Under Pressure

With every year, schools are under pressure to get their test scores up. Principals are under pressure from district officials to ensure that students pass in growing numbers in failing schools. The pressure weighs on teachers, who are instructed to get students to pass as much as possible.

In one school, I listened to teachers bemoan the number of F's that they were managing in their classrooms.

From my experience in the inner city, at least sixty percent of students were failing, at much lower than 50%. Some students proudly garnered for themselves 20-30%, thinking very little of their abject failure to do anything with their time or make anything of their effort in the classroom. If they are compelled by law to go to school, at least one would assume that they would put some effort into what was before them.

At the charter school I worked at, the lead teacher instructed me to do whatever you can to get your kids to pass. I stayed after school until four o'clock every afternoon, cajoling students to complete assignments that they had neglected throughout the semester.

Granted, in this life we cannot ignore responsibilities. If I do not pay my credit card or mortgage on time, I am assessed a late fee and interest.

At one meeting before the end of the semester, the principal strongly advised the senior teachers to let students pass who were earning 57% or higher as a final grade.

This is scandalous!

Students come to class learn, that was the original idea.

Now, students come to class to get passing grades which they have not earned. The teachers must bust a move to ensure that as many students as possible pass the class. They get stressed, not the students.

Why assign grades at all if they do not reflect student achievement? It is unconscionable to press a teacher to make adjustments for students who are too lazy or uncommitted to do the minimum to pass a class. Much of the time, it takes more work to fail in diligently refusing to work than to acquiesce and do just enough in the classroom. Even sloth can be tiresome.