Texas Schools Felony Fraud numbers of dropouts
 

Did you see the TV story Oct 17 about the ""model"" schools
in Texas getting high marks through fraudulent reports
of dropouts? And the coverups throughout management?
The guy who exposed it from a few levels down had to
go to the media before it exploded.

They were purposefully omitting names and statistics,
altering statistics, and falsely labeling kids as
having transferred to schools - fabricated LIES.

They discovered it has been endemic, many schools
there have been doing this.

The "best schools in the nation" models are less than
advertized.

Texas Schools Felony Fraud numbers of dropouts
 

"Greg Hanson" wrote in message
om...
Did you see the TV story Oct 17 about the ""model"" schools
in Texas getting high marks through fraudulent reports
of dropouts? And the coverups throughout management?
The guy who exposed it from a few levels down had to
go to the media before it exploded.

They were purposefully omitting names and statistics,
altering statistics, and falsely labeling kids as
having transferred to schools - fabricated LIES.

They discovered it has been endemic, many schools
there have been doing this.

The "best schools in the nation" models are less than
advertized.

Though many might disagree, I recall another fraud. It's called grading on
a curve. Way back when, when too many kids were failing cuz they couldn't
answer 75% of the test questions correctly. No one stopped to consider that
the teachers weren't teaching. The grade curve made up for teacher
deficiences. I can recall when answering one-half of the test questions
correctly consituted an A. I disputed this with teachers but got
nowhere.Many kids received credit for one-half of the education they
thought they had acheived. The truth came out only when they had to compete
with others and learned, too late, they were so far behind. So much for the
quality of schools and teachers.

bobb

Texas Schools Felony Fraud numbers of dropouts
 

They also got in trouble for cherry picking for
educational testing. They weeded out kids
they THOUGHT would not pass the testing.
They put a large block of bad students into
Special Education just to keep them from
taking the standardized testing that the school
is judged on.

More abuse of Special Education or Special Needs.

Texas Schools Felony Fraud numbers of dropouts
 

"Greg Hanson" wrote in message
om...
They also got in trouble for cherry picking for
educational testing. They weeded out kids
they THOUGHT would not pass the testing.
They put a large block of bad students into
Special Education just to keep them from
taking the standardized testing that the school
is judged on.

More abuse of Special Education or Special Needs.

Given that current law labels a school as low performing if their special
needs students don't perform on grade level, putting students in special
education doesn't help at all-and may hurt, if it gets your special ed block
large enough to count under the law. Only 1% of students can be exempted
from the test and given alternative assessments. All other special education
students must take the standard test at their grade level.

The number required for the scores to count differs from state to state. In
TN, it is 45 students in the tested grades, total-which means any school
with any size whatsoever will have such scores count.

Texas Schools Felony Fraud numbers of dropouts
 

In article ,
"Donna Metler" wrote:

"Greg Hanson" wrote in message
om...
They also got in trouble for cherry picking for
educational testing. They weeded out kids
they THOUGHT would not pass the testing.
They put a large block of bad students into
Special Education just to keep them from
taking the standardized testing that the school
is judged on.

More abuse of Special Education or Special Needs.

Given that current law labels a school as low performing if their special
needs students don't perform on grade level, putting students in special
education doesn't help at all-and may hurt, if it gets your special ed block
large enough to count under the law. Only 1% of students can be exempted
from the test and given alternative assessments. All other special education
students must take the standard test at their grade level.

The number required for the scores to count differs from state to state. In
TN, it is 45 students in the tested grades, total-which means any school
with any size whatsoever will have such scores count.




the law is designed to designate most public schools as failures --
they require kids who don't speak English to perform in English at grade
level [the school only has to fail in one category e.g. these ESL kids
to fail as a school] they measure school success with kids who weren't
even there in a high turnover district until the end of the year, they
require retarded kids to score at grade level --- it is part of the GOP
plan to dismantle public schools and channel tax money into religious
schools

Texas Schools Felony Fraud numbers of dropouts
 

On Mon, 20 Oct 2003, bobb wrote:


"Greg Hanson" wrote in message
om...
Did you see the TV story Oct 17 about the ""model"" schools
in Texas getting high marks through fraudulent reports
of dropouts? And the coverups throughout management?
The guy who exposed it from a few levels down had to
go to the media before it exploded.

