What do you think they are going to do with the students who failed in Atlanta?

They will be the scapegoats. They will be shamed, while a lot of the other states whose teachers/students are doing the same thing out of fear of retribution from this broken, outdated system, will be forced to stop in their tracks and rethink how they are going to get their “undertaught” students through the next school year.

@Ladymia69, is it all the school systems fault though?
I remember during the years of my children moving from school to schools, I would see a drop in the quality of education in some places and I would personally speak with each teacher. If I felt they were bringing home stuff that was behind the grade they were in than I would talk to the teacher about giving me materials that would challenge them. I would explain that they needed to be ahead in case their next schools curriculium was superior. I did not want them left behind because the previous school was behind. I never met a teacher who didn’t help us out and as a result they were always a bit ahead.
Parents have the right to challenge the quality of education their child is getting. Unfortunately few rarely exercise the right.
If parents just opened their eyes to what their children where bringing home and objected to the grades their child recieved than this would not have been allowed to go on for decades. If you know your kid has the reading level of a six grader and yet they are being promoted to the 4th grade than you bare some of that responsibilty.

@Pandora Did I say it was the school’s fault? Nope. I say the whole system is broken; teachers, students, parents, administration, government…all the way up to the top of the ladder. You know who started that atrocious “no child left behind” rule, correct? A man who could barely spell the word “accomplished” and probably graduated with the reading/grammar level of a ninth-grader (but he had rich parents with more than education on their minds, and they wanted a good image, dammit). Underlying the problem is the fact that people think that even though resources of every kind are getting thinner and thinner, they can have as many kids as they want to and care as little as they want about them.

@Ladymia69 Sorry, I didn’t mean to pose the questions as if I thought you believed it was only the schools fault. I just meant it as a conversational question. I just meant that in my view it would’ve never gotten this far if parents actually pushed for quality education and put pressure on the board of education to show actual results and that children would not be passed along to simply get the numbers to look good. That the children should actually move on through honest merit.

Parents are ass deep in alligators working, some with more than one job. They should be able to trust that the educational professionals are up to snuff.

Well, the thing that school administration and government fails to recognize is that people learn in different ways and need individual attention. My fourth grade teacher had a very good method. She separated the class into “independents” and “dependents”. Sadly and stupidly, these days parents would scream over such a thing, but it worked. The independent students did their work without as much personal attention, and the dependents (the majority of the students) had more time with the teacher individually. It was genius. Teachers, parents and such should not be afraid to pose ideas like this to school boards. People today are so afraid to be un-PC, or to make one person unhappy. But CHANGE is what is needed, and it isn’t always comfortable for everyone.

In this situation, the kids that failed are victims of the system—most of them probably honestly believed they passed. The Atlanta school district should be providing them tutors and support staff free of charge until they catch up to where they should be.

@woodcutter In regards to the accountability of educational professionals—I wrote something on this thread

As far as the kids that is a good question. What can be done? How far back in school years can they go to help these children learn critical skills?

As far as the teachers and school staff who allowed it… They should be punished for neglecting and stifling these children? I wonder where they are now and how much of an impact this has made on their adult lives?

The teachers are as much victims of the system as anyone. I’d love anyone that disagrees to spend 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, 1 month with a teacher in a low-performing school and see just how hard these people work with all the blame and none of the thanks.
There are bad teachers, yes, but they’re not where you think they are.

@linguaphile I don;t know many teachers to understand the experience so you are probably right

Good article I just found, if you’re interested in exploring this topic further. Very well written, IMO.