This is what America has degenerated into. a group of whiney babies squalling till someone feeds them... never mind they can feed themselves, they want someone else to do it.

i'm still wondering how one gets a 3.5 GPA and fails a "basic skills test."

something is very wrong there. i don't know where exactly, but it should be looked into.

I ate some chocolate so the bad taste in my mouth would go away.

I don't want the kids who didn't graduate to walk. If they're not good enough to graduate, they're the kid who marches and then breaks from it to go sit with their friend on the other side of the place, asking the person next to them to move... messing up the entire flow of graduation... then gaggles about how unfair it is that they don't get their diploma until it's been earned, during the ceremony, further disrupting it... etc. But I agree. "Let. Are kids walk?" That's the question.

"More highlights on this issue: In Dallas, a student was quoted as saying that while she finished at the top of her class with a 3.5 grade point average, she is now blocked from graduation by failing the TAKS test. "We know we're not going to get our diplomas, but we just want to walk across the stage," Martinez said. "That's all we ask for right now."

Let me get this straight; she's at the top of her class, and knows she's not going to get her diploma? Am I the only one who noticed:

WHAT GRADUATION CEREMONY IS SHE BLOCKED FROM?

If she's at the top, everyone else is below, ergo, no one got a diploma!

that's a possibility i wouldn't discount. i was under the impression, i guess falsely, that she really had a 3.5

I say let all the kids who earned their diplomas walk in the ceremony and then have the kids who didn't pass march up on stage and be aknowledged for their achievements(or lack there of) as well. Broadcast them loud and clear to all the Grandmas and Grandpas in the crowd. That way every one gets to participate in Graduation and we can all go home happy.

It's in between A- and B+. A- is 3.667, B+ is 3.333. "Top of the class"? Please.

Each state has their own test. TAKS is the Texas Knowledge Assesment and it is hard. What irritates me is that they seem to deliberately try to "mislead" or "trick" the kids into wrong answers. I know they say it is teaching "real world" problem solving skills but I say it's unfair.

The teachers at my sons elementary school all had to sit for the 5th grade taks and said they were surprised how hard it was. Let's face it the education system is broke. While No Child Left Behind was well-intentioned, it's not working. Test scores have fallen under this program. And honestly from what I can see from my boys, all the schools do is teach to the test. If it's not on the test it's not important. No science on the test, well we don't have time for science fair this year, we have to do some more benchmark tests. Handwriting isn't on the test, well you don't need to know cursive anyay because of computers but hey we encourage the parents to teach their children cursive. We have to spend classroom time studying vocabulary and spelling words that may be on the test, doing practice testing etc.

And whether the school is letting kids slide on grades or not that is wrong for a student to have a 3.5 and not be able to pass the standardized test required for graduation. If my kids were bringing home A's and B's, I would assume that they were learning what they were supposed to learn and would think they should be able to pass the standardized test requirement for graduation.

They do put a lot of pressure on these kids with the testing. When we moved here, my son was in the third grade and he heard every single day that it didn't matter how good his grades were or what he knew, if he didn't pass the test he wouldn't be going to the next grade. That is a lot of pressure to put on an 8 year old.

Some will think I'm just making excuses but there are kids who know the stuff and just freeze on tests or don't test well. I know because my son is this way. If I ask him the questions orally, he knows them, when he sits down to take a test, he messes it up. I know this is part of being a good student but some accomodations should be made for kids who have a different learning style.

What good will it do the economy (or them) to not be able to function in society because they cant read a sign and understand it, or balance a checkbook? The test is a measure of how much they know, not a sheepskin from a school that is failing them. For the real test is what you did allude to. What good are they going to be when they cannot function in society WITH a diploma?

That is the questions is it the student's failure, the teacher's failure, the school's failure, the school system's failure, the state's failure, no child left behind's failure? If 16% aren't graduationg, something's broken.



When college educated teachers admit that they struggled on some of the questions, it's obviously a challenging test. I don't think there's anything basic about it.

San C: Try this: http://scotthochberg.com/taas.html

Also, don't know how many of you knew, but here in Texas, they will be getting rid of the TAKS test in high school. They are planning to switch to End of Course exams in 2009.

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