I concur with both previous responders. Without a target, it is too easy to lower the standards in schools or districts with a high proportion of at-risk students, condeming them to sub-standard educations. On the other hand, given their circumstances, both educators and students need a way to say "We're making progress and our effort is paying off," instead of getting dinged by the kind of single-measure assessment we would all condemn in measuring our students' grades. In addition, this single-measure tends to create the kind of lock-step, disengaging curricula that puts both academically talented students and those who have academic difficulties at risk, causes middle-class parents of talented kids to pull them out of public schools, and causes the academically challenged kids to drop themselves out. Charter schools, however, if they engage teachers as allies, can be powerful alternative venues for the square pegs.
Posted as a reply to:
Success of "At Risk Student" by Carmen Rivera
|
|
