Let Are Kids Walk!: Stupidity Is a Familiy Affair

[roo_ster]

From the "You can't make this sh!t up" files...

The deal is this:
Texas has a high school exit exam called the TAKS.  My wife took its predecessor, the TAS.  It is the sort of test so pathetically easy, you have to be an idiot to fail it, according to my wife and current students.

Lo & Behold, some students fail it and were prevented from walking in their graduation and getting their diplomas.  They and their parents don't like that and protest.

FORT WORTH  Students who had been planning to walk across the stage at graduation ceremonies this weekend were instead walking a picket line Thursday morning.

The Trimble Tech High School seniors marched in front of Fort Worth Independent School District headquarters to protest Wednesday's decision by trustees to bar students who failed the TAKS test from commencement exercises.

About a dozen young people, carrying signs and chanting, began picketing at 8:30 a.m. Thursday. They represent the 613 Fort Worth seniors who did not pass the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exam.

Crystal Martinez complained that while she finished at the top of her class with a 3.5 grade point average, she is now blocked from graduation by failing the TAKS test.

"We know we're not going to get our diplomas, but we just want to walk across the stage," Martinez said. "That's all we ask for right now."

Classmate Chloe Walker agreed. "I believe that I have at least the right to walk the stage with all my friends," she said. "I made it this far, and I have all my credits I need. I deserve to get my certificate of completion."

School officials said non-graduating seniors will have a chance to take the TAKS test again in July. If they pass, they can participate in a separate commencement exercise in August.

The Trimble students said they planned to continue their protest through the day, and may be joined by other students.

Not all school districts ban students who fail the TAKS from graduation ceremonies. Arlington, Coppell, Duncanville, Frisco, Grand Prairie, Hurst-Euless-Bedford and Richardson students are permitted to "walk the stage."

But school districts in Allen, Carrollton-Farmers Branch, Dallas, DeSoto, Garland, Irving, Lancaster, Mansfield, McKinney, Mesquite, Plano and Wylie all have policies similar to the Fort Worth ISD.

A 3.5 GPA and still failed?  And folks wonder why so much emphasis is placed on the SAT & ACT?

She is a fine example why "10% Rules"* are a BAD IDEA^TM.  Not all classes & schools are equal.



* State schools MUST admit any public school student from the top 10% of the graduating class.

[cosine]

Um... Let Our Kids Walk!

*shakes head*

[K Frame]

Here in Virginia we have the Standards of Learning exams...

Yep, you're SOL if you don't pass them...

[nico]

it's also an example of how GPA isn't a direct indicator of a person's intelligence or how hard they work.  I ended high school in Calc I and got Bs in my math classes.  I had friends who took the same math classes as me in middle school and took an easier route in high school (I took a combined Algebra 2/Trig class), which allowed them to get As in their math classes. 

The same trend takes place in college too; people who want to go to med/dental school take easy majors where they can get a high GPA and take the minimum pre-reqs to get in.


it is really funny though

[mountainclmbr]

I was in Rochester, NY a few months back and there was a big stir because the city school district superintendant issued a statement encouraging teachers to teach at least part of each school day using ebonics. Using that standard, the sign is probably correct and we are the ones who should flunk the exams.

[The Rabbi]

I heard that in NoLa the schools are so bad that the valedictorian of one school had to take the exit exam 3 times before she passed.

[crt360]

Certificate of Completion + McJob = 3 tacos in the bag instead of the 4 I ordered 

It's my understanding that the kids take the TAKS test during their junior year and then have multiple (like 5) opportunities to retake it before graduation time.  How is it that graduation shows up and all of these kids and parents act surprised?

[Matthew Carberry]

I heard that in NoLa the schools are so bad that the valedictorian of one school had to take the exit exam 3 times before she passed.

Is that serious or are you waiting for a rimshot? 

We need a rimshot smiley.

[The Rabbi]

No that was serious.  I think her teachers needed the rimshot.

[Boomhauer]

Ain't Government Education grand?

When your momma is a welfare ho'...

The education exams for government school are rediculously easy. You would really have to work hard to fail it.

Educating from a government high school is no real cause for celebration these days. Nor do you have a right to walk across the stage if you are too stupid to pass the exit exam.

Don't even get me started on the conduct of the parents and relatives at the graduations, either...

[Azrael256]

Ah, standardized testing in Texas...  All learning stops in about March when they start teaching those stupid tests.

The previous test (or maybe the test prior to the previous...) was called TAAS.  Texas Assessment of Academic Skills.  I took the very first TAAS in the third grade.  They changed the name shortly after I took the "exit level" TAAS in the tenth grade.  The newer test is much more frequent.  I think they take it every year.

Here's the thing: "Exit level" was tenth grade.  Kids didn't walk because they failed it.  Graduation is twelfth grade.  Yes, that's three years of failing it.

I missed the last few questions in tenth grade.  I fell asleep.  It's not my fault they made it so unbelieveably boring.  My TAAS score still exempted me from the TASP (standardized college entrance exam), and landed me in the ninety-something-eth percentile.

Remember, standardized testing is not about education, it's about money.  That said(tm), those people are idiots.

[Hugh Damright]

"Let Are Kids Walk" ... shouldn't the "be" word be there somewhere .... like "Let Are Kids Be Walking"?

