82 percent of US schools may be labeled 'failing'

[AntZ]

82 percent of US schools may be labeled 'failing'

(AP) – 3 hours ago




An estimated 82 percent of U.S. schools could be labeled as "failing" under the nation's No Child Left Behind Act this year, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Wednesday.

The Department of Education estimates the number of schools not meeting targets will skyrocket from 37 to 82 percent in 2011 because states are toughening their standards to meet the requirements of the law. The schools will face sanctions ranging from offering tutoring to closing their doors.

"No Child Left Behind is broken and we need to fix it now," Duncan said in a statement. "This law has created a thousand ways for schools to fail and very few ways to help them succeed."

Duncan delivered the news in remarks to a House education and work force committee hearing, in urging lawmakers to rewrite the Bush-era act. The law was established in 2002 and many education officials and experts argue it is overdue for changes.

President Barack Obama has highlighted reforming the act as a priority for his administration, and both Democrats and Republicans have agreed that it needs to be changed — though disagreements remain on how.

The current law sets annual student achievement targets designed with the goal of having all students proficient in math and reading by 2014, a standard now viewed as wildly unrealistic.

Duncan said the law has done well in shining a light on achievement gaps among minority and low-income students, as well as those who are still learning English or have disabilities. But he said the law is loose on goals and narrow on how schools get there when it should be the opposite.

"We should get out of the business of labeling schools as failures and create a new law that is fair and flexible, and focused on the schools and students most at risk," Duncan said.

The Department of Education said its estimate was based on four years of data and the assuming all schools would improve at the same rate as the top quartile.

"Even under these assumptions, 82 percent of America's schools could be labeled 'failing' and, over time, the required remedies for all of them are the same — which means we will really fail to serve the students in greatest need," Duncan said.


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I know what will fix this!

More money!!!

[Hal-9000]

me fail English? That's upossible!

[Loser]

You want a picture of how bad it is?

Of the 145 students that were in my freshman class in high school, only 23 made it to senior year and actually graduated.

In 7th grade I was in algebra, 8th I was in AP algebra, freshman year? they put me in basic math.

After I found out my high school had absolutely no classes where I could actually learn something, I stopped going, only to show up for testing. Between my freshman year and sophomore year, I ditched enough days to completely wipe out a school year, and I passed all classes with a b average or above. The total days were like 180 something days missed.

At the beginning of my junior year, I found out that my counselor had fucked me over, and didn't schedule me one required credit. Basically I couldn't graduate on time because SHE fucked up. I then dropped out, took home schooling, and did 4 years of high school in roughly 7 months. Getting a federally accredited high school diploma from the state of Illinois.

That was 11 years ago. I couldn't even begin to imagine how bad it's gotten now.

[Hal-9000]

some mighty big words in that post above....you expext us to rede all that???

[Southern Belle]

It all boils down to the fact that the Federal gov't FAILS at education.

[Max]

There's fault from all sides here.

Too many teachers have failed to reach their students on even a fundemental level. Show up, talk topic, send homework, give tests. If all of the kids fail the test...who cares? The teacher gets paid just the same.

Then you have the problem students who do nothing but cause disruptions in class. Others fear them...even the teachers, yet they remain. What do you do with these kids? They mess up the learning enviornment for the rest, but the law says you can't toss them out of school.

Where I grew up, we had several complete schools set up just for the trouble-makers, gang-bangers and perpetual delinquents, but these days cities would have to spend millions on institutions like this. Millions of education dollars on kids who have no desire or intentions to learn anything.

There have to be standards, or we'll be graduating a population of complete morons into the world.

As a person who worked years within a program that taught functionally illiterate adults to read and write, I can tell you that way too many kids are being let loose from our schools that have almost no chance of providing for themselves. Handing them a diploma serves no purpose other than to beef up statistics.

Kids that want to learn, need to be given a place where it's safe to do so. If the teachers cannot or will not educate these kids, then just like any other job where failure is present, they need to be booted.

The US is graduating a bunch of village idiots into the workplace, and is producing grads that are ridiculously inferior to other western nations.

[FBD]

my high school fkd up and swapped my english and math placement scores, completely screwed me over for college. honors english and basic algebra my freshman year what was I gonna do with a physics degree anyway