(Warrior Lake Specific)
0 messages
Updated
Lakes Online Forum
83,651 messages
Updated 6/6/2024 4:31:05 AM
Lakes Online Forum
5,196 messages
Updated 6/5/2024 11:03:19 PM
(Warrior Lake Specific)
0 messages
Updated
Lakes Online Forum
4,169 messages
Updated 4/15/2024 11:05:05 PM
Lakes Online Forum
4,261 messages
Updated 5/28/2024 6:31:10 AM
Lakes Online Forum
2,976 messages
Updated 3/20/2024 11:53:43 PM
Lakes Online Forum
98 messages
Updated 4/15/2024 1:00:58 AM
|
|
|
| Name: |
lotowner
- 
|
|
| Subject: |
Chicago School
|
|
Date:
|
6/17/2009 2:52:27 PM
|
Nearly 60% Won't Graduate At South Side School
44 Of 77 Students At Bradwell Elementary Did Not Pass Eighth Grade
A startling number of children are falling through the cracks at one Chicago Public School. More than half of the kids didn't even pass the eighth grade. As CBS 2's Jim Williams reports there is fierce debate about who's to blame.
It is a debate that has gone on for years in poor communities: do you blame the schools for the students' poor performance or do you blame their parents?
The mother of a one student who failed eighth grade says she got no warning her son was struggling. The school says she was notified, and other parents insist she did not do enough.
Tatianna Dennis' son, Tarrell, took his eighth grade photo complete with cap and gown, but the day before his grammar school's graduation, Tarrell learned he would not be marching down the aisle.
"I asked him why but he was so heartbroken, he couldn't really talk," said Tatianna Dennis.
Dennis says she had no idea her son was about to fail English; no written notices from Bradwell Elementary, she says, and no warning from his teacher.
Tarrell had failed English two times before, but Dennis thought he was doing better.
"They told me that he was fine. He was starting to come around and his grades were picking up," Dennis said. "They never gave me any indication that he was going downhill."
It was a disastrous year for the eighth grade at the south side Bradwell Elementary school in a tough neighborhood with high poverty. More than half the class, 44 of 77 students, did not graduate.
Loetisis Billingsley's nephew is one of those failing students.
"It's horrible because these kids were under the impression they were graduating, and they let them know at the last minute that they wasn't," Billingsley said.
The Board of Education insists the Bradwell school did everything possible to keep the students' grades up, offering extra credit and school on Saturday. And the Board says written notices did go out.
Some parents came to the defense of the school.
"You have to be in your kid's life, you have to know what's going on in their world," said parent Vanessa Ewing. "I'm up at the school. The teachers know me. I stay on them. I stay on my kids."
"It was something that child must not have been doing right in order for him to stay behind," said parent Sharon Shavers.
Tatianna Dennis' son is now in summer school. She works nights as a security guard, leaving her little time with Tarrell to supervise his homework.
"Especially now, when I need the help the most, with situations like this," Dennis said. "And there's nobody but me. But I get through it."
On an encouraging note, Dennis says her son is so upset he failed eighth grade, he is now determined to be a better student, pass his classes this summer and go on to high school.
In that south side neighborhood, another mother said she has all the cell phone numbers of her kids' teachers and she calls them all the time, and her kids are doing well in school.
|
| Name: |
Lady
-
|
|
| Subject: |
Another 'Cut & Paste'
|
|
Date:
|
6/17/2009 4:16:20 PM
|
Again, Alabama has failed its children
Credit school officials and the news media with trying to see the silver lining in recently released figures on education, which ranked Alabama a dismal 44th out of 50 states in graduating its students from high school.
Though an embarrassingly low 62 percent of Alabama's public high school enrollees eventually graduate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, optimists point to a 4 percent increase in the number of graduates over the previous decade as a cause for celebration.
That kind of news spin would be like the notorious American International Group executives wanting a pat on the back, if the millions in bonuses they gave to executives who helped the company fail were actually a 4 percent decrease from what they doled out in previous year.
It would be humorous, except we're talking about Alabama's abject failure in what should be its most important responsibility: its children.
The difference between a graduate and a high school dropout is a huge gap in employment prospects, annual income and quality of life. And it's been proved many dropouts will inevitably become a burden to the rest of us, requiring the state to spend more for prisons, unemployment benefits and welfare.
So instead of trying to view Alabama's annual failing report card on education through some kind of reverse image, glass-half-full night goggles, let's try looking at the problem in the clear light of day: The reason Alabama is 44th in graduation rate is that it is a lowly No. 43 out of 50 states in funding its schools.
In fact, Alabama's spending on each of its students is almost $1,000 below the average for the rest of the country.
