Some thoughts on the release of A to F Grades

First, stop and read this article:  http://newsok.com/oklahoma-board-of-education-approves-a-f-grade-release/article/3722172/?page=1.

Okay.  Now you can go on, and this will make much more sense.

I have to wonder if these people ever listen to themselves.  There are so many things wrong with this situation, it's hard to know where to start.  However, here are a few.

“When we get to the position to where we're being attacked because we're somehow pawns in the political system, that's offensive to me — maybe insulting,” said retired Gen. Lee Baxter, a board member. “We ain't (ranked) 47th (nationally) because of me. We're not 47th because of this board. You were 47th when I got here.” 

If you are offended at being called a pawn, don't be a pawn.  We aren't (because ain't isn't a word, no matter that they added it to the dictionary) ranked 47th.  We are only 47th in the amount of money we spend on education.  Our schools consistently achieve at higher levels than that.  If you want to complain about that ranking, talk to the legislators.

“Part of any plan is recognizing what the problem is and recognizing there is a problem,” Price said.

Yes.  So why is it exactly that we are required to recognize the flaws in our plan, but you aren't required to recognize the flaws in yours?  We know what the problems are in our system.   Therefore your system to identify said problems is redundant.  Since you won't listen to what we have to say when we give you ideas for solving our problems, I'd say the people who have the issues are not the same people being "graded" by this system.

“All these flunking schools under (the previous system), nobody seemed to recognize.”

Let's think about this for a second.  Just a second - really - that's all it will take.  Point 1 - you say this is a more rigorous system because the old one was too easy.  Point 2 - under this new, more rigorous system only 9 schools out of 1,750 failed.  (.5%)  So which of these 1,750 schools were "all these flunking schools" under the previous system?  Incidentally, I only count 8 of them as failing (if that).  Any alternative education school is an alternative education school for a reason.  I'd like to see what happens if we look at how those kids are actually helped.

So, now that we have all of this data, how does this help me as a teacher "fix" my school.  It doesn't.  Not one little bit.  I could already tell you how attendance effects my kids - not that I can do anything about it.  I could already tell you what academic areas need help.  I could already tell you that some of my kids need extra support.  Now if you'd quit wasting school money on this ridiculousness, maybe they could get it.