They were purposefully omitting names and statistics,
altering statistics, and falsely labeling kids as
having transferred to schools - fabricated LIES.

They discovered it has been endemic, many schools
there have been doing this.

The "best schools in the nation" models are less than
advertized.

Though many might disagree, I recall another fraud. It's called grading on
a curve. Way back when, when too many kids were failing cuz they couldn't
answer 75% of the test questions correctly. No one stopped to consider that
the teachers weren't teaching. The grade curve made up for teacher
deficiences. I can recall when answering one-half of the test questions
correctly consituted an A. I disputed this with teachers but got
nowhere.Many kids received credit for one-half of the education they
thought they had acheived. The truth came out only when they had to compete
with others and learned, too late, they were so far behind. So much for the
quality of schools and teachers.


It was my experience in h.s. that kids often worked the curve
deliberately. Had nothing to do with the teacher (except he was dumb
enough to fall for the trick). Some time into the scam (this was biology),
my friend Kate and I decided to throw the curve and we got 97% or whatever
on the next test - throwing the curve into a nose dive. The other kids
were very angry but it stopped the nonsense and we were able to
get back to what should have been normal.

Then I went to college and my biology professor fell for the same
crud.

Texas Schools Felony Fraud numbers of dropouts
 

"Donna Metler" wrote in message ...
"Greg Hanson" wrote in message
om...
They also got in trouble for cherry picking for
educational testing. They weeded out kids
they THOUGHT would not pass the testing.
They put a large block of bad students into
Special Education just to keep them from
taking the standardized testing that the school
is judged on.

More abuse of Special Education or Special Needs.

Given that current law labels a school as low performing if their special
needs students don't perform on grade level, putting students in special
education doesn't help at all-and may hurt, if it gets your special ed block
large enough to count under the law. Only 1% of students can be exempted
from the test and given alternative assessments. All other special education
students must take the standard test at their grade level.

The number required for the scores to count differs from state to state. In
TN, it is 45 students in the tested grades, total-which means any school
with any size whatsoever will have such scores count.

Hmmm. Somehow I fail to find this argument convincing in a threat
that started with documented lies and deliberate falsification of
numbers in the measurements that are being attempted in the effort to
make our schools more accountable to the citizens who are paying for
them.

While the regulations you are claiming may indeed exist, I have a hard
time having much faith in whatever numbers are being reported
officially. And the average citizens faith becomes, in my opinion, is
the real victim of those bureaurocratic lies. And then people wonder
why so many citizens refuse to vote for tax increases for education.

Texas Schools Felony Fraud numbers of dropouts
 

On Mon, 20 Oct 2003 16:57:36 GMT, "bobb" wrote:

Though many might disagree, I recall another fraud. It's called grading on
a curve. Way back when, when too many kids were failing cuz they couldn't
answer 75% of the test questions correctly. No one stopped to consider that
the teachers weren't teaching. The grade curve made up for teacher
deficiences. I can recall when answering one-half of the test questions
correctly consituted an A. I disputed this with teachers but got
nowhere.Many kids received credit for one-half of the education they
thought they had acheived. The truth came out only when they had to compete
with others and learned, too late, they were so far behind. So much for the
quality of schools and teachers.

Bobb, you misunderstand the purpose of curving grades and you also
misunderstand that the facts about it depend on the course and the
depth of the questions.

While a multiple choice test graded this way might be indicative of
poor teaching, it also might be indicative of political pressure from
above to pass students (this does happen and it isn't always the
teaching that is at fault, though it sometimes is).

When a course, however, is taught on a high level and tests are used
as learning devices, often a curve in terms of the grades in the
course is justifiable. My son's honors physics, honors chemistry and
honors math courses were all graded this way. 60% was a B, 80%
was an A. He, however, learned all of these subjects to a much higher
level that any of the kids who earned 90% on tests in the regular
classes because the questions on his tests required him to come up
with new ways to use the knowledge he had gained in the class, not
just to regurgitate facts.


--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..

The Outer Limits

Texas Schools Felony Fraud numbers of dropouts
 

In article ,
toto wrote:

On Mon, 20 Oct 2003 16:57:36 GMT, "bobb" wrote:

Though many might disagree, I recall another fraud. It's called grading on
a curve. Way back when, when too many kids were failing cuz they couldn't
answer 75% of the test questions correctly. No one stopped to consider that
the teachers weren't teaching. The grade curve made up for teacher
deficiences. I can recall when answering one-half of the test questions
correctly consituted an A. I disputed this with teachers but got
nowhere.Many kids received credit for one-half of the education they
thought they had acheived. The truth came out only when they had to compete
with others and learned, too late, they were so far behind. So much for the
quality of schools and teachers.

