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• [1] Hesch from Lower East Side - 13 year Brooklyn HS teacher - 39 years total experience June 30, 2008 - 12:04PM

  I know EXCELLENT teachers who have developed EXCELLENT curricula who are (Mayoral control or previous Superintendent control) who have been been allowed to teach "pilot" classes, which SUCCEEDED by any measure WE could perceive, yet other teachers (and, often, those teachers, too) were constrained to teach the normal curriculum to the next cohort of students.

  I know ONE forward-looking Superintendent who, ahead of the city-wide change, had the Brooklyn High Schools include ALL freshman in Regents-preparatory classes. Our school went from a 31% passing rate on the first Mathematics Regents, teaching and testing less than 50% of our entering freshman to a 31% passing rate on the [next version of the] first Mathematics Regents, teaching and testing 100% of our entering freshman.

  [If you, like that forward-looking Superintendent, don't notice, that constant 31% passing represents MORE THAN DOUBLE THE NUMBER OF STUDENTS passing the Regents. It took a few minutes scribbling on a napkin to lower her blood pressure when the results were first reported to her. And so many people say they will never use what they learn in high school math again in their lives!]

  I have more.

  
  
• [2] Hesch from Lower East Side - 13 year Brooklyn HS teacher - 39 years total experience June 30, 2008 - 12:06PM

  People often mention "social promotion" in this discussion.

  Consider, based on the "multiple intelligences" and related discussions, that SOME students won't "get" some things. My subject is Math (and Computer), and I have, over the years, figured out that:

  (A) EVERY student can learn SOMETHING from taking math classes - one possibility is, "I am not good at math"

  (B) EVERY student can learn that SOME math is hard - and therefore, when you DO win the lottery, you should pay your accountant what he is worth, because you learned that what he does is hard.

  (C) I should be able to give a 65 to ANY student who attends class and tries and learns SOMETHING. Going from a 35 on tests to a 55 on tests is accomplishing something, and MAY BE worthy of a 65. Remember, any employer who hires such a student to do math, gets what he deserves. But any student who does what we ask / demand - go to class and learn what you can - should graduate high school. I claim there is a SIGNIFICANT difference between a 65 and a 66.

  There is more.

  
  
• [3] KD from Brooklyn June 30, 2008 - 12:54PM

  As a person of color I am weary with the constant "search for answers" as to why inner-city kids don't go to school and don't do well in school, and liberals' knee jerk response of "the education gap". Let's face facts: it's because their elders: parents, grandparents, whomever aren't demanding that they do it. It is laughable to claim that in this day and age these kids aren't being fairly treated. I don't care how much $$ is thrown at a school, if expectations for these children are set low they will give low performance. Poor blacks in reconstruction and before the civil rights acts still managed to go to school & get educated in conditions that these kids couldn't even imagine. What needs to be fixed is the accountability of the adults who brought these children into the world!!