Tag Archive for ‘social promotion’ at The Core Knowledge Blog

Tag Archive for 'social promotion'

Attendance Is Not On The Test

Published by Robert Pondiscio on October 21, 2008 in Education Practice, Educational Policy and accountability. 8 Comments

More than 90,000 of New York City’s elementary school students–20 percent–missed at least a month of classes during the last school year, according to a new report from the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School.

In the early grades, attendance is a strong predictor of long-term success. National research suggests that chronic absenteeism in the early grades sets the stage for school failure later on. Children who miss a large number of school days in kindergarten or first grade tend to have lower levels of academic achievement throughout their school careers. Sadly, there are high levels of chronic absenteeism in New York City elementary schools, particularly in low-income neighborhoods.

It’s great to see this issue getting some attention, but forgive me if I’m utterly unsurprised, and a little disgusted. The New York Times calls chronic absenteeism an “invisible problem” but it’s anything but to teachers in New York’s most blighted inner city neighborhoods. Frankly, it’s also another unintended consequence of system in which The Test is the alpha and omega. In my South Bronx elementary school we regularly promoted students who missed dozens of school days, as long as they passed — or even came close to passing – a single standardized test. In a particularly acute case, I fought unsuccessfully to have one of my 5th graders held over who missed nearly 100 school days. He received a 1 (below grade level) on his state math test and a 2 (”approaching” grade level) on his ELA exam and was passed without even having to attend summer school. As long as he scored a 2 or better on either of the tests, I was told, he had to be promoted. God help that kid. Three years later, I still get angry thinking about it.

In theory, I asked an administrator, could a child come to school only on the day of the state test, pass, and still be promoted? It was a rhetorical question. The answer was sitting in my classroom. Occasionally.

Unusual Suspects

Published by Robert Pondiscio on July 24, 2008 in Teacher Training and Teaching. 0 Comments

I’m as much of a creature of habit as anyone, and my daily blog reading features a number of de riguer stops: Joanne Jacobs, Eduwonk, Eduwonkette, Fordham’s Flypaper, This Week in Education, Bridging Differences, and D-Ed Reckoning. I read each faithfully and refer to them often in this space. There are, however, many more bloggers to whom I pay attention that have done great stuff recently that merited praise and eyeballs. Better late than never:

History is Elementary, a terrific site by an anonymous Georgia history teacher, who went off earlier this month on her state’s social promotion, er, retention policy.

Over the last few years I’ve watched children progress to the next grade who rarely turned in assignments, children who rarely opened a book, children with a majority of Fs on their report card, children whose parents have been literally begged to come in and work with us on creating a plan for their student’s success (always a no show), or children who only succeeded during the school day by disrupting every lesson in some form or fashion.

Catching Sparrows is the blog of a high school English teacher who goes by Redkudu. She graces the Core Knowledge blog with her thoughtful comments from time to time. She’s also brave enough to refer her readers to things like hilarious and utterly inappropriate high school commencement speeches by minor celebrities.

I had not read Gary Rubenstein’s TFA blog until reader Brian Rude commented on it recently. If you know a first year teacher, do them a favor and tell them about this blog today. He’s been handing out pearls for the last month on lesson planning, classroom management, and common teacher mistakes. He advises new teachers what to say if asked, “Are you a new teacher?

Some kid is definitely going to ask you so what are you going to say? What most new TFA teachers incorrectly think is the best way to answer this is to exaggerate the seventeen days (or hours!?!) of practice teaching during the institute. To me, this is like bragging about your girlfriend in Canada.

“It’s not the right thing to say because when you eventually make a mistake that reveals that you must be a new teacher,” Rubenstein writes. “Then you’ll be not only a new teacher, but a liar.”

Speaking of which, here’s the piece of advice I wish I’d received in my first year: At some point, probably very late on a Sunday night, you’re going to face a choice: should I stay up and do more lesson planning? Or should I go to sleep. Choose sleep. The best plans on God’s green earth will come to no good end if you’re fried and can’t think on your feet. I always had a better day — so did my students — when I was well rested. I was at my least effective on short rest, no matter how much time I put into planning.