Reply #22: Happening in Vegas too!

[Pavlovs DiOgie]

I about fell out of my chair this week when my d.c. told me what was handed to him by our regional superintendent: that once I give my kids a unit test, I cannot move on to the next subject until all of the students who didn't pass get a chance to be retaught and retested, because hey, no child can be left behind. That means that 90% of my students are stuck with "enriching" (read: bullshit) lessons until I have time to pull 10% aside and reteach them the entire unit. Note that the way I teach, the only way to fail my tests is to not come to school enough and/or not do any work whatsoever during the unit lessons. Translation: those kids who I stop to reteach will usually fail again, because they will still not come to school, study, or pay attention in class. These are the kids who come to school hungry, beaten or ignored by parents, and/or are given no parental encouragement to do well in school. These kids are sadly the ones who often fall between the cracks, but not due to lack of teacher support. Education is like a 3 legged stool, one leg being the teacher, one the student, one the parents. Without parental support (which teachers have little control over) or student motivation (teachers have a degree of control, but parents have much more control in this area), the child will fail.