Posts
Our cliff is between buildings, going from 5th to 6th. In 5th the philosophy is that 'all learners' must succeed, so the classes are not deep in content and different learning styles are included in the pedagogy (with the exception of math). Inclusion & SPED are grouped with high achievers, so much that the Regent's suggest for the grade level curriculum is omitted. In 6th, content rules. Inclusion is still grouped with high achievers, but inclusion is given study guides, help from a teacher, and the IEP is used to reduce the h.w. load and usually extra time and quiet on the test is given. There is a lot of h.w. in 6th - well over 2.5 hrs nightly for those not on IEP in the 'high' reading class, about 30 min. less for those on grade level in reading. It is difficult because the 5th grade curriculum omitted all the writing skills and about 1/3 of the necessary background in mathematics.
Students that do well in the transition are either highly verbal or those that had to develop study skills in elementary to stay in the high achiever group. Those that stumble are usually smart visual-spatial boys who had not developed study skills in the elementary or the ability to translate a verbal sequential lecture into good notes; sometimes they are the highly capable verbal boys who don't care to do the h.w. that doesn't lead them to mastery of the material. The former are usually not placed in honors in subsequent grades unless they develop the study and note-taking skills on their own by Feb of 6th grade; the latter are in honors until they reach the point that they can't keep up on the tests from the material they hear in class (usually 7th grade honors English does them in by mid-terms, if not, 8th grade earth science is the wash out).
No surprise, the top 10% academic group based on grades earned exiting high school will include 1 or occasionally 2 boys out of a starting 9th grade population of over 600 students. Enrollment in advanced science and math is very low compared to similar schools. National Merit, SAT/ACT results and college diplomas earned tell a different story about academic excellence for those whose v-s boys stayed and persisted despite the lack of encouragement from the school. This is a large suburban average needs school, not title 1 or urban. App. 25% of parents are highly educated (meaning B.S./B.A. or beyond).
Well......that was a fun read.
Are middle schools in charge of the gatekeeping? That certainly appears to be the case here.
And, if so, when did this happen?
And why?
They don't seem to mention it anywhere in the NMSA.
4 comments:
"Are middle schools in charge of the gatekeeping? That certainly appears to be the case here."
Some schools might call it scheduling.
For our schools, it seems like the intersection of Tra La La K-6 education and the AP demands of high school. The real world beats up on Mr. Rogers. I don't think they intentionally want to make it difficult, but after so many years of spiraling (circling), they have to pick up speed really fast to get the kids ready for high school.
In some ways, it's an improvement over the cliff they used to have between 8th grade and high school, but they have to keep going. they have to fight the lower grade teachers and add more content and skill mastery in the lower grades. They have to take responsibility for learning early on, not wait until middle school where everything can be blamed on the kids.
"I don't think they intentionally want to make it difficult, ..."
Actually, I've changed my mind about this. I'm beginning to see it as a power and control issue. It's not that the material or the expectations are wrong. It's their attitudes. One way to control unruly middle-schoolers is by exerting your educational power over them. Educational power is used to control behavior.
Kids have to be properly prepared for high school, but after very low expectation K-5 or K-6 classes, they place the onus entirely on the students (and parents). After ranting about how math should be a pump and not a filter in the lower grades, they slap on a huge filter in middle school.
Schools have to get past the happy edu-blather and study the details. And parents have to have some way to raise fundamental educational issues without being ignored or demonized.
In our school there has been deliberate gatekeeping.
We learned last year that the Phase 4 teacher was told to hold the grades down.
Holding the grades down meant that some kids dropped out of the class, which they knew would happen, because it has always happened.
Everything about this was wrong. It was a terrible thing to do to the kids, it was a terrible thing to do to the parents (who weren't told), and it was a terrible thing to do to the teacher, who took the blame.
Didn't do anything good for the middle school, either.
I just re-read this.
1 or 2 boys in the top 10% of the class?
1 or 2 boys out of 50 to 60 students?
I'm pretty sure the Supreme Court has ruled that this kind of thing is all the evidence you need of discrimination against a group.
I'm positive (as positive as I can be) that you don't have to prove intent to show discrimination.
Post a Comment