BUT THEN UPON REFLECTION ... WHEN DID TEACHING EVER TEACH 'MOTIVATION' ... WHEN DID TEACHING EVER ATTEMPT TO TAP INTO THE REAL GOAL-MIND OF REVEALING TO EACH CHILD THEIR INNER MOTIVATION OF LEARNING? I GUESS THE OLD ADAGE OF 'YOU CAN LEAD A HORSE TO WATER' HAS SOME TRUTH AS SHOWN IN THE RESULTS. BUT THEN AGAIN.
This story is written like the "Daily Racing Forum" ... just the relative rankings, nothing else, no professional suggestions as to what went wrong and is still going wrong. Perhaps the CMT is too difficult, not relevant, perhaps teaching has turned its head on the real mission? Perhaps the real mission has been mummified in layers of policy, rules, threads that bind with grants, in the end the children and learning have been ignored; worse teaching has been relegated to the guards for the mummies. Perhaps, the real mission should be implementation of the annual program of involvement of the family [parents] and teachers in a program/discussion of what it really means to have a mutually shared investment in 'their children's' education. Perhaps an annual review by the parents of how effective they believe teachers and school system have been in the "wealth creation of their shared investment"? Obviously the PTA isn't effective and most likely has nothing to say or do about education. [I don't have children in the school system any longer and must admit I'm not that close to the PTA] However, I have should have a voice in the "shared investment", after all its partly my tax dollars that support the enterprise and I would like to see something positive ... like a reason why someone would like move to our town [increase demand for home and hence value]. After all local education consumes the majority of our taxes, so a voice would be important. Today the voice generally is viewed as negative when 'we' are asked to continue increasing expenditures to education without enjoying the reward.
Well the 'hole' story is below, but first let me invert the ending for those that don't wish to read to the end. I will put a final listing here for a quick review. After reading the "Daily Racing Forum" quick review ... ask yourself, where would our tax dollars be better spent ... on toilets or books, buildings or salaries, children and education. JUST A QUICK NOTE: I BELIEVE OUR CURRENT BOE HAS MISSED THE MISSION.
The failing list No Child Left Behind requires eight of 10 students achieve at or above the proficiency level on math and reading test to meet adequate yearly progress. Some area schools are on the failing list for the whole school's scores and some for scores of subgroups of students. Subgroups are at least 40 students -- whites, blacks, Hispanic, American Indian, Asian, economically disadvantaged, students with disabilities, and English-language learners.
Area schools that failed to satisfy No Child Left Behind are:
Bethel Middle -- subgroup reading.
Danbury Danbury High, Alternative Center for Excellence -- whole school math and reading.
Broadview Middle -- subgroup math and reading. Hayestown Avenue -- whole school reading, subgroup reading. King Street Intermediate School -- subgroup reading.
Mill Ridge Intermediate -- whole school reading, subgroup reading and math.
Morris Street School -- whole school reading. Pembroke School -- whole school reading, subgroup reading.
Stadley Rough -- whole school reading and math, subgroup reading and math.
New Fairfield New Fairfield Middle -- subgroup math and reading.
Meeting House Hill -- subgroup math and reading.
New Milford New Milford High -- subgroups reading and math
Schaghticoke Middle -- subgroup reading and math.
Sarah Noble Intermediate -- subgroup reading and math Also:
Newtown Middle -- subgroup math and reading.
Redding -- subgroup reading.
Scotts Ridge Middle,
Ridgefield -- subgroup math and reading.
Ridgefield High -- subgroup math.
Sherman -- subgroup reading.
New Fairfield High School ranked in Newsweek
Updated: 09/03/2009 09:57:09 PM EDT
SCHOOLS
High School ranked in Newsweek
For the fourth year in a row, New Fairfield High School has been included in Newsweek's ranking of America's Best High Schools, based on student participation in Advanced Placement (AP) courses in May 2008. A total of 359 AP exams were administered, exceeding the previous year's total. Only 17 high schools in Connecticut were included in the list and New Fairfield High School was ranked as 10. A total of 24 AP courses were offered to students for the 2009-2010 school year.
SO WHAT ARE WE TO BELIEVE ... RELATIVE RANKINGS ... MAYBE A BETTER ANALOGY IS ACCURACY VS PRECISION OR PERHAPS, HAND GRENADES AND HORSE SHOES ... WITH HAND GRENADES YOU ONLY HAVE TO GET CLOSE. ... SELECT YOUR ANALOGY, WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH A BROADER MEASURE OF EDUCATION?
Now check out this ... I wonder what AP courses they took ...
