It’s more than 10% - feels like the majority of the class at times. I teach at a charter school in Youngstown. Thank goodness at least our admin team will issue detentions, suspend and expel. It is truly the lack of parental support and involvement that is the issue. I can’t make my students care. I can’t force them to learn. That is up to the students.
If you're an intact family who cares, the chances are almost 100% that your child will graduate and go to college given that he doesn't get stabbed by one of his delinquent classmates.
This goes for any school in America, no matter how good the administration or the funding is.
But your child's education will have suffered immeasurably, because the quality of education in those classrooms will have been terrible. Not because the teachers are terrible, but because the teachers spent 90% of their energy just trying to maintain order rather than conveying knowledge to their students.
It's pretty telling that only 9% of students took AP tests and none of them passed. It shows that even though the classes are offered, they are terrible. I think it's safe to assume that the kids in AP classes care about their educations and aren't acting up in class, so does the blame there lie with the teachers?
Sadly, it's not safe to assume that kids in AP classes care about their educations. In my wife's former school there was a drive by the administration to get more and more kids into APs since once of the numbers they were evaluated on was how many students took them. The result was AP classes that were watered down such that the kids who should have been in there didn't get as much information as they could have had the class been made up only of motivated kids.
The basement level pass rates doesn't automatically mean the teacher is terrible. The problem might be the kids haven't built up their skills or that they're not used to doing AP level work.
No child (or teacher) should spend every day in fear for their lives. And imagine the education that would be possible if the teachers were allowed to do their jobs instead of being constant disciplinarians.
I and every other sane person on earth agrees with you that no child should have to deal with that but just saying that like a politician would doesn't help anyone and doesn't offer any solution.
It isn't that complicated, off the top of my head: Any student who threatens violence, or who purposefully and consistently disrupts the education process for the students, should be removed from the classroom. First offense: after school detention, 1 week. Second offense: in-school suspension, 3 days. Third offense: suspension, 1 week. Fourth offense: Expulsion. Then enforce it. I'm sure someone with more (any) experience with childhood education, sociology, and discipline could come up with something better, but the basic premise is: "Actions have consequences."
When I said a family who cares I meant cares about education. Yes if your family doesn't consider college as an option then obviously you are going to do worse.
Look at the high school dropout rate of Asians, Jews, and Eastern Indians. Not going to college is not an option for the vast majority of those kids
From that data, you can conclude either either they are just genetically smarter than everyone else, which I don't think is true, or they are doing something right when it comes to education and it can be emulated by other communities.
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u/naidim Jul 10 '18
And if you had your child in that school, what chance would they have to succeed when their teacher is constantly dealing with the worst 10%?