--- Catherine Shreves <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> As you might suspect, our data shows that attendance
> is directly linked
> with school success. We need to improve attendance,
> and we will be
> requiring 95% attendance for all students this
> upcoming fall (Point #7).
> Any student who misses 7 full or parital days of
> unexcused absences will
> be considered truant and subject to legal action.
> While there are other efforts underway as part of
> the "12 Point Plan," I
> think that the 3 efforts I've mentioned are the most
> significant in
> terms of reducing the achievement gap.
Shreves believes that criminalizing truant students is
one of the three most important pieces to solving the
achievement gap! What a sad statement about our
board's solution to a problem - make the problem go
away by criminalizing the victims. I would hope that
studies could be done as to why kids aren't attending
school - and work on fixing that problem. I suppose
Shreves is correct, subjecting students to legal
action will get rid of the problem - because it will
get rid of the students. The school district will be
able to report a closing achievement gap between the
benchmark White Student, and the non-white other.
Unfortunately, here in the real world, there will
assuredly be more manifestations of our stagnant
education system's failures.
As alluded to above, I would like to see student
interests taken into account and allow that to
motivate them to stay in school. Superintendent
Johnson once held a news conference on The Plan and in
it declared a
'War on a pop culture that celebrates Rap over
Reading; designer clothes over division/calculus; TV
talk shows over turning in homework.'
Instead, pop culture should be used as a tool. Rap
lyrics should be used as literature, and compared to
cummings, Keats, etc. Designer clothes used as a
lesson in psychology, marketing, economics, human
rights, etc. Talk shows as a reflection of what ails
America - sociology, history, etc. By making school
relevant and interesting, calculus, physics,
chemistry, et al will be more easily accepted, and
students will show up!
What we see in the 12-point plan is an educational
system that ignores the students. We see a plan that
scapegoats the students. We see a plan where a common
sense solution is ignored in favor of a beauraucratic
"solution" which in fact does not address the problem,
but generates a new one.
Jon Kelland
Bryant
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