Why?
Because of us.
We don't want to pay more for kids to learn because we do not want higher taxes. And we keep sending men and women to Montgomery and to Washington who do what we want.
We think we're getting a bargain, bragging to our cousins in Arkansas or Florida or Alaska how we pay the lowest property and income tax bills in the nation (according to the Tax Foundation), because we don't bow to teachers' unions, don't believe in throwing money at a problem to make it go away, or don't let any government stand in the way of our purchasing 52-inch plasma TVs or cramping our style in any other fashion.
The reality, though, is we get what we pay for.
Besides the shameful 44th ranking in national graduation rates, we were awarded ignominious 48th place when it comes to safeguarding children's general well-being.
According to the 2008 Kids Count national study of children's wellness by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, we share with four other states the very worst records for infant mortality, single-parent families, teen death rates, low-birth-weight babies and children living in poverty.
With dropouts added to all that, if the state of Alabama were the father of a family, he would be arrested for criminal child neglect.
We cannot blame it on government, on too much TV, on the evil Internet or on lazy teachers.
It's all on us.
It can't be fixed with popular Band-Aids like prayer in schools, making parents pick up report cards, giving teachers merit pay. That's all been the demagoguery of camouflage, hiding our distaste and lack of will for making the necessary sacrifices for our children.
Watch the faces and hear the words of our two senators in Washington as they sneer about stimulus money being sent to schools, or when they voted against a recent bill giving health care to 11 million kids without insurance.
But don't blame them, either. They're just doing what they think we want them to do, which is to keep every last penny in our own pockets.
There is hope for change. Gov. Bob Riley has the power, the popularity and the courage to engineer legislation for per-pupil funding that gets us at least even with the national average. He can jump-start the initiative with federal stimulus funds, and then call on corporations and citizens to accept their overdue responsibility.
A community is judged on the way it cares for its children.
And on that count, Alabama does not work anymore and hasn't worked for a long time.
Since children are our future, a fundamental change in the state's philosophical and political priorities is needed if Alabama is ever to work right again.
Written by David McGrath (4/12/09), who lives on Dauphin Island, retired from teaching English at College of DuPage and from the University of South Alabama.
|
| Name: |
Barneget
-
|
|
| Subject: |
Another 'Cut & Paste'
|
|
Date:
|
6/17/2009 10:18:35 PM
|
I find our graduation rate disappointing, and cause for serious concern. I disagree with the "more money solves it" statement, paraphrased from the above post, and find myself more closely aligned with the urban ghetto dwelling parents involved in the lives of their children. They appear to have the answer. Parent your kids, don't leave that responsibility to anyone else, as the "it takes a village" collective mindset doesn't work. Part of the issue with the national rankings is the inclusion of the 11 Alabama counties comprising the black belt. Carve out the results of those 11 counties, and interestingly, our statewide graduation rate moves into the top 10. So, rather than shot gunning more money across the state, should we consider directing some dollars, and focus efforts, on the 11 counties, teaching parenting skills, birth control, abstinence, maybe job programs? Or, should we just continue to broadcast that we shortchange children across this great state because we provide fewer tax dollars per child for education? Your same argument has been made for 30 years. Additional monies have followed for the same 30 years. Amazingly, the national ranking is unchanged.
|
| Name: |
dvine
-
|
|
| Subject: |
Another 'Cut & Paste'
|
|
Date:
|
6/18/2009 7:22:56 AM
|
After just a little research, I discovered that Illinois is in the top twenty states in spending per student and look at that Chicago school. Washington D.C., also, spends in the top five per student and guess what, it is one of the lowest in students’ rankings and graduations. Utah has one of the lowest spent per student and near the top in student ranking and graduation rates. What that tells me is that it is not what is spent per student but the quality of students and parents.
|
| Name: |
water_watcher
-
|
|
| Subject: |
Just like most things ....
|
|
Date:
|
6/18/2009 8:00:01 AM
|
throwing money at the problem does not fix it. The education problem needs more parent involvement, disapline and support for the teachers. The teachers need to be compensated based on standarized testing and hold them accountable where they lose their job if test scores continue to fall short. No exception.
We look at other countries in Asia, India, etc and say boy those people are smart ... it is not that ... visit some of those counties and visit a school and see the disapline in the classroom, all students dressed the same and ready to learn.
The problem in the US is that parents sue schools if their precious baby is disaplined or told they can not wear some of the garbage they come to school in.
I sent my son to a private school, he wore a uniform, including a tie everyday ... and I (and he) is proud of the outcome.
|
|
|
New Post
Search
Off-Topic Forum
Reply
»
Alabama Lakes
»
Warrior Lake
Login
|
Home
