can be determined who can be passed and failed fairly, that should eliminate one problem. I think one of the biggest problems with young people today is their inability to accept failure (one of the biggest methods of how we learn................trial and error). If you are only failing 25% of the time you are probably a success.

Trades require a minimum of 70%. As are all the first aid exams I have taken. Our firefighter certification required 80%. But people that do these kind of jobs must be better prepared than cube rats because mistakes can be fatal when you are fixing cars or putting out fires.

 

[JLM]

The BC teachers union is dead set against the standardized tests administered in I think grades 4 and 7. They are afraid poor results may reflect negatively on the teachers.

Somehow that doesn't surprise me!

 

[Sal]

Like they should be shocked? To me this has zero to do with standardized testing,or poor teaching and everything to do with what happens when you treat a learning environment like a business.

Yes it was unethical but understandable when you think the pressure is on them to produce, produce, produce results because it means money, money money. As soon as you bring money into a situation like education or health care people get screwed. It becomes competitive in unhealthy ways. I know how stats can be manipulated because when you are looking for funding you manipulate where ever possible to enhance the outcome.

Pressure does that. Pursuit for profit does that.

 

[Walter]

Standardized tests should be controlled by the government of course.

Because we all know that guvmints is honest.

There are all kinds of problems with the education system. First yes tests should be
controlled by the government that include homes school if it does not already.

Because we all know that guvmints is honest.

 

[taxslave]

Like they should be shocked? To me this has zero to do with standardized testing,or poor teaching and everything to do with what happens when you treat a learning environment like a business.

Yes it was unethical but understandable when you think the pressure is on them to produce, produce, produce results because it means money, money money. As soon as you bring money into a situation like education or health care people get screwed. It becomes competitive in unhealthy ways. I know how stats can be manipulated because when you are looking for funding you manipulate where ever possible to enhance the outcome.

Pressure does that. Pursuit for profit does that.

Soon as you briing unions into healthcare and education the people get screwed because it is all about the money.

 

[Sal]

Soon as you briing unions into healthcare and education the people get screwed because it is all about the money.

unions and big business are just different sides of the same coin... unions do protect the little guy wage wise, but if they kill the big business it defeats the purpose. Retail is a prime example of poor wages due to the absence of unions. The wages are horrific yet the payoff to the employer can be huge. So it's a middle ground we need to aim for.

 

[captain morgan]

unions and big business are just different sides of the same coin... unions do protect the little guy wage wise, but if they kill the big business it defeats the purpose. Retail is a prime example of poor wages due to the absence of unions. The wages are horrific yet the payoff to the employer can be huge. So it's a middle ground we need to aim for.

The big difference that you'll see between unions and business is that business has a direct measure of both competition and accountability. Poorly run businesses (generally) don't last - the public votes with their dollars or competition drives down the prices to levels that are unsustainable for inefficient business.

The contemporary impact of unions today are the antithesis of efficiency and competition... They serve to drive up costs (prices) and cloud the efficiency of the efforts