April 25, 2008
Considering Catholic Education by Jeanne Allen
Washington Times, D.C., April 25, 2008
With Pope Benedict XVI safely home from American soil, many reflect on how his charge that we raise our children to seek peace and justice can occur without the institution of Catholic schools.
A Nation at a Loss
New York Times, NY, April 25, 2008
Tomorrow is the 25th anniversary of "A Nation at Risk," a remarkable document that became a milestone in the history of American education - albeit in ways that its creators neither planned, anticipated or even wanted.
Bush Calls Closing Faith-Based Schools ‘Crisis’
D.C. Examiner, D.C., April 25, 2008
As President Bush lauded advances in faith-based education in the District Thursday, D.C. Catholic schools continued to struggle with enrollment and expenses that threaten to erode recent gains.
Tax Credit Scholarships
The Times of Trenton, NJ, April 25, 2008
Despite the importance of these issues, legislators continue to turn a blind eye toward real reform. Instead, they pass meaningless legislation and a new funding formula that will perpetuate wasteful spending …
They Love The City, But Not The Schools
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, MO, April 25, 2008
But that romance has been put to the test because of doubts about the city public school system. The Braggs and others aren’t sure they can afford to stay, because they’ve decided appropriate schooling comes with a crippling expense.
Charter School Funds Spread Thin
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, HI, April 24, 2008
Hawaii’s charter schools, already preparing to get less state money per student next academic year, will have to share their budget with yet another school that gained approval to open its doors.
Education Survey Reveals ‘Head-Scratching’ Results
One News Now, MS, April 24, 2008
The survey — conducted by Ellison Research — asked Americans to rate the overall quality of education students get from public schools, home schooling, charter schools, and three types of private schools: non-religious, Catholic, and Christian.
Latricia Wilson
May 31, 2008 | 5:59 PMHow High stakes Exit Exams Deprive youth of Educational Advancement
Tennessee Gateway Exam Failure Statistics
The Tennessee Department of Education Data reflects: 19,674 students who were in the ninth grade in the fall of 1999 had not passed the math portion of the TCAP by the summer of 2003.
According to the Tennessee Department of Education Annual Statistical Reports a total of 8,397 students were denied high school diplomas and issued certificates of attendance statewide from the years of 2006-1995.In the city of Memphis from 1995 until 2006 a total of 1,221 students were issued Certificates of Attendance.
Furthermore, Certificates of Attendance are only awarded to students who meet all the requirements for the regular high school diploma but do not pass the Tennessee Proficiency test. The Tennessee Department of Education failed to include the limitations of receiving such a document such as lost of scholarships, ineligibility to enter the military, to receive federal pell grant funding for post secondary education, automatic exclusion from technical, community colleges and universities. Other limitations are exclusion from federal employment.
Overall issue
Many states have adopted exit Exams for making high school graduation decisions, in some cases resulting in denial of a diploma to thousands of students based upon a single test. The state of Tennessee is one of the states that have chosen to adopt high stake exams, without regard to classroom performance, teacher recommendations or access to adequate classroom resources, quality instruction, or pupil services support. The graduation exit exam administered within this state is the Gateway exam. The Gateway exams are course-level exams for students in high school. High school students began to take this test for first time in the tenth grade. The course level exams are English 10, Algebra 1, and Biology.
Why student systematic accountability for Gateway Exam is Wrong
Student Systematic Accountability for the Gateway Exam is wrong because there are key issues that affect students within the public school system. Those issues are:
*Students attending schools that have been identified by the state as failing to provide an adequate {Quality} education to its students; therefore they are deprived of having a comprehensive opportunity to learn the material for which they are tested.
*Students with disabilities are being disproportionately being left behind because this state has failed to ensure that these students are provided reasonable accommodations, and that they are tested on material that actually reflects the level they have been taught. In doing this, Tennessee Department of Education has consistently and willfully ignored both Federal and State Statutes that would have prevented this tragedy in education. The Federal laws and requirements ignored by the State Department of Education are the provisions as set forth under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 2002, also known as No Child Left Behind, The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 sect 503, {IDEA} Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and The American Disability Act {ADA} of 1991.
