Holy crap, someone actually hired "Our Lady of the Hell of Blowing all the Schools Money on My Royal Self". She got a job in Baltimore. Those poor, poor fools. Look at this article: http://www.bcps.org/news/display_release.asp?id=1436 I guess that's what happens when you don't do a background check and just look at her Haaaavard degrees. Kinda makes ivy league schools lose credibility.
--
Would someone please help with the acronyms? We parents who are on the 'outside', need help in understanding what you're talking about. LCPS staff certainly aren't deliberately trying to confuse us, but a brief guide to your commonly used acronyms would be a big help. In other words, don't be like the bureaucrats who thrive on acronyms... and we know how much they want to keep us confused. How about spelling out: PDT, PLT, CRT, DRA, IRI, and any others that have been used... except ETC. Thanks
--
About the issue on teaching sexual issues in the schools...Do we have a problem with teaching children self respect? Seems to me that there are too many negative people out there not believing that our kids can have self-control. What a concept! Yeah, that's the answer people...cover their ears, their eyes, cover something else with a condom and move them on with an STD!
--
Instructional time at my school during February was a joke... Now that the CRT is done, what do we teach for the remainder of the year? The REAL curriculum???
--
Regarding the CRT--yes, any parent can go to the central office and have their child(ren) withdraw from CRT. That withdrawal (test not taken) is counted as a failure to participate for the school. Participation is one of the measured elements of AYP. Many schools in Las Cruces are either close to failing or have failed due to lack of participation. Although the state cannot "shut us down" due to lack of participation/failed AYP, both the state and federal governments can withdraw funding from the district. By not having your child participate, you will eventually deny funding to the child's school. Remember, both CRT and AYP are evaluations of the effectiveness of the education our children are being given. Moreover, test taking skills are arguably an important part of that education, because they will be needed throughout a child's educational life (i.e. SAT, ACT, ASVAB, etc.).
--
Just remember, the people who brought you the IRI disaster are the people who will bring the frustrations of the DRA. So please, direct your criticisms to the appropriate people.
--
How can we ask our children to show class and character when we have administrators calling people idiots? I hope my children don't attend your school.
--
Yes, parents can sign a form refusing to let their child take the CRT. However, the students that do not take the CRT adversely affect the AYP of the school. Even if we were able to convince every parent to sign the refusal form, all that would lead to would be an investigation of that school and the school being taken over because it didn't make AYP. This is unfortunate because we all know that CRT is a waste of time, shows absolutely nothing of what the students actually learn and benefits absolutely no one.
--
Go for it Jack and Jerry and I hope the rest have to guts to file there law suits. The board is still pulling the shots.
--
When I was going to school in the 60's and 70's in rural NY, my school took the Iowa Test Basic Skills several years (not sure if every year). As I recall, they may have been spaced over two days when I was under 5th grade, but we always manged to complete them in a day after that. The test was pretty accurate, to my knowledge, in seeing if we were on track. College testing like the ACT and the SAT seem to be able to capture a reasonable estimate of a student's abilities in 4 hours on a Saturday. Everyone keeps asking why does the CRT need so much time in the school week to accomplish? Isn't it because of the No Child Left Behind-Texas model being forced on every state? What we got when Bush got elected was the United States of Texas model of incompetence thrust into every government institution. I think that the state decisions regarding the CRT were made in that light, as well as many assuming our kids would do so poorly on standardized testing because of heavy cultural influences, some thought it would be more humane to use this testing format. It is obvious now, it isn't. However, blame GW Bush, because none of us, from parents to teachers and especially LCPS officials have anything to do with this useless waste of money called NCLB. Until our governments, our schools of education, our Boards of Ed. and administrators and our educators stop treating the education of our children like it's a political football, this kind of stuff will continue.