[El Tejon]

Let me get this straight, you did not graduate but you want to "walk across the stage"?  Why?  To feel like you accomplished something when in fact you are a failure.  Amazing.  If I had failed high school I could not have walked as my parent would have broken my knees.

Feeling good about oneself, but crashing and burning=defining achievement down.  Good work, NEA!

[MechAg94]

I took the TAAS when I graduated as well (or some version of it).  It wasn't too hard.  It was more a test of reading comprehension than anything else I thought. 

I hear complaints from some teachers on another site.  They complain about having to spend so much time teaching the test.  I have to admit that some of the example questions I have seen are pretty strange.  I think Texas' current test is a bit harder than previous tests.

There was a guy who graduated 5th in our class who took nothing but easy classes.  He was a smart guy, but he was a farmer and that is what he was going to do.  The guy who was 6th was pissed as he was trying to go to college and just missed out on the top 5. 
If anyone cares, I was number 2 of 89.  In a larger school, I might have stayed in the top 10%, maybe.  My GPA wasn't anything to write home about. 

[ECB]

I axe you this: Is public education working?

[El Tejon]

I think teechurs r dewing wat soshunizm rekwires.

[mountainclmbr]

It are four the chilrenz.

[Perd Hapley]

Our Government at work, the cure is worse than the problem.

[Sergeant Bob]

I axe you this: Is public education working?

Well, ide haf ta say no, beins you caint evin spell AKS rite!

[SomeKid]

As a current college student, I get to see what these...people are like when they reach this level.

First things first, they don't dumb down the assessments (as much) at this level. More than once I have walked out of a test and chuckled at how easy it was, and heard multiple girls whining about how difficult it was. (Granted, the girls mostly pass too because they are smart, but the dumbed down tests they were used to left them unprepared for something that wasn't made easy.)

If they actually wanted to prepare the kids, every year they would take a progessively harder test, but the test is designed to be so hard that no more than 20% of the takers pass. Why? The ones who pass are obviously getting a good education. The kids who see themselves doing bad but are going to be productive will see the need to work harder, and do so. What about the lazy trash that never tries, and always fills out the bottom? Well, someone needs to pick the lettuce and mow the lawns of the world. Unlike most assessments, grades wouldn't be given in a graph showing how many people you beat. It would be a good ole number, so that they know whether or not they put in the right answers, not whether or not they made fewer mistakes than the guy next to them. (Also, this would be a statewide standard.) This would further cause perfectionist types who see themselves getting an 85 (which on this test is pretty good) to feel a need to work harder, and do even better.

The only test not designed to be so insurmountably hard, would be the true assessment given once at the end of their senior year. It would be designed to accurately assess if they learned what they were supposed to. Fail it, and no graduation for you. Don't bother with re-takes, especially since this test would take a full week of full school days to administer. This one would give both a grade showing % correct, but also a graph showing where the student stood in comparison to other takers.

[Vile Nylons]

We can joke about it and all, but I can't get beyond the fact that year after year we are shoving out another graduating? class who are going to be crippled throughout their lives by not being able to read reasonably well, nor do basic math. I suppose keeping their esteems at a high plane keeps them from realizing and thus complaining about the shoddy education they received. Rather than making them smart, it deluding them into just thinking they are.  But real education is hard work and that's no fun.

[Matthew Carberry]

We can joke about it and all, but I can't get beyond the fact that year after year we are shoving out another graduating? class who are going to be crippled throughout their lives by not being able to read reasonably well, nor do basic math. I suppose keeping their esteems at a high plane keeps them from realizing and thus complaining about the shoddy education they received. Rather than making them smart, it deluding them into just thinking they are.  But real education is hard work and that's no fun.

I'm not sure about the word "shoving".  If you provide kids teachers to teach them, libraries to read from, internet access, all for 12 years.  At what point are you "shoving" them out as opposed to making room so other kids, who may want the opportunity more, can get access.

If the kids themselves and the parents can't pull something out of the schooling provided over 12 years, no matter the bad apple teachers or decaying infrastructure, they really aren't trying very hard.

At a certain point I lose sympathy and refuse to feel any responsibility.

[BakerMikeRomeo]

One would have to be a slapdick of astonishing quality to fail the TAKS test. I had to take that mess my Junior Year and *raspberry*. It's the weak-sauce.

~GnSx

[Sergeant Bob]

I just took a look at the TAKS (from last year) for Social Studies, 11th grade.
If they have to teach the test to kids in order for them to pass, they must all ride the short bus to school.

[MechAg94]

Well, that is what I hear a few of them say.    I always tested well so I often assume my own experience is not a good example.

I agree with the sentiment above.  I think the basic problem with public school is that we have basically made it almost a right to graduate from High School.  IMO, if people can't pass the normal curriculum in 4 years, they get kicked out and have to go for GED or other equivilent degree.  You get one chance.  I would even be generous and give them 2 or 3 chances at the test.  As my mother always said, being a high school graduate meant something in the distant past.  Now days it means nothing. 

I remember there was a full class of supposedly remedial kids in my high school.  They just lagged behind everyone and I thought they were doing little more than sitting in a day care until they graduated.  Surely some sort of trade classes or just plain old full time work would have benefited and trained them more than sitting in useless classes learning next to nothing.