Note: I was sent a picture of all the schools scores and I originally had it up. Later the person who sent it to me contacted me and asked me to take it down. They said they were afraid for their job. I may have disagreed with their choice but I will respect it.
The scores were abysmal and the district average for scoring in the top forty percent was one percent and this is with most of the kids in 9th and 10th grade taking it. The scores were a disaster.
If somebody else sends me the scores I will put them back up but until then this is the best I can do.
The high school ELA scrimmage that was supposed to mirror the upcoming FSA and was given to students just before Christmas.
The results are ridiculously bad. Every school including Stanton and Paxon tanked (and so much for the district testing less right?)
The teachers I am talking to are frustrated with the district. They are telling me that the curriculum is half written and what activities they are given don't match the standards.
Where frustrated with the district they are also frustrated with the state which has given them a constantly moving target.
With both the state and the district hammering away at them, many teachers feel like they and their students are being set up to fail.
I am reminded of the old saying, with friends like these who needs enemies.
Duval County High Schools' students can't do Elementary math or read fluently so they must perform poorly; they are being affected negatively by the stress placed on their teachers. The learning environment is full of stress, so the children can't learn. They know that their teachers are not in control of what is being taught or what should be taught.
ReplyDeleteMy high school students are definitely having trouble doing elementary work as well. Refuse to read and can't do simple math. They don't know anything and they don't want to know anything. They just want to play on their phones all day. Drugs everywhere and skipping class rampant.
ReplyDeleteIs that First Coast High School? Of course it could be Raines High,or Buttler High, or Westside High, or Lee high, or some other West of the St. Johns River. I think it would be wise to SPLIT the Duval County School District into East Duval County Public Schools (EDCPS) and West Duval County Public Schools (WDCPS); it would be easier for the not so smart people and the dull people to better see where the problems in Duval Schools lie. There is a pervasive culture that has been dragging the whole Education System down. And yes,"they don't know anything and they don't want to know anything". The reason they 'just want to play on their phones all day" is because their brains stopped developing since they left elementary school or there about, some never had brain development because they began school unprepared to learn and were consequently left behind from Kindergarten or First grade. If you studied HUMAN GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT you would understand, directly. Brain size development is concurrent with academic growth and brain development, also. These students are basically delinquents and as their generations devolve social problems and crime will escalate. It is generally believed that the DINOSAURS became extinct because their BRAINS were not ADEQUATELY DEVELOPED.
DeleteThere are SERIOUS DELINQUENCIES happening in America today and unscrupulous politicians and their mercenary friends are really taking advantage of it all. Important Voices, on the Black Side, have been silenced by disease and death, which effortlessly bring to mind Mohamed Ali and Martin Luther King Jr, respectively. Now, all they have are spineless and brainless leaders who are siding with the mercenaries for privatizing our public schools FOR PROFITS. Unfortunately most of these so-called leaders are preachers but fail to connect with the lIGHT, even on a superficial level.
No I teach at a school on east side with a diverse population.
DeleteThere also seems to be a generational culture problem, especially when it comes to learning mathematics; most would not even attempt the warm up problems. Here is a scenario for the 90-minute period. They talk, eat, and play on their cell phones which their knuckle-head parents give them because, supposedly, they are expecting some catastrophic event like the end of the world to occur and they must be able to reach their "disruptive, disrespectful, lying, cheating, malicious, and vindictive sweet little babies who are dragging our schools into the latrine, if or when that occurs. After the 5 minutes for the warm up elapses, they copy all the solutions that the teacher does on the board.
DeleteNext the teacher does the "I Do" and they copy it all. Then the teacher does the "We Do" with very, very, very minimal Participation from the class because they do not even know proper addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. (I am referring, here, to Algebra 2 and Algebra 2 Honors students and even pre-calculus and calculus students in some schools, such as First Coast High which should really go CHARTER).
Finally, the teacher gives them the "You Do" and begins circulating to provide help but almost every student in the class needs the teacher's help simultaneously;they simply cannot even match numbers against the example problems that the teacher did in the "I DO - We Do" although they are basically the same problems with just the letter-variables changed. Get the idea? Mother Hen Finds food for her CHICKS and when it is all gobbled up, she steps away to find some more food and all the CHICKS immediately swarm behind her.