Bobb, you misunderstand the purpose of curving grades and you also
misunderstand that the facts about it depend on the course and the
depth of the questions.

While a multiple choice test graded this way might be indicative of
poor teaching, it also might be indicative of political pressure from
above to pass students (this does happen and it isn't always the
teaching that is at fault, though it sometimes is).

When a course, however, is taught on a high level and tests are used
as learning devices, often a curve in terms of the grades in the
course is justifiable. My son's honors physics, honors chemistry and
honors math courses were all graded this way. 60% was a B, 80%
was an A. He, however, learned all of these subjects to a much higher
level that any of the kids who earned 90% on tests in the regular
classes because the questions on his tests required him to come up
with new ways to use the knowledge he had gained in the class, not
just to regurgitate facts.


If a set percentage was always a B, and a different percentage always an
A, then the course was NOT graded on a curve.

If it is graded on a curve, the teacher scores all the tests, and says
the top 5% are A's, the next 10% B's, the next 50% C's (these
percentages are pulled out of the air: different teachers will have
different percentages that the use.) The point is that you don't know
what raw score you have to get to get an A until all the scores are in,
because the teacher "grades on the curve".

There are problems with it -- but there are also problems with a
standard that says some arbitrary percentage is always an A. If, say
100 kids take a class for which they have all met the prerequisites, and
only 1 gets an A while 15 flunk -- then either there was a lousy
teacher, or there was a lousy grading system in place. Not all teachers
seem capable of teaching, and some who teach well seem incapable of
writing a decent test. I see a real problem with different grades
depending upon which teacher you get, right through college: some
teachers grade pretty easy, some grade very tough. Last year my son
took a college chemistry course which had, as a prerequisite, either a
high school chemistry class passed with a C or better, or an intro
college class. Of the 40 or so students who started the class, only 15
finished -- and of those, there was 1 A, a few Bs and C's, and an
astonishing number of F's. The teacher undoubtedly thinks he's a tough
but fair teacher who is weeding out the kids who can't cut it. My son
says he's a jackass who is a crappy teacher and shouldn't be allowed in
a classroom. (For credibility here, I should like to point out that my
son got a B.)

Sometimes I think UC-Santa Cruz has the right answer -- no grades, just
a narrative description of how well the student did and a pass/fail for
every class.

meh
--
Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care

Texas Schools Felony Fraud numbers of dropouts
 

"abacus" wrote in message
om...
"Donna Metler" wrote in message
...
"Greg Hanson" wrote in message
om...
They also got in trouble for cherry picking for
educational testing. They weeded out kids
they THOUGHT would not pass the testing.
They put a large block of bad students into
Special Education just to keep them from
taking the standardized testing that the school
is judged on.

More abuse of Special Education or Special Needs.

Given that current law labels a school as low performing if their
special
needs students don't perform on grade level, putting students in special
education doesn't help at all-and may hurt, if it gets your special ed
block
large enough to count under the law. Only 1% of students can be exempted
from the test and given alternative assessments. All other special
education
students must take the standard test at their grade level.

The number required for the scores to count differs from state to state.
In
TN, it is 45 students in the tested grades, total-which means any school
with any size whatsoever will have such scores count.

Hmmm. Somehow I fail to find this argument convincing in a threat
that started with documented lies and deliberate falsification of
numbers in the measurements that are being attempted in the effort to
make our schools more accountable to the citizens who are paying for
them.

While the regulations you are claiming may indeed exist, I have a hard
time having much faith in whatever numbers are being reported
officially. And the average citizens faith becomes, in my opinion, is
the real victim of those bureaurocratic lies. And then people wonder
why so many citizens refuse to vote for tax increases for education.

Again, read the federal NCLB law. If less than 95% of the children in a
school don't TAKE the test, the school is considered to be failing. Same
with any sub-group. While frauds have happened in the past, they largely
occurred BEFORE this went into effect, and the requirements for reporting
increased. Believe me, there are so many people scrutinizing our records and
our school now that we trip over them in the halls-precisely because some
schools have done unethical things in the past.