Danbury-area schools falling behind
By Eileen FitzGerald
Staff writer
Updated: 09/02/2009 12:50:29 AM EDT
Only the Brookfield school district remains unaffected by the federal No Child Left Behind legislation that has labeled as many as 40 percent of the state's schools and at least one in each area town as failing to make adequate yearly progress.
The state Department of Education released the list of schools that failed to make adequate yearly progress and those now deemed in need of improvement because of repeated failure to reach the standard.
A total of 406, or 40 percent of the state's schools, did not make adequate yearly progress, just two schools shy of last year's number. Elementary and middle school reading were cited as falling short of making adequate yearly progress, while math is the challenge in most high schools.
Danbury, the area's only urban district, has nine schools on the list.
For the first time, Ridgefield High School and one of the town's middle schools are on the list because students with disabilities did not satisfy the standard.
New Milford and Bethel made the list because of the test scores of their students with disabilities.
"We will continue focus on these students," Catherine Richard, interim assistant superintendent in New Milford, said Tuesday. "We do a lot of team teaching and we will continue to work hard to reach them."
Bethel students with disabilities have improved their math scores in the past few years, but their reading scores must improve.
As the number of students who must reach proficiency continues to increase, so too, the challenge will grow to have them make adequate yearly progress, said Janice Jordan, Bethel assistant superintendent.
Ridgefield Superintendent Deborah Low said the district is working to improve the scores of the students with disabilities. "We know it's a challenge we need to address.
But William Glass, Danbury deputy superintendent, said Ridgefield and Redding making the list this year shows the flaws in the law that educators predicted years ago.
"If you look at the top four achieving districts in the state out of 166, Ridgefield is among them and now they are failing. That illustrates the lunacy of the law,'' Glass said.
According to the results released Tuesday, 334 of the state's 804 elementary and middle schools did not make adequate yearly progress, which is 15 fewer than last year.
But 72 high schools did not make the grade, which is 13 more than last year, and 55 of the state's 172 school districts did not make adequate yearly progress, which is 11 more than last year.
Danbury made substantial gains on the Connecticut Mastery Tests, which are used to determine adequate yearly progress, in nearly every elementary and middle school, Glass said, although two more city schools failed to reach adequate yearly progress this year.
He blamed the continuing shortfall of the high school in part on the revolving door of principals in recent years, which hopefully has ended.
The state reported 296 elementary and middle schools are "in need of improvement" because they failed to reach adequate yearly progress for two consecutive years in the same area, including 87 that are on the list for the first year.
Fifty-six high schools were identified as needing improvement because of 10-graders' test scores on the Connecticut Academic Performance Test, an increase of 12 high schools from last year.
There are 37 districts identified as needing improvement, 16 more than last year.
Schools that receive Title I federal money face sanctions when they are identified as needing improvement, and the sanctions grow tougher by the year.
But a Connecticut law enacted in 2007 requires the state education department to work directly with districts that are in year three or more of sanctions and must take corrective action.
The state is now working with 15 districts that are in corrective action, including Danbury.
Contact Eileen FitzGerald
at eileenf@newstimes.com
or at 203-731-3333.
The failing list No Child Left Behind requires eight of 10 students achieve at or above the proficiency level on math and reading test to meet adequate yearly progress. Some area schools are on the failing list for the whole school's scores and some for scores of subgroups of students. Subgroups are at least 40 students -- whites, blacks, Hispanic, American Indian, Asian, economically disadvantaged, students with disabilities, and English-language learners.
Area schools that failed to satisfy No Child Left Behind are:
Bethel Middle -- subgroup reading.
Danbury Danbury High, Alternative Center for Excellence -- whole school math and reading.
Broadview Middle -- subgroup math and reading. Hayestown Avenue -- whole school reading, subgroup reading. King Street Intermediate School -- subgroup reading.
Mill Ridge Intermediate -- whole school reading, subgroup reading and math.
Morris Street School -- whole school reading. Pembroke School -- whole school reading, subgroup reading.
Stadley Rough -- whole school reading and math, subgroup reading and math.
New Fairfield New Fairfield Middle -- subgroup math and reading.
Meeting House Hill -- subgroup math and reading.
New Milford New Milford High -- subgroups reading and math
Schaghticoke Middle -- subgroup reading and math.
Sarah Noble Intermediate -- subgroup reading and math Also:
Newtown Middle -- subgroup math and reading.
Redding -- subgroup reading.
Scotts Ridge Middle,
Ridgefield -- subgroup math and reading.
Ridgefield High -- subgroup math.
Sherman -- subgroup reading.
