General Education Topik

[simple schoolboy]

Stupid.

But not facially unconstitutional stupid. An improvement?

[Bi_3]

Stupid.

But not facially unconstitutional stupid. An improvement?

Seem to recall our proggle friends defending this a few pages ago

[elliseamos]

I don't remember anyone defending it.

I remember most saying it was still generally in isolated districts/communities. And that it was about getting teachers into schools, which we all agreed wasn't a solution. Paying teachers more was the solution. This idea is stupid.

[wease]

Here in TN, our state has a new-ish (I honestly don’t know when it was enacted, but it seems quite recent as I don’t remember us going thru this with either of our kids) education law that states 3rd graders that don’t score high enough on the yearly standardized test will not get to move on to the 4th grade. It doesn’t factor in actual grades from their actual schoolwork at all. These kids can re-take the test and if they pass, they move on. If they fail, they go to summer school. All summer. Our system already gets only 6 weeks off for summer anyway and if their families planned vacations or anything? Oh well, fuck you.

Numbers I heard yesterday were staggering. 60% of 3rd graders across the state didn’t make the cut this year. Of that 60%, they’re expecting only 25% to either pass the retake or complete summer school and move on. That leaves 45% of all of last year’s 3rd graders that will have to repeat the grade. Almost half. So now all our 3rd grade classrooms are going to have to deal with classrooms that are overfilled and teachers aren’t going to be able spend any kind of one-on-one time with any kid that needs it. It’s going to be all they can do just to get thru a day of having 40-50 kids in a classroom all day.

Some acquaintances of ours have a kid in this group. One of her moms is a veterinarian and the other is an official in the school system. She started as a teacher and has worked her way up. This kid has never received a grade that wasn’t an “A”. Yet she didn’t make the cut on the test. They had a meeting with our state representative and he pretty much told them “your
kid should be smarter, deal with it.”

I hope when the quakes hit and California sinks that Tennessee gets sucked into the hole, too. This state just keeps going and going on how absolutely stupid people can be.

[elliseamos]

This certainly sounds stupid and unproductive.

That said, it seems like the 40-50 kid classroom comment is alarmist. If you have that many kids not going to 4th grade then you would clearly have expectant 4th grade teachers re-assigned to teach 3rd grade or for those students that are just below the cut-off you'd create targeted, specific "hybrid 3rd/4th grade" classrooms.

There would be an inevitable domino of these students repeatedly needing to catch up year over year, but it would not ever be 50 kids in a classroom.

[blueviper]

Here in TN, our state has a new-ish (I honestly don’t know when it was enacted, but it seems quite recent as I don’t remember us going thru this with either of our kids) education law that states 3rd graders that don’t score high enough on the yearly standardized test will not get to move on to the 4th grade. It doesn’t factor in actual grades from their actual schoolwork at all. These kids can re-take the test and if they pass, they move on. If they fail, they go to summer school. All summer. Our system already gets only 6 weeks off for summer anyway and if their families planned vacations or anything? Oh well, fuck you.

Numbers I heard yesterday were staggering. 60% of 3rd graders across the state didn’t make the cut this year. Of that 60%, they’re expecting only 25% to either pass the retake or complete summer school and move on. That leaves 45% of all of last year’s 3rd graders that will have to repeat the grade. Almost half. So now all our 3rd grade classrooms are going to have to deal with classrooms that are overfilled and teachers aren’t going to be able spend any kind of one-on-one time with any kid that needs it. It’s going to be all they can do just to get thru a day of having 40-50 kids in a classroom all day.

Some acquaintances of ours have a kid in this group. One of her moms is a veterinarian and the other is an official in the school system. She started as a teacher and has worked her way up. This kid has never received a grade that wasn’t an “A”. Yet she didn’t make the cut on the test. They had a meeting with our state representative and he pretty much told them “your
kid should be smarter, deal with it.”

I hope when the quakes hit and California sinks that Tennessee gets sucked into the hole, too. This state just keeps going and going on how absolutely stupid people can be.

