In yesterday's New York Post, Chancellor Carmen Farina used some questionable statistics to show how the New York City schools have improved. First, was the 70% high school graduation rate, of course she failed to mention that only 34% were "college and career ready" and that far too many of the schools had a "college ready" rate below 20%. Second, she crowed about the 55% who went to college but failed to mention that 78% needed no-credit remedial courses and usually flunked out without getting even a two year degree. Finally, school violence has gone down, due to a change in reporting requirements but she failed to mention how her lax student discipline policies has made student misbehavior the biggest problem for school staff. For more information behind the Chancellor's bogus statistics, read the New York City Controller report.
Today, in the New York Post an untenured teacher was discontinued because he dared report student misbehavior at the Bronx High School, called Design and Construction. Despite the school's requirement to document student misbehavior, the school administration didn't want it reported, You can read the article here. How good is the school? Take a look at their snapshot. That;s right the school has a 63% graduation rate and a 15% "college and career readiness" rate, another diploma mill with few graduates who will be getting financially successful jobs.or succeed in college.
The school administration should be installing a strict student discipline policy rather than hiding student misbehavior but then we all know the DOE rather punish teachers that dare report such inconvenient facts and reward schools that hide incidents, just to make their statistics look good. For the DOE it still is "children last" ....Always.
8 comments:
Pay not attention to the man behind the curtain. Funny that people think this is new news. The DOE has encouraged teachers to not report stuff for years. Anybody who speaks up and tries to report the crazy stuff that we see every day becomes a target.
Good luck David Kent. You are right there is a contradiction to the mandate. Unfortunately there are too many contradictons to count.
By not having consequences for bad behavior we are doing kids a big disservice. Kids deserve to be corrected and told what wrong behavior is. Kids deserve to have disruptive students disciplined so that they can have a chance to learn. Being lenient on bad behavior and letting chaos reign is putting children last.
I have been in a few schools in the last 11 years. Sad to say, but most students are lacking in discipline on even a basic level. Ruins it for the few good kids who want to learn. With the rise of phone addiction, student behavior is now even worse. The coddling by the adults, especially the 'social justice' crowd is counter-productive.
At my current school, kids do some really bad stuff, but admins are loathe to suspend them for fear of rising 'bad stats' against them in the SQR. The kids literally get away with anything now. Students who routinely do no classwork or homework are passed with at least 65s. Teachers who don't obey the unspoken mandate get low rated, fired or harassed out.
6:33 I agree but I has gotten progressively worse. Especially now that the suspensions are rarely if ever given.
Yep all true and we all know the students who are causing the most problems. These kids who are mostly black and brown deserve better. IV
Things will never get better if we continue to encourage mediocrity. Actually, mediocrity would be a godsend, more like apathy.
I am in an elementary school in the Bronx. We have multiple students that run the halls, curse and spit at teachers and physically fight other students. We are talking about 6,7 and 8 year olds here. Chancellor says no suspension for young kids, no matter what. Principal doesn't want things reported and parents curse you out when you call home. One counselor for 1,000 students.... and we winder why the middle and high schools in the Bronx are the way they are.
However the Chancellor likes bad behavior by principals.
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