Principal tells teacher to dumb down standards
5 Comments Published by clay December 13th, 2007 in Education.Principal tells teacher to dumb down standards
Should principals ask teachers to make sure they pass a certain number of students? On the one hand it is difficult to fail a student, particularly during the senior year. On the other hand, if a student is not willing to make the effort, they do not deserve to walk in graduation with other students who did make the effort.
That’s the impression some got from their principal’s memo.
And now City Hall has stepped in.
The weather was gloomy Thursday outside Central Park East High School, but the talk was about a controversial memo from the school’s principal.
“I don’t think he thinks we’re dumb,” 12th grader Crystal Scarlett said. “He just thinks we can do much better than we’re doing.”
But not everyone agreed.
Last month, Principal Bennett Lieberman sent off a stern memo to teachers.
“If you are not passing more than 65 percent of your students in a class, then you are not designing your expectations to meet their abilities, and you are setting your students up for failure, which, in turn, limits your success as a professional.”
Was he ordering teachers to dumb down their classes?
The memo continued:
“Most of our students come from the lowest third percentile in academic achievement, have difficult home lives, and struggle with life in general. They DO NOT have a similar upbringing nor a similar school experience to our experiences growing up.”
Some students took offense.
“That’s not the way to pass,” 12th grader Richard Palacios said. “That’s not the way to get your education, so you’re basically cheating yourself.”
CBS 2 HD made several requests to speak with the principal and he refused. But he is standing by his comments.
Lieberman told a newspaper Thursday he “confidently stands by” his words.
But late Thursday, the Department of Education weighed in. It sent him a letter demanding he clarify his views and state that he is not ordering his teachers to lower their standards.
No word back yet from the principal.
Teachers at the school stand to receive $3,000 bonuses if their school improves.
…It kinda freaks me out that there aren’t any responses to this…like we’re not supposed to or something. I’m just gonna though.
All i have to say about this is that I don’t think it’s dumbing down the curriculum or whatever, because if 65% can’t pass, I think its because the standards may have been TOO HIGH for them, considering their difficult situations at home, etc., that were mentioned above. I personally didn’t feel that the principal was telling the teacher to lower the standards. The way I see it, he was just trying to get the teachers to make things…more easily understood if you will. There are different ways to teach things, and sometimes those ways aren’t the ways that are in books to be taught, but they work. So I think that might have been what he meant.
First off teachers are meant to teach the curriculum at the grade level they are suppose to be. Teachers should never dumb down the curriculum just to get more students passing. The students are in that grade level for a reason. They passed the last grade level because they were ready for harder stuff. It would make no sense to dumb down each grade level with students in that grade that are capable. Just take them back a year. That would be better.
My mother taught at APU. Although they were adults and not graduating from high school they were graduating from the teaching program. Many of them were not capable of writing simple papers or even sentences. I read their work myself. Some did not turn in work, did not attend class, or could not properly do the assignments. Although my mother gave them the grades they deserve but the students protested to the school and passed anyways. Why pass them and let them teach. California already has a poor education rep in the grade schools. Same goes for seniors. Why dumb it down. If they can’t handle it or won’t do the work then they are obviously not ready for the world as a high school diploma says.
“If you are not passing more than 65 percent of your students in a class, then you are not designing your expectations to meet their abilities, and you are setting your students up for failure, which, in turn, limits your success as a professional.”
Curriculum is not based on what the student can do but what they are expected to be able to do by the end of the course. Classes are designed above what their abilities are. If they were not we could never move up a grade each year because we would never be able to do more. Students are only set up for failure by their teacher if their teacher does not teach them what they need to know and what they don’t know. I could never be a politician but I became one this year. A success of a professional is not based on how well they babied someone but on how much they were able to make someone grow and stretch beyond their limits.
“Most of our students come from the lowest third percentile in academic achievement, have difficult home lives, and struggle with life in general. They DO NOT have a similar upbringing nor a similar school experience to our experiences growing up.”
Because so many of these families the school deals with are low income and struggle at home, is why schools should not be dummying down the system. The last thing they need is to babied and grow up with no future or hope for getting a good job that will take them out of the situation they grew up with. Educating them to the fullest will allow them to change their future and the future of their family. Why dam these kids to only have that life style. We didn’t grow up like that because our families were educated and had a good job or a career that allowed them to provide nice neighborhoods, good schools, and connections in life. We have to prepare these kids for the future. We have to show them they are way more capable that what they think they are.
I have to admit. If I was a teacher, in bad conditions, low pay, that would be a tempting thing to do but obviously if you became a teacher it was for a reason. It should be incentive to reach out more to your students and think outside the box when it comes to education them.
Each state has its standards that every teacher needs to meet, but how they do it is their choice and i think that is where the problem lies. The principle did make it sound like he wanted the teachers to dumb down their classes to make sure more than the majority of the class was passing. But to a point, this makes the kids who are excelling do less work and the kids who dont really want to do much work barely do anything and they can still pass. I think the change needs to be made in HOW the teacher is teaching the students. And there are plenty of ways to do it, i mean look at i-poly, we completely turn the word learning into a e dimensional word. We learn in so many different ways, ways that we can actually see using in our lives later. I think by taking the students backgrounds, lifestyles, and interests into consideration a teacher can make the learning process easier and more interesting for students to understand and enjoy.
I read a book called freakenomics and this same things was happening. But, instead of the principal ordering the teachers to lower their standards, the teachers were cheating and trying to help the students by making them look better on there STAR testing. A school teacher who has a lot of improvement in their students gets a hefty bonus. This could be the same incentive the principal of the school is going for. He wishes to improve the school by cheating. This is unfair and not logical. You are only cheating the students and cheating the system. Instead of lowering the standards he should be asking for some asistance or trying to obtain more grant money to help these students. Most students at a school have the ability to learn and do a good job, but most chose not to use it. This is what drives down a schools learning capacity. Things like cell phones, cars, videogames, and free time make a student strugle in school. They cause pettyness and kids tend to worry about there here and now, which is fine, but it draws there focus to something else other then school. What they dont realize is that if you screw up now, then when is the right time to take over and try to fix what you have already undone. So lowering the standards for someone who dosent whish to pass is a bad idea. But, if he where trying to get rid of the no child left behind act, then that would be a good idea that we all should back.
For a teacher to have to lower their teaching standards simply because certain students cannot pass their class isn’t their problem. Not everyone learns the same and may have other reasons why they might not be passing the class. The material that a teacher must teach most likely is being taught by other teachers elsewhere and should demonstrate that if other students are passing then so should those.
It shouldn’t be the content thats being taught but the way it’s being taught that should be considered. Many teachers have their own unique way of teaching, and many students learn by many different ways. Therefore the content shouldn’t be the one reviewed and reconsidered but the means of teaching. If test scores are low and graduation rates are not any better, then considering our teachers as being the reason might not sound so far out. Schools should not only count on a teachers education to qualify for the job, but also the ability to teach. There’s a good difference between knowing the content like the back of their hand, and being capably of passing that information on so others can benefit from it as well.