I always assumed the standardized tests weren't part of your actual grade, but just a metric to give the schools/state an idea of how kids are doing and what needs to be changed or looked at.

It would be interesting to see the kids' grades from regular schoolwork/tests compared to the standardized test results.

If kids generally have better grades during the regular year and lower test score on the standardized, does that mean they aren't retaining information? the teachers aren't teaching properly? The teachers are teaching properly but the kids aren't getting it? The kids are nervous taking the standardized tests?

[wease]

Here in TN, our state has a new-ish (I honestly don’t know when it was enacted, but it seems quite recent as I don’t remember us going thru this with either of our kids) education law that states 3rd graders that don’t score high enough on the yearly standardized test will not get to move on to the 4th grade. It doesn’t factor in actual grades from their actual schoolwork at all. These kids can re-take the test and if they pass, they move on. If they fail, they go to summer school. All summer. Our system already gets only 6 weeks off for summer anyway and if their families planned vacations or anything? Oh well, fuck you.

Numbers I heard yesterday were staggering. 60% of 3rd graders across the state didn’t make the cut this year. Of that 60%, they’re expecting only 25% to either pass the retake or complete summer school and move on. That leaves 45% of all of last year’s 3rd graders that will have to repeat the grade. Almost half. So now all our 3rd grade classrooms are going to have to deal with classrooms that are overfilled and teachers aren’t going to be able spend any kind of one-on-one time with any kid that needs it. It’s going to be all they can do just to get thru a day of having 40-50 kids in a classroom all day.

Some acquaintances of ours have a kid in this group. One of her moms is a veterinarian and the other is an official in the school system. She started as a teacher and has worked her way up. This kid has never received a grade that wasn’t an “A”. Yet she didn’t make the cut on the test. They had a meeting with our state representative and he pretty much told them “your
kid should be smarter, deal with it.”

I hope when the quakes hit and California sinks that Tennessee gets sucked into the hole, too. This state just keeps going and going on how absolutely stupid people can be.

I always assumed the standardized tests weren't part of your actual grade, but just a metric to give the schools/state an idea of how kids are doing and what needs to be changed or looked at.

It would be interesting to see the kids' grades from regular schoolwork/tests compared to the standardized test results.

If kids generally have better grades during the regular year and lower test score on the standardized, does that mean they aren't retaining information? the teachers aren't teaching properly? The teachers are teaching properly but the kids aren't getting it? The kids are nervous taking the standardized tests?

Responding to the bold part- it used to be. Now it’s the standard used in our state to determine whether or not your 3rd grader moves on to the next grade. Without involving summer school anyway.

[4/5]

First day back today. Found out that we're not allowed to call a student by any nicknames (like Bella for Isabella) or anything besides the name on their birth certificate unless the parent signs a permission form.

[B]

First day back today. Found out that we're not allowed to call a student by any nicknames (like Bella for Isabella) or anything besides the name on their birth certificate unless the parent signs a permission form.

I am totally shocked that this has happened.

[B]

Do you have copies of everyone's birth certificates?

[4/5]

First day back today. Found out that we're not allowed to call a student by any nicknames (like Bella for Isabella) or anything besides the name on their birth certificate unless the parent signs a permission form.

I am totally shocked that this has happened.

I read the DSG bill a couple months ago and didn't see this. I knew there was absurd/hateful stuff in there, but what we were told today is that we are NOT ALLOWED to use a student's preferred pronouns or name without parental approval.

What I knew was in there: teachers/staff can't ask anybody to call them by a different name or to use preferred pronouns and teachers are allowed to refuse to use a student's pronouns even if they have parental approval.

[McParadigm]

Almost a third of Missouri schools will be on a four-day weekly schedule this year

https://www.ky3.com/2023/08/16/almost-t ... this-year/

Going to school four days out of the week instead of five will be the norm for about 98,000 students in Missouri grades K-12 in the 2023-24 school year.

It’s a growing trend across the country.

