Atlanta teachers convicted in grade-inflation scandal

Tony, I explained it to you three times. You clearly are not interested in a serious discussion. My mistake for trying.

 

You missed the point/joke, but that's not surprising.

 

I can't believe I left oops off the All-sj liberal comedy team. He definitely should replace Dick.

 

You've "explained" nothing. You've said we need to measure the progress "of each individual student," but you've given absolutely no alternative to testing ... mostly because there isn't one. You keep repeating the same tripe over and over again, and when you get caught at it you claim the person pointing out your failure is "not interested in a serious discussion." In other words, you keep being you.

 

Tony, I explained it to you three times. Scroll back up read it again. I did offer things to be used along with testing and you didn't even bother to try to understand the part about measuring the progress of individual students. I never said testing shouldn't be part of the process, just that it is being emphasized far too much.

And on the point of the thread, I'm not defending these teachers. What they did was reprehensible. What I am saying is they are not the only issue to be addressed here.

 

If you believe I am taking a liberal position on this, you know very little about the issue. Democrats are pushing as hard as anybody for more testing and tougher evaluations of teachers. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is a tremendous example of that.

 

The post fit in so nicely with your stated positions on education, why would I take it as anything but sincere?

 

My two cents: basing everything on standardized testing is the lazy answer to trying to prove if teachers are lazy. I agree with oop. A better system is needed. My anecdotal evidence is this: my daughter was generally more miserable in the years when teachers were focused on the test, less interested in learning, less into creating after school. The years when teachers were focused on student learning such as this....she tells me everything about her day, does projects based on what she learned for no reason than she enjoys them, reads more at home. Are their other factors besides the test? Likely. That is why more thought is needed.

 

I disagree that public schools are in a long downward spiral. The expectations for my kids are a lot higher than when I was in school. But I guess it's popular to throw it out there as a fact and all.

Side note: No one I knew took Latin 30 years ago but some were bad in English. Lots of public schools teach Chinese now, which seems more practical than Latin.

 

At least for one more day.

 

Why the fuck would anyone teach Latin in the first place?

And, if they did, why is teaching a language that's been dead for 1,500 years indicative of a "good" education?

 

It's still pretty useful to know if you're going into medicine or the law.