Results of linking Gateway Exam to NC LB assessment
*Some teachers within the Memphis City School district have resulted to opting certain students out of taking the test that they feel would not pass, in fear that the school would end up on the high priority lists, even though these teachers are well aware that the Gateway Exam is a graduation diploma requirement. *Other factors that are problematic are school closings. For every school that closes there must be a new school facility to place students at the time of school closure. When those facilities aren’t in place the public school closet to the school closed is where the students are placed. This causes overcrowding in the some schools; therefore teachers have a great difficulty teaching core subjects such as English, Science, and math with 40 students enrolled in one classroom. *Additionally, the Memphis City School report card data reflects that 6,653 teachers were teaching core courses they weren’t highly qualified to teach in the year of 2005. Even though the school districts and state department heads were well aware that for every child that are instructed by teachers half equip to deliver, the school system has failed that child by providing inadequately trained teachers in the classroom. Rather than address the issue of ill-equipped and inadequately trained instructors, which leads to the high failure rate of Tennessee students to graduate high school, the Tennessee Department Of Education and State Board Of Education state chose to continue to withhold diplomas from students, in the name of “systematic accountability€ . Systemic Accountability to whom and to what authority? I often wonder how could they continue to eliminate children from the system, preventing the youth from getting on with life in GOOD CONSCIOUSNESS.
*The Tennessee Department of Education refuses to release test information that students missed, or may have poorly performed on in their examinations, which would assist them in being tutored and prepared to retake the exam when necessary. The withholding of this relevant information places teachers at an extreme disadvantage in preparing students to retake the examination, because the teachers have great difficulty in giving students remedial assistance when teachers or students are not allowed to know what portions of the Gateway Exam where students are weak in testing.
Effects on Society
The individual and societal costs of denying a diploma based on a state test score, without providing other alternatives for compliance with Federal and State laws are painfully high. Students without diplomas earn much less in the workforce; are far less likely to maintain stable families as a result of unemployment or under-employment with the low wages that entails, and are far more likely to turn to other means of earning financial resources that may facilitate criminal activities that lead to prison. The stigma of having failed to complete their education silences them.
*Personal Experience
I conclude my remarks by sharing my own experience at the hands of the public education system in the state of Tennessee . I was one of the former students denied a high school diploma for failure to pass the Tcap exam in 2002. I received a modified document after having passed all other required subjects and having persevered through thirteen years of school. I had a mild learning disability in math only. I was told that I could still further my education to some degree. I later learned that no vocational, technical, community college or university would accept my conditional diploma, because it was not considered by these learning institutions a bonafied certificate of graduation from the public school system. I was ashamed, and because of that shame, I was silenced, just like thousands of students that FAIL THESE STATE TESTS EVERY YEAR.
One day, while contemplating my future and in growing frustration at the system, I decided to appeal the issue of substitute diplomas and high-stake examination requirements that a student cannot pass because they are set up for failure under the current system before the Memphis City School board, then the state legislature and all the news stations in the city of Memphis. I have appealed this issue in a personal one-on-one meeting with with Congressman Steve Cohen (D-Memphis) in Washington D.C. Currently I now attend Tennessee Technology Center as a STUDENT.I must say that a Federal Class Action Lawsuit was recently filed against The Tennessee Department of Education on behalf of all former students that were denied high school diplomas for failure to pass the Gateway Exam ,in which I am one of the plaintiffs.The Tennessee State Board of Education responded to the lawsuit by eliminating the Gateway Examinations as a diploma requirement.In the 2009-2010 school year no student in the state of Tennessee will be required to pass any test to qualify for a High school Diploma.The Tennessee State Board of Education eliminated the requirement January 25,2008. It is because of GOD that this has been possible. While I failed the TC AP and even failed the Gateway Exam because of the failures of the public school system here in Tennessee , I do NOT consider that I am a failure. I am determined that I will not be deemed unemployable and incapable of pursuing my career goals because of a high school test score. I refuse to be labeled as functionally illiterate.
Abraham Lincoln
”The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just; it shall not deter me.”