Nationwide almost 900 school districts in 26 states have shortened their weekly schedules, up from 650 in 2020. In Missouri, around 161 districts will start this year with a four-day week (the official notice from schools isn’t due until October, but that’s a lower-end estimate). That total represents 31 percent of all districts, up from 102 in 2020.

Laclede County R-1, including Conway, is one of several area schools that are newcomers to the list, including mostly small rural districts with a shared motivation.

“Our biggest reason for doing this is recruitment and retention of our teachers,” said Laclede County R-1 Superintendent Luke Boyer during an interview in November of 2022 before he left for Carthage.

Trying to keep teachers from quitting the profession or leaving for higher-paying jobs has become the number one reason schools are making the switch.

And it’s not just rural districts anymore.

This year Independence, a Kansas City-area district with an enrollment of 14,000, becomes the largest school district to go to the shortened week.

“Every state west of the Mississippi allows the four-day school week as an option,” Turner pointed out. “But what’s unique about Missouri is that we have such a huge variety of school districts. We’ve got the tiniest districts that have a student population of less than 100, with Springfield being the largest district in the state (at over 24,000). That’s unique compared to the rest of the country in that small communities have been allowed to keep their school districts. But that also means Missouri has a huge range of salaries. Take Christian County, for example. Teachers in Ozark and Nixa who have been there a while maybe making $15-20,000 more than the same teacher just a few miles away working at a small rural district. So that four-day school week offers that smaller district the option to say, ‘Yeah, but can they give you this?’”

But that leads to an interesting question.

What if the bigger districts already offering more money go to the four-day week too?

“If you have so many school districts in a particular geographic area implement this strategy, it’s no longer a recruiting or retention tool,” pointed out Mallory McGowin, the Director of Communications for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

“That is true,” Turner responded. “But is it going to make more people want to become a teacher? Or maybe stay in the teaching profession longer? Those are questions we don’t have answers to yet.”

According to state law, students in Missouri must be in class for 1,044 hours a year, but there isn’t a rule about the number of days. However, the state legislature has taken notice of the increase in four-day switches. During the last session, a bill was introduced requiring districts to ask for voter approval before adopting the shortened week.

“As soon as that was introduced, the pushback from smaller school districts who had adopted the four-day week was overwhelming,” Turner explained. “So it never happened. It wasn’t a Democrat-Republican thing but a rural/suburban-urban split. Remember that the decision to go to a four-day school week is made by locally-elected school boards, and over 160 of them have made that decision. In the history of Missouri, we’ve only had one school district that has voted to return to a five-day week. So I think the voters and the parents have spoken. They support local control in allowing their local school boards to make those decisions about whether the four-day school week is something that can be a benefit for their kids. And if they don’t like what the school board does, they can go to the polls and vote them out.”

[Bi_3]

I was assured by top men this was all lies

[B]

teachers are allowed to refuse to use a student's pronouns even if they have parental approval.

Gotta protect the children!

[McParadigm]

I was assured by top men this was all lies

When was this

[Bi_3]

I was assured by top men this was all lies

When was this

A while back… it was one of those “why do you care, it’s just one school” things

[BurtReynolds]

teachers are allowed to refuse to use a student's pronouns even if they have parental approval.

Gotta protect the children!

Gotta protect teachers from being fired for the most petty and idiotic reasons.

[B]

teachers are allowed to refuse to use a student's pronouns even if they have parental approval.

Gotta protect the children!

Gotta protect teachers from being fired for the most petty and idiotic reasons.

Like being a dick to children and families?

[BurtReynolds]

teachers are allowed to refuse to use a student's pronouns even if they have parental approval.

Gotta protect the children!

Gotta protect teachers from being fired for the most petty and idiotic reasons.

Like being a dick to children and families?

The phrase "being a dick" does an adequate job of illustrating the unimportance of this "crime" against children and families, justifying no punishment for the teachers. Particularly given the current supply/demand ratio for teachers.

[elliseamos]

I was assured by top men this was all lies

When was this

A while back… it was one of those “why do you care, it’s just one school” things

Congrats, ss.