Submitted by Ellie Depew (not verified) on August 8, 2007 - 17:07.
Do adults in the workforce get promotions which they have not earned? While there are some exceptions, the general rule is that one is not promoted until one can prove that he/she has the qualifications to do the job. Why should we use the educational system to teach students for 13 years that they will get promoted even if they can't do the work, only to have them slapped in the face by reality when they are adults? Students all know who is capable of doing grade-level work and who is not. They can tell you what their district policy on retention is and who cannot be retained again according to that policy. Is it really in those students' best interest to pass them and have repeat that struggle every year? If they know they must achieve to pass, they will usually work to do so.
By the time they are in sixth grade, if they are not reading and doing math at grade level, it is highly unlikely that they will ever catch up. Because they are tired of struggling with work they cannot do, they then become part of the dropout statistics when they are old enough. Do I believe in remediation? Of course, I do. But when extra help and summer school haven't helped students reach grade level, those students need another chance to learn the curriculum that they have not mastered.
Furthermore, when students who have not really learned the standard course of study which is considered the minimum for high school graduation enter the workforce, their deficiencies become glaringly obvious to their employers and coworkers. Their conclusion is that, if this is the sort of graduates that school produces, it must not be a very good school. The integrity of the entire educational system is a stake.
Do adults in the workforce
Submitted by Ellie Depew (not verified) on August 8, 2007 - 17:07.
Do adults in the workforce get promotions which they have not earned? While there are some exceptions, the general rule is that one is not promoted until one can prove that he/she has the qualifications to do the job. Why should we use the educational system to teach students for 13 years that they will get promoted even if they can't do the work, only to have them slapped in the face by reality when they are adults? Students all know who is capable of doing grade-level work and who is not. They can tell you what their district policy on retention is and who cannot be retained again according to that policy. Is it really in those students' best interest to pass them and have repeat that struggle every year? If they know they must achieve to pass, they will usually work to do so.
By the time they are in sixth grade, if they are not reading and doing math at grade level, it is highly unlikely that they will ever catch up. Because they are tired of struggling with work they cannot do, they then become part of the dropout statistics when they are old enough. Do I believe in remediation? Of course, I do. But when extra help and summer school haven't helped students reach grade level, those students need another chance to learn the curriculum that they have not mastered.
Furthermore, when students who have not really learned the standard course of study which is considered the minimum for high school graduation enter the workforce, their deficiencies become glaringly obvious to their employers and coworkers. Their conclusion is that, if this is the sort of graduates that school produces, it must not be a very good school. The integrity of the entire educational system is a stake.