You might be a relatively new teacher and I think I know you and which school you teach at. My advice to you is to decide quickly if you want to stay in teaching and endure all the assault and onslaught of THE WORST PROFESSION in America; teachers are DEMONIZED, period.
I taught math for some time, but before I did I thought teachers did not really work hard and I said I was willing to work for $30, 000 a year; I was in construction, but boy was I wrong. It does not worth teaching math in a Duval County High School even if the pay was $100, 000 a year. In fact, no one in his/her right mind would teach math in a Duval County High School for more than "A SINGLE SCHOOL YEAR". Get out while you can.
Only today I greeted a first year high school math teacher and asked "how are things going with your classes?". Her reply was " What have I gotten myself into here". So I asked what was her degree in, and she replied; "Bachelors in Math Education".
So, there are kids who walk around with thick WADS of money, and maybe things are getting worse since your good principal moved to the West side. I mean with the drug problem and the delinquents. That school has for a long time been a school with real smart kids and real dumb kids, but the situation will only get worse. The Ghetto has moved into my Arlington neighborhood and there is hardly any quiet time now.
DeleteNo I'm not new; I've been in the system too long to change careers at this point. The newbies I know say the same thing you're hearing: What have I gotten into? Hate teaching in Duval! Admins at my school are creeps. There is no support for teachers.
DeleteThe scores for the Elementary scrimmage were pulled back, blaming it on the upload of the tests. More likely, they found the errors in the test questions and have to recompile now.
ReplyDeleteAnd now the superintendent wants to build on this wonderful Elementary Duval Reads to extend into Secondary ELA curriculum. Go figure
I am an elementary ELA teacher, teaching in a high poverty school. To say this curriculum is a disaster is an understatement. I feel like I am 16 weeks behind. The curriculum, teachers were mandated to use, is an absolute joke. The district took another States curriculum and threw it together in one summer. This is obvious in both the planning and organization of each module. The scrutiny teachers have been under in regards to teaching this curriculum is unbearable. District level snitches coming in and wanting to know the specific day each teacher is on. God forbid if a teacher is behind. DCPS is only good at making a joke of education! These results were expected by most of us in the trenches. Now, we are supposed to use this data to drive instruction. DCPS is not educating every child, in every class, everyday.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget all the displaced teachers- our computer classes were relocated to the auditorium to allow for testing- for four days right before break. Two of those days included the band rehearsing for a performance in the background. Shameful. The kids didn't take it seriously and it was rushed to completion. Some kids sat for 3 or for sessions in one day. We lacked adequate infrastructure and time to complete this "scrimmage". No wonder the scores stank.
ReplyDeleteThey have manipulated the results of the elementary LA scrimmage two times now. It must not be a valid test if the results keep changing...Yet, they still want us to evaluate the results and base our lessons on those results???
ReplyDeleteThe results of the elementary ELA scrimmage have been "adjusted" two times. What does that tell us about the validity of a test we are suppose to analyze and use to drive instruction????
ReplyDeleteA message for FUTURE DUVAL HIGH SCHOOL MATH TEACHERS!
ReplyDeleteThe following is pervasive in most or all of our high schools.
These are answers from Algebra 2 students:
3 x 3 = 6
a x a = 2
p x 2 = p2
It would be easier to teach math in elementary schools because at least 3rd grade students will know 3 x 3 = 9.
My high school students don't capitalize their own last names. They seriously don't know that they have to capitalize both! Jane doe. It's a first grade standard, so I conclude that it's a refusal to learn.
DeleteSomewhere between 2002 and 2005 the students began campaigning against doing classwork and homework, studying for tests, and making good grades; they referred to these things as being Asian. Well, it is now paying great dividends for the many! So, you are absolutely right;"it's a refusal to learn". Those who can better get out; find other jobs while you can. The Florida Republicans might start passing laws whereby teachers have to go to jail if their students fail their standardized tests, and they might even advertise the incarcerations on Capital News Update and in the Florida Times Union.
ReplyDeleteSorry I teach 3rd grade and I have the same problems. Eight year olds defiant and refusing to do any work. I give them work and they look at me and throw it on the floor and say, "I aint doin it". I have begged for help from admin but they don't help. Elementary teachers are having the same problems and the parents don't care either.
ReplyDelete