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DEL.ICIO.USHouse Democrats: Governor should investigate Cox and those middle school tests
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
While much of the education world is debating the wisdom of later starts to the school year, some Democrats aren’t ready for state School Superintendent Kathy Cox to change the subject. They want to go back to that other issue — the Criterion Reference Competency Tests.
House Democrats on Tuesday called on Gov. Sonny Perdue to launch an investigation into problems with state CRCT testing and the Department of Education.
My colleague Aaron Gould Sheinin reports that Democratic leaders said Cox covered up the testing problems and let teachers and local officials take the blame.
An investigation, said House Minority Leader Dubose Porter (D-Dublin), is needed to discover “where the Department (of Education) went wrong” and to discover when Cox “knew about the problems, what actions she took, and why schools and parents were not warned in a timely fashion.”
The party leaders also called on Perdue to send money to local districts to help pay for the influx of students forced into summer school because of problems with the tests. The education department has pledged to spend $1.4 million to help, but state Sen. Calvin Smyre (D-Columbus) said that is not enough. Any money is no more than a “band aid,” he said, so the state at least “should pay for the band aid.”
Comments
By Independent Voter
June 17, 2008 11:59 AM | Link to this
I hate to see this turn into a Democrat vs. Republican issue. Ms. Cox should be asked to answer for the poor results from a poorly written test. The buck does stop at the top. The problem is there, not with the teachers.
By RJ
June 17, 2008 2:02 PM | Link to this
We have a right to expect good performance from our elected officials and when they fail short, we should call them to task. Political parties play an important role in self-government and in this case they are calling the responsible parties to task.
We have got to do a better job judging talent for elective office.
By betty boop
June 17, 2008 5:05 PM | Link to this
What else did you expect? It is not just the screwed up tests; it is the screwed up view the education is merely teaching the little robots how to “test”. These tests aren’t measuring the validity, skill or work of the teacher or the learning of the children. No child left behind simply meant that no child would be left behind if their parents could afford to send them to private school. No amount of vouchers can help — that’s just a Republican way to get you to finance private schools from the taxpayer’s pocket. Just a pig in the poke.
Chicken hips needs to cough up some dough for the kids forced to go to summer school by bad test; but more importantly we adress the system as whole from top to bottom — not from bottom to top blaiming it on the teachers. And, while we are at it, lets take a look at ourselves. How many times have you gone to a local elementary or middle school and asked to observe for a day or asked if you could help? I don’t care whether you are a parent of school age kiddies or not. You pay for those schools and we have known for a long time that there was a lot wrong. If there were more interest at every level, if we saw the struggle, the poor physical plants, the poor libraries, the cancelled programs, the oversized classes, the poor text books for ourselves, wouldn’t we, couldn’t we find enough time, courage, commitment to march up to Sonny’s office and tell himn to get rid of the woman responsible, if not for the problem, for their being no solution in evidence,. Couldn’t we force our state to do someting.
But we don’t have time; it is easier to blame the teachers, it is expensive to fix the problem, it might raise our taxes, and who cares if the kids are literate or not. They are just kids and they won’t be running the country for years and years.
Of course, lots of them will quit school, have no job, and what then?
Betty Boop says let teachers teach the subjects not the tests. Our schools should be palaces and our teachers the best money can buy and most revered citizens of our communities.
Betty Boop
By GiGi
June 22, 2008 11:26 AM | Link to this
Someone also needs to look at the “New Math” curriculum that had my straight A student tearing out her hair and failing. According to Ms. Cox, all students were subjected to math hell this year in 8th grade to cull out some 1 or 2% of super brains for Accelerated Math II in High School. The best survivors of this curriculum were those with older siblings who had already passed Accelerated 9th grade math. The tutor biz in town is booming! Pretty insulting to have flyers being sent home in book bags about Mathnasium (a private tutor store).
Ms. Cox continues to work over the kids of the class of 2012 royally. They have been the Guinea pigs every year since 5th grade and will continue to be for the rest of their primary school career. The class of 2012 is always the first to have the new program each year with teachers struggling to get their arms around the program. In 7th grade, my student didn’t even have a math book. The state is not purchasing the Teachers Work Books needed for classroom guidance. The curriculum is chasing long time math teachers from math departments in droves. So our best and most experienced math teachers are not teaching this new curriculum. This fire hose method of introduction of a new curriculum is unprecedented. Usually a new program is introduced gradually to see the affect on testing, Not follow one group of students like a plague not knowing the effect until it’s too late.
Oh, BTW, the “New Math” Program isn’t really that new. It has been kicked out of half a dozen states in the last ten years.
Eight graders failing math CRCTs??? Duh.