Grades up, but skills down
So where has No Child Left Behind (NCLB) gotten us to this point? Those in favor of it, have been touting the higher grades students have been “achieving” (and they MUST achieve them for the schools to continue to receive money). But according to a study reported in AMNewYork, Students’ skills are sinking as grades rise.
Twelth-graders’ reading skills have hit a new low, but their grades continue to climb, according to federal officials who suspect the nation’s schools are inflating grades.
Suspicions that teens’ rising grade-point averages may be unmerited are fueled by two new national reports released yesterday at a Washington, D.C., news conference. Both reports are from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a U.S.-sponsored program that tests representative samples of students in academic subjects.
According to one report, the latest nationwide test results in 12th-grade reading have hit their lowest point since testing in that subject first began. On average, students nationwide scored 286 on a scale of zero to 500 during the last round of tests in 2005 — down one point from 2002 and six points from the first year, 1992.
Meanwhile, grade-point averages have continued their steady rise, according to a companion report on high-school transcripts. In 1990, the typical students’ grade average in English was 2.52 out of a possible 4.0, or the equivalent of a C-plus. By 2005, the typical grade average was 2.82, equivalent to a B-minus.
Federal authorities say they can’t be sure whether this reflects a conscious effort by schools to puff students’ achievements, or whether it may involve other factors as well, such as teacher inexperience in grading.
Of course they “can’t be sure.” If they accuse the schools of making a conscience effort of puffing students grades, there goes the whole NCLB actually working argument, and they can’t have that. But attempting to come up with a different rational explanation is apparently quite difficult… so far. But, don’t worry, I am sure they will figure out a way to blame somebody. They are not going to allow their steppingstone to class-warfare and elite privatization of the school system fall. (Go ahead, give a more valid explanation of what NCLB is than a way to justify school vouchers and privatizing the school system).
Hot Air over An Inconvenient Truth
I am not one who has cared about the Academy Awards in a long, long time, and in particular, I am not one who cares anything about the “popular” awards as much as I like to see people get recognized for technical merit (the geek in me, I guess), things like best score, best animation, etc.
That being said, I will say two things about this years awards. One, does anybody believe that Happy Feet won for any reason other than to just NOT give it to Pixar Studios (again)? It is one of the things that make me disliked the awards so much in the first place. Happy Feet was by most accounts a “fair” at best. Not an overly great story, average all along the line. So why did it win? Was it to neatly fit in a “Politically Correct” night as some have suggested? Or more simply, that is was more “Academy-like” than Cars which would be more of the “Action” film that the Academy typically snubs?
Then of course, on to as the title alludes to, An Inconvenient Truth. I have to admit, I am quite happy on several levels that this film won. Fist of all, because it is, I believe important enough that it deserves the recognition. Second, because it was quite well done and very interesting as documentaries go. Third, because I can’t help but be entertained by the hosts of the Faux News Channel absolutely losing their minds over this. I mean Josh Gibson alone was absolutely livid, and without a decent scientist (or anybody even remotely credible) to turn to, they used Ann Coulter as their “expert” on Hannity and Colmes, to claim that being earth conscience is Anti-Human.
Maybe someday, sombody can explain to me, why wanting to leave this planet to our children in better shape than we found it is such an offensive thought to these people. I mean, I can almost understand why Exxon would offer $10,000 to try and bribe some scientist to say fossil fuels don’t harm the environment. But that is a cold heartless corporation. Don’t these people have children, or neices and nephews or some reason to think outside their pea-brained little world?
Update: OK, we can forget everything those silly scientist have been talking about. It has now been made “clear” by Jerry Falwell:
The Reverend Jerry Falwell says global warming is “Satan’s attempt to redirect the church’s primary focus” from evangelism to environmentalism.
[...]
Falwell said the Bible teaches that God will maintain the Earth until Jesus returns, so Christians should be responsible environmentalists, but not what he calls … quote … “first-class nuts.”
With Jerry joining, I guess the “first-class nuts” quota is officially all full.
EEK!
Another great resource I happened to run across for projects and information geared towards kids can be found at EEK! EEK! is the Environmental Education for Kids website created by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. While it naturally leans towards information for people from Wisconsin (like Ice Fishing information, and what winter birds are native to the Wisconsin area) it has a treasure trove of information informational for both kids and Teachers (or parents that want to teach their kids).
For example I stubled across this site while looking for information on creating a bird feeder out of an old milk container. (The “science projects” this year my daughters first grade class has to be done by “recycling” a used product to a new use). It is a great website to make enviromental issues and concerns interesting for kids.
