The first thing I learned when training to be a teacher, was that the most important thing for my students was to set the bar high for their successes and do everything I could to make sure that they met those high standards. As a HSA tested educator, it was very important for me to push my students in my classroom and make sure that they knew that it was going to take hard work and dedication to do well on the test and in my class. In my limited time in the classroom I have made sure that my kids know that I do not accept excuses and that they earn their grades, I do not give them. At each marking period I had high amounts of students with low grades, but still my children were proud of the accomplishments they had made. My kids have drastically increased their passing rate on the HSA, in comparison to our school’s history, and for this I am very proud of them.
With this in mind and student achievement in the forefront I attended my monthly staff meeting. At the end of this meeting some teachers were pulled aside to discuss a specific group of twelfth graders. This group had limited credits and needed to take a number of courses on the computer in order to graduate on time. I found this to be no surprise, since many of kids earn credits through an online recovery program. To my shock, however, was the request of the administration; allow these students to skip class 2 times a week so that they could make up courses that they had failed, during my instructional time. As I stood there dumbfounded I made no comments, instead I shook my head in agreement as my heart said no. I left that meeting thinking of all of the ways our students seem to outdo the requirements of coursework, and tried to make connections to Obama’s goals of having students “career and college ready” when they graduate from high school. I realized that many times in our school system the needs of funding over rule the real lessons of life that our students must learn in order to be ready for the next step. There are online courses, bridge projects, and make-up packets for so many students who think that showing up to school on time and prepared is one of their lowest priorities, when in reality they are some of the most capable of being successful. But, because graduation rates are a huge part of how successful a school is, we must work extra hard to seek these kids out and send them on their way with a diploma.
As an educator I do what I can with parent contacts, letters home, and conduct logs, but until my focus can be on my students who want to learn there will never be enough time to make them ready for college. As for our students who are hunted down to finish graduation requirements, we are not preparing them for the real world. Bosses and managers will not call their mom when they do not show up to work, or give them extra hours because they decided to come in late. I do not have an answer for this problem, but I do know that if we continue to find loopholes for these students, they will be less motivated to earn what they deserve.
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3 comments:
I found myself agreeing to many things in this post. I do agree that at times standards are lowered for seniors who need requirements to pass. Indeed, it seems as though my school administration is making up excuses for students who are in danger of failing. Rather than raising expectations for seniors (and other students) to pass their classes, they look for quick fixes to solve a problem.
However, I cannot just blame my administration on things like this. There must be an immense amount of pressure placed on schools to reach a specific graduation rate. These rates are not only publicized, but they are taken into account for Adequate Yearly Progress. And as we know, the pressure to meet AYP can sometimes overshadow any of the day-to-day interests of students and teachers alike.
In Baltimore, we are dealing with a student population where many are not college or career ready and probably shouldn't graduate. But what further exacerbates this problem is that, if we don't graduate them, will they come back next year to finish their degrees? I think this is part of the pressure in moving kids to graduation. Better to have an unprepared kid leave with a hs degree than not...
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