No Child Held Accountable?

I remember when I was growing up, each school year was punctuated with a test showing how well we were learning the curriculum. It was something that happened from first grade through 10th (11th grade was for the SAT's and the "who do you want to be" test).

We had our number 2 pencils and a brain full of information, a few scraps of scratch paper, and fingers for counting - no calculators until 10th grade, and then it was only if you happened to be taking Algebra 2-trig (polynomial curves weren't much fun to figure out on two hands...).

We sat in rows, head down, pencils held at the ready, and broke the seal on the test once we were told to. Slightly distracted by the occasional shuffling in our seats, we dutifully went through all the questions that we could. There were two parts to the test for grade school that I can remember. There was the grammer and language arts, and then there was the mathmatics. Not much on history, though we were getting taught that as well. Mostly it was grammer and language arts - the basics, so we could get into history and the like later on.

Sometimes the tests were times - usually there were two timed tests and two that weren't.

We would hear the minutes tick by and we would know that as we were taking this test, it was helping determine whether we needed help in certain areas, and what our teachers would do to help us. And then, the time would be up, and we'd put our pencils down.

Tests were normally given on Thursdays, and then Friday was a sort of free day, as it were. We would be allowed time to read our favorite books, or color - a reward for doing so well in taking our test quietly and following the test-taking rules.

We understood that, if we didn't do well we could end up in a special class. Not something we really wanted, but it could happen. If we really messed up, there was the option of the school holding us back. Even if we did all of our homework, if we couldn't deliver the information onto the test from what they'd been trying to teach us, they'd hold us back - it wasn't a punishment; it was more a determination that something was wrong, and the school needed to fix it.

Sometimes it *was* our fault, especially when we got older, and it was a consequence for not turning in our homework repeatedly, and/or skipping school too many times. The general attitude was, if you can't prove that you've learned it, or if you're not HERE to learn it, you get to repeat it.

I'm now learning that things have changed in school, and not necessarily for the better...

My stepson, Speedboy, is in 8th grade. He's on that delicate edge between junior high and high school, and has had the rush of testosterone running through him for a good 2 years... It's a heady time to be a kid, and an even more difficult one to be a boy at times...

The worst part, he's not doing well in school. And when I say he's not doing well, that's a nice way to put it. He doesn't care about whether he passes his classes or not. He doesn't even care if he's punished by us if he fails his classes. Why?

Because the school is refusing to make him own his decisions and reap the consequences of his actions - even when we, his parents, are insisting otherwise.

Schools are now apparently full of rainbows and sparkles, "the world is a gentle, loving place, my child" attitudes. Lots of platitudes, lots of "You just need more positive support and less negative consequences in your life".

Oregon and Washington have both decided not to do anything further than what they call "level testing" until 10th grade. These tests don't do anything other than prove whether the school has reached it's yearly academic goal under the "No Child Left Behind" statute. According to the info on it, Oregon is doing quite well in it's goals to meet federal academic standards - yet, the curriculum is still being taught the same way, but without the consequences... See, apparently flunking a child is bad for the school, and means they won't meet their goals and could lose their funding...

Of course, we have been told now for two years (Speedboy has, on average, a 1.9 GPA) that holding him back would be bad for his moral well-being, and he would not be able to achieve his full potential if he were to be forced to stay behind... Being held back is such a negative thing, they can't possibly do that - unless, of course, there's such a severe disability that he is unable to meet the federal academic standards...

We have also been told that he will be held accountable for his inability to attend to his responsibilities (ie. turning in homework, paying attention in class, keeping out of fights in school) - he'll be held back in 10th grade if it is deemed necessary, based on his test scores at that point.

Of course, the problem then is that he won't have enough time to get his credits together to graduate... He'll already have had a year under his belt where, if he wasn't doing what he needed to, he would have less than he should for 9th grade... But he won't be held account able, since 9th grade is "such a tender, new time for students"...

No child Left Behind is due to go back up to the legistlature again for a renewal vote... If it happens, this same tack will continue with other children. They won't be held accountable for what they learn until it's too late to fix the issue. The uneducated of today will end up being parents to the even less educated of tomorrow. And the Bush administration will be rolling in the dough, because they've gotten a lot of support from Mama Bush to help this little enterprise continue on.

~M