Friday, October 29, 2004

DUMB TEACHERS

Virginia has "High" standards for its teachers yet even their "good" teachers are failing a test (Praxis I) that requires 9th grade Math. Solution? Make the test easier!

"Virginia has the highest minimum required scores of the 28 states that use Praxis I. While most teachers pass the state requirements, others struggle.. On Oct. 28, the state Board of Education will consider lowering the standards in one or more of the three assessment areas.... The standardized test is similar to the SAT. Each section takes about an hour to complete. The reading section tests comprehension of included passages. Math problems are at about a ninth-grade level. The writing section tests grammar and requires a writing sample.....

Hoskins added that Virginia's standards make it hard to recruit. She said the state loses teachers to North Carolina, whose minimum section scores are three points lower on average. Of the 260 teachers Spotsylvania hired last year, Hoskins said four didn't meet the standards. She said 48 of this year's 270 hires still have to pass Praxis I--most of them newer teachers from states not requiring it. Caroline County has lost excellent teachers who struggle with Praxis I, according to Superintendent Stanley Jones".

More here

"Excellent" teachers who cannot do 9th Grade Math? Lord preserve us from even thinking about what the average teachers must be like. And I don't think I need to spell out what it implies about teaching diplomas and degrees. And I don't suppose that I should be so awful as to point out that what is called 9th Grade Math these days would have been 5th Grade Math 50 years ago




FREE SPEECH FOR THOSE THAT AGREE WITH ME

-- As Stalin said. But at the University of Massachusetts they still practice that. An update on my post of 17th.:

"Last April, 'The Daily Collegian,' the student paper at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, ran a column by graduate student Rene Gonzalez attacking Pat Tillman, the football player who had volunteered for the US Army and was killed in Afghanistan. Gonzalez called Tillman an 'idiot' who was 'acting out his macho, patriotic crap' and got what he deserved. An outcry ensued, on and off campus. The Collegian printed a statement defending Gonzalez's free speech rights while distancing itself from his views; university president Jack M. Wilson publicly deplored the column but affirmed the writer's right to free speech.

In my commentary on the brouhaha, I wondered if the people who stood up for free expression in this case would have been as generous toward, say, racist, sexist, or antigay expression. Now, we have an answer. In recent weeks, UMass has been up in arms about an alleged racist incident involving a humorous drawing of a grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

The incident happened last March after the elections for the UMass Student Government Association, at a post-election party attended by nine association members. One of them, Patrick Higgins, had been labeled a "racist" during his unsuccessful run for SGA president because he opposed a proposal to reserve a quota of seats in the student Senate for members of ALANA, a group purporting to represent "African, Latino, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Native American" students. At the party, someone drew a caricature on a dry-erase board depicting Higgins as a "grand wizard" in a pointed hat and with a burning cross in his hand, with a speech bubble that said, "I love ALANA!"

Photos from the party were posted on a student's website; last month, someone tipped off the campus community to their existence. There were forums and meetings to deplore an alleged climate of racism on the UMass campus. The university launched disciplinary proceedings against the students for "harassment." While the charges also involved underage consumption of alcohol, that was clearly a tangential issue.

Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Michael Gargano told The Daily Collegian that he was considering a variety of sanctions against the offenders -- dubbed "the KKK9" -- including removal from their posts in student government or 500 hours of community service. Still others demanded the students' immediate expulsion from UMass. In an e-mail communication last week, Gargano told me that the case was closed, having been "resolved within the parameters of the university Code of Student Conduct." Citing student privacy, the university will not comment on the specific penalties issued to any of the students.


More here


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American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of other countries. The only real difference, however, is how much power they have. In America, their power is limited by democracy. To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges. They show there the same respect for free-speech that Stalin did: None. So look to the colleges to see what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way. It would be a dictatorship.

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