tmare_IHB
New member
[quote author="Nude" date=1253267751][quote author="tmare" date=1253266608][quote author="bkshopr" date=1253265572]It is basically a beauty contest among schools. Obviously the under achievers schools selected the best scores to submit. Since the API testing is not a mandatory test for all students then the results are artificially higher than the reality. The school board or sponsor congratulates themselves for doing a good job that they have not left any child behind.</blockquote>
I know for a fact that this is not occurring at the lowest performing schools. It's really hard for me to believe it's happening at all, there's no way we could get away with it at my school. We're banging our heads against the wall with our low income, English Language Learners trying to get them to make some gains. They do make gains, but it is never enough.</blockquote>
tmare, are the ELL kids financially benefiting the school or district in any way?</blockquote>
We are receiving Title 1 money because just over 50% of the population receives a free lunch. We don't receive anywhere near the amount of money that most of the schools in our district receive (most are over 75% free lunch). However, this money is really going to the district because of new rules instituted during this "time of crisis" which allow districts to use the money received in other ways due to the budget cuts. The money is no longer coming directly to the school, it's being used for the general fund. I really wouldn't say these students are benefiting the school financially or in any other way, they are essentially the reason we are struggling to find ways to provide extra tutoring with no budget to do so. The ELL student numbers are actually comparatively small compared to other schools, but according to the state they are a statistically significant group. I know this sounds sad, especially because I truly do love working with these kids, unfortunately those who do are consistently being harassed and the staff at schools like mine are a wit's end having so many rules and regulations crammed down their throats. In my opinion it's all a scam designed to label all public schools a failure so that we can usher in the era of using public funds to pay for private schools. The private schools are not under any of this scrutiny, so no one can really label them a success or a failure. Beware Irvine schools, it will be about two years before nearly all of your schools will be labeled "Program Improvement" schools. We all figure that by that time enough Irvine parents will be pissed off enough to make a difference at the state and federal levels since they overpaid for their houses and now their kids are going to schools that are labeled failures. This is NCLB. We could trade the teachers at my school for any school in the state and I really don't think any other group could do any better than we are doing. The other schools in our district were labeled "PI" schools a few years ago, we were caught in the web last year, so now we are "PI 1". My school is one of only 2 OC schools to receive California Distinguished School 4 times in our history, we have always been a model for other schools in our demographic and have up until now always had a score of 10 when compared to similar schools. Now, because one small group of ELL students (who are still ELL because they score so low on tests, go figure), only made a 7 point gain last year instead of the 15 point gain the NCLB standards said they should, the whole school is a failure. Sorry for the rant, I could go on all night.
Of course, some will figure out ways to cheat the system, I truly don't know of any real stories from real teachers at real schools who are doing it though.
I know for a fact that this is not occurring at the lowest performing schools. It's really hard for me to believe it's happening at all, there's no way we could get away with it at my school. We're banging our heads against the wall with our low income, English Language Learners trying to get them to make some gains. They do make gains, but it is never enough.</blockquote>
tmare, are the ELL kids financially benefiting the school or district in any way?</blockquote>
We are receiving Title 1 money because just over 50% of the population receives a free lunch. We don't receive anywhere near the amount of money that most of the schools in our district receive (most are over 75% free lunch). However, this money is really going to the district because of new rules instituted during this "time of crisis" which allow districts to use the money received in other ways due to the budget cuts. The money is no longer coming directly to the school, it's being used for the general fund. I really wouldn't say these students are benefiting the school financially or in any other way, they are essentially the reason we are struggling to find ways to provide extra tutoring with no budget to do so. The ELL student numbers are actually comparatively small compared to other schools, but according to the state they are a statistically significant group. I know this sounds sad, especially because I truly do love working with these kids, unfortunately those who do are consistently being harassed and the staff at schools like mine are a wit's end having so many rules and regulations crammed down their throats. In my opinion it's all a scam designed to label all public schools a failure so that we can usher in the era of using public funds to pay for private schools. The private schools are not under any of this scrutiny, so no one can really label them a success or a failure. Beware Irvine schools, it will be about two years before nearly all of your schools will be labeled "Program Improvement" schools. We all figure that by that time enough Irvine parents will be pissed off enough to make a difference at the state and federal levels since they overpaid for their houses and now their kids are going to schools that are labeled failures. This is NCLB. We could trade the teachers at my school for any school in the state and I really don't think any other group could do any better than we are doing. The other schools in our district were labeled "PI" schools a few years ago, we were caught in the web last year, so now we are "PI 1". My school is one of only 2 OC schools to receive California Distinguished School 4 times in our history, we have always been a model for other schools in our demographic and have up until now always had a score of 10 when compared to similar schools. Now, because one small group of ELL students (who are still ELL because they score so low on tests, go figure), only made a 7 point gain last year instead of the 15 point gain the NCLB standards said they should, the whole school is a failure. Sorry for the rant, I could go on all night.
Of course, some will figure out ways to cheat the system, I truly don't know of any real stories from real teachers at real schools who are doing it though.
