anonymusings….

State Board of Education Increases Graduation Requirements

I’m a little confused right now. The AJC amended this news article and took out the quote by the State Board of Ed member when asked what she felt about the complaints that many parents and educators shared regarding the changes possibly INCREASING the drop-out rates that Georgia is so desperately trying to improve. For those of you that missed it (something told me that I should have cut and pasted that remark) she said that she had reservations about the changes and that “she hoped everything would work out OK”. I guess someone felt that MIGHT not be a quote that they want associated w/ such an asinine, yet MAJOR decision by the Board of Dread-ucation!

Here’s a quote from our State School Superintendent Kathy Cox, “I don’t think it’s any coincidence that Georgia has one of the highest default rates of mortgages and one of the highest rates of bankruptcy and we have lackluster mathematics performance”.

Sep 13, 2007 7:36 PM | Link to this

Why is it that as educators, we are moving towards a trend in every staff development and school improvement conference to provide “individualized education” for our students, yet we turn around and give them only ONE option for high school completion?

I would much rather see our children be given the neccessary options to supply them with the skills needed to provide for themselves and their families in the future. At the end of the day, four years of mathematics and science is not going to accomplish that depending upon that individual’s career choice.

How much Physical Science, Biology, Chemistry do YOU recall in 2007? What about Geometry and Algebra II? Parents…even post-graduate degreed parents - can barely assist their children with their homework as it is. Why? Because those skills (while neccessary in some areas) are non-applicable in many of our professions. We as degreed professional forget these skills - yet, we have just created a system where our children lack options based upon criteria that we as adults do not utilize in our day to day existence.

I agree that a college-bound student should show mastery in those certain academic areas if they have aspirations of higher education…but it is JUST as OK to offer an alternative for those that don’t as it is for those that do.

I find it appalling that our technical programs are being continually phased out of our schools. I feel that this decision is once again, the state’s way keeping up political appearances while our children are suffering. We have college educated people who are unemployed, yet the technical fields are growing by leaps and bounds.