Posted by
U.S. Teacher on Tuesday, July 11, 2006 10:30:02 PM
The answer to the title of this article is yes, of course. Each public school student should be accountable for his or her education. To many, this is logical and proper. Yet, for many school districts, accountability rests squarely on the shoulders of the teachers only.
This issue is serious, as our children will continue to fail. In one major U.S. school district, middle school students only have to pass three semesters of English and Math in seventh and eighth grade to pass the course for middle school. So, a student could pass English both semesters in seventh grade, pass one semester of reading (which counts as English), and sleep through eighth grade English. If you think I'm lying, think again. One of the largest school districts in the United States has this rule (and they wonder why the eighth grade scores are so low!).
Gone are those loathsome days when a student had to, nay, was unfairly forced to pass an entire year to pass the course. Oh, the humanity! How did the students suffer!
The teachers are the ones who suffer. Imagine, if you will, a teacher is trying to get a student to stop sleeping in class(and it's the middle of September)! However, the student passed English the seventh grade year: he's done for the eighth grade. Sleeping in class lets him catch up on what he missed last night when he stayed up playing video games all night. The problem: the teacher can do nothing. The student can fail every single assignment and has "passed" English for middle school. No Child Left Behind test? Not his problem- that's the school's problem.
The teacher in this scenario has no recourse. What's the point of teaching if students can fail everything and pass? Teaching becomes pointless and frustrating. No wonder so many teachers are leaving the profession. As for the discipline issue, that is another post.
The proper and right action is for every student to pass the year. Until this is rectified, this district's students will continue to fail and the teachers will continue to resign. That's a fact.