Friday Focaccia
Ok, now I am serious about my computers, and to be honest, there are few things I would hate more than having to deal with a Macintosh. But when a teenage boy throws his PC out the window because he wanted a Macintosh… well even I am not that hardcore. Of course if he were my kid, he wouldn’t have any computer for quite….some…time.
I have made my opinion known on what I think about mandatory vaccinations for HPV. Mr. Big Dubya over at DadCentric gives the most reasoned and well thought out arguments against mandatory innoculations, that I have seen yet. I don’t agree with his conclusions, and Cape Buffalo give an excellent rebuttal as to why, but if our lawmakers actually showed this much thought on the subject, I might actually belive they were considering this matter on the merits, and not how it will affect “their base” and campaign donations.
As springtime and summer draw near, so does the time of year we start looking forward to vacations. Career and Kids has a nice primer on how to Decompress after a vacation and deal with those back to work blues.
I guess I never got around to pointing out that Bill O’Reilly got uninvited from a fundraiser dinner for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, because of some aweful remarks this hate monger made against Shawn Hornbeck, claiming the kid that was abudcted for 4 years, “liked it.” That didn’t stop Oprah from having him on as a “champion” of protecting kids, but the show and Bill are getting lambasted on Oprah’s Message Boards.
The RIAA looks like it may have finally been handed their first real setback in their attempts to sue the world and use the courts to try and intimidate people. The judge in the case awarded the defendent the cost of her Attorneys, and the RIAA now has the nerve to appeal it because, “the fees are more than what we would had made it we had actually won the case.” Well bravo for realizing what makes so many people (and companies) cower and settle with you rather than go to court.
I don’t care who you are, Republican, Democrat or Independant. If anybody actually thiks Neal Boortz has something intelligent to say after his little tirade claiming Teachers Unions are more dangerous to this country than nuclear-armed terrorists, then you really need your head examined. This one is not a debateable point. There is not “other side” to this. The man is just nuts. Although, I suspect this is only the first salvo as things heat up, as the White House attempts to get the No Child Left Behind Act reauthorized.
And finally, the quote of the day from Sister Judith, the director of the department that runs the Vaticans website and was interviewed recently by Robert Scoble,
“We don’t know what OS God uses, but we use Linux.”
Little Victims
I think it is safe to say that divorce is not fun for anyone. I don’t think I am breaking any new ground saying that. And honestly I don’t have any answers on how to make a bad situation better. Of course, it is possible that the situation in which we find ourselves is unique (although I highly doubt it).
Now it is with much begrudging honesty that I admit my Brother-In-Law is a screw up. He has been for a long time, and he shows no signs of change. When his wife finally left him, most thoughts from the family were along the lines of “What took her so long to come to her senses?” and “It is about time.” Brutal but probably true.
What ensued though was not as well anticipated. Thanks to her deep rooted hated from her now ex-husband, and his inability to get his act together, naturally the mother tries to protect the child from any harm. Understandable. Any caring parent would do the same. But in doing so, she has also cut her daughter (I’ll call her Cremora, just to give her a name) off from his entire side of the family. And this both hurts and cuts both ways.
Grandparent’s, aunts, uncles, etc get to see Cremora, maybe once or twice a year, for an hour or so to give her birthday presents, Christmas presents etc. That is it. No invitations to events, no sharing of information except in the discussions that occur during those brief windows of opportunity. No relationship has any sort of ability to grow, on either part.
It has been especially hard on LatteGirl. Cremora and LatteGirl attended the same Pre-School, so they spent a lot of time together. When the brother-in-law split up, he came to live with us for a while (a whole other story that maybe I will go into another day about that debacle), and Cremora was allowed to spend some weekends with him since he was at our house and we were “trusted” (then). The were more like sisters than cousins, and shared a lot. They were very close, and still to this day love each other very much.
As the Brother-In-Law continued his downward spiral, we were eventually forced to ask him to relocate as it was getting to a point of having an adverse effect on our family. That is when the doors slammed shut. I can only guess (as she will not outright admit it) that she has concerns that we would allow her ex-husband to see Cremora, so visits are… well… now “supervised.” The mother and child come over for a play-date once every 2 or 3 months, usually for an hour or two at most, since she is always busy with something. Hey we are all busy at times, I understand that as well as the next person. But if you are so busy, and somebody offers to have your child over for the afternoon so that the children can play and you can go about doing whatever you need to do, then take them up on it.
I understand divorce is messy, and that at times there is “collateral damage” that occurs. But, I’m sorry, I just don’t feel like the kids should have to suffer because of their bad relationship. They really are just little victims of circumstance.
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