When looking at grades remember schools were allowed to drop only one letter grade this year no matter what

By FastPitch, from the Times Union's message board

When the FCAT elementary and middle school grades come out today, please keep in mind that no school was allowed to drop more than one grade level. Thus, the grade you will see for your school may not be the real grade it should have received.

The state is afraid that our schools can't handel the truth. That being far too many of our kids can't read to save their lives or write a five paragraph critical essay to save their butts.
And what does it say when half of our Florida 10th graders, this late in their education careers, not only read below grade level but can't write an essay using correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation just two years from college?

These are the same kids that grew up with computer games and computers to help them learn. I think we can safely say that this did little for them on the FCAT Reading, Math, and Writes essay tests. Some schools that used iPads for textbooks this past school year still had pathetic reading, math, and writing scores.

When are we going to get it through our stubborn heads that it always has been and always will be the book, the teacher, and the midnight oil along with strong family support that determines student success in school and in life. Not some freaking iPad or computer software program!
No Commissioner Robinson, if you want to start preparing our kids for the next ten years, you can start by saying college isn't for everybody. We should look at the German school model where their kids can prepare for vocational careers through apprenticeship training with major corporations while in high school.

By the time they graduate from high school, they have one heck of a good paying job and career waiting for them. More importantly, they aren't in debt up to their eyeballs after they graduate.

And the Common Core State Standards only cover language arts and math. I think if we're going to go this route, we need to include science, and social studies or why bother.

A recent 2011 study by the Harvard Graduate School of Education found that 56 percent of college students completed a four-year degree program within six years! Meaning 44 percent either quit, dropped, or flunked out. What a waste of money.

And many who did graduate got what I call "feel good" degrees. They majored in subjects like Pop Culture, Medieval History, European Eastern Literature, Creative Studies, or Art History for example. Yes, interesting subjects but they have little if any market value in this current economy.

So, rather than go to college to develop marketable skills, they chose to major in subjects that required the least effort to complete. The latter are nothing but 'fluff programs" that should be dropped.

You have to have skills that an empoyer needs or forget it. Or kids you can roll the dice and six years later you can look forward to moving back home and watching reruns of "Car 54 Where Are You" with your parents.

Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/florida/2012-07-10/story/top-florida-education-official-fcat-changes-needed#ixzz20KiGUF00