Principal: Dumb Down Standards
The CBS Affiliate in New York, WCBSTV, is reporting that a high school principal in East Harlem has instructed teachers to “dumb down” standards. Now the city is stepping in.
From WCBSTV:
Last month, Principal Bennett Lieberman sent off a stern memo to teachers.
“If you are not passing more than 65 percent of your students in a class, then you are not designing your expectations to meet their abilities, and you are setting your students up for failure, which, in turn, limits your success as a professional.”
“Most of our students come from the lowest third percentile in academic achievement, have difficult home lives, and struggle with life in general. They DO NOT have a similar upbringing nor a similar school experience to our experiences growing up.”
No Principal Lieberman, dumbing down the standards needed to achieve a high school diploma is setting-up the students for failure.
The need in recent years for educators to “dumb-down” standards in concern for the students sensibilities is a lot of BULL! What happened to making sure that Johnny and Suzie know that 2+2=4 and how to locate the United States on a map?
Some of these students are going to graduate high school with marks higher than they deserve that in turn is going to allow them to be accepted into state institutions of higher learning where they will fail to gain the degree that they are attempting to achieve. Why? Because they are not prepared for the work.
Can we leave our “feelings” at the door and get the job done instead. How about learning how to teach these kids who are in failing schools? How about improving the educational opportunities for these students? And no that doesn’t necessarily mean that we need to spend more taxpayer money. It means that perhaps resources are being mis-allocated.
Many school districts are top heavy with administrators. This takes away from the educational opportunities for the students. Many school districts grant tenure to teachers who are substandard, this too is taking away from the educational opportunities for the students. Parents want to choose which schools to send their children to but the teachers’ associations, the most prominent being the NEA, block every attempt to install school choice programs.
Tax monies collected for the education of children should follow the children regardless of which school the parents choose to send them. Private or public, schools should be forced to compete for the right to educate children instead of locking in your child to a substandard school because you live in a certain geographic location.
Want to fix education… it’s call choice.
![[del.icio.us]](http://gribbitonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://gribbitonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Reddit]](http://gribbitonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/reddit.png)
![[Sphere]](http://gribbitonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/sphere.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://gribbitonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Technorati]](http://gribbitonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/technorati.png)
![[Twitter]](http://gribbitonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/twitter.png)
![[Email]](http://gribbitonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
