Longtime readers of this blog will remember that two or three years ago we discovered that principals at suburban high schools such as Wando and West Ashley were encouraging their most unruly students to go to Burke High School rather than be expelled. Reports in the P&C [see Literacy Rates Show Improvement ] now show that in a gently rising tide of literacy, Burke is sinking.CCSD uses the scores of this year's eighth-graders to predict the percentage of students entering each high school who cannot read. Notice I said "who cannot read." While I recognize that reading on a fourth-grade level constitutes literacy, it does not translate into being able to read a high-school textbook, even the ones that are written on a sixth-grade level (yes, they are out there to meet the demand).
With CCSD's loose transfer policies (the same ones that created de facto segregation at Burke), an inquiring reader wants to know how many seventh graders transferred out of Burke Middle last year in order to escape its chaos. They would be the ones who could read. How many transferred in from other middle schools who couldn't?
Until CCSD tracks each student and uses those statistics, the game as she is played will not tell the true story.
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Don't expect CCSD officials to answer any of these questions, no matter how many inquiring minds want to know. It's a real shame that we pay so much so these people at the top can continue to do so little. McGinley is infatuated with statistics and reports, never mind that the failing numbers represent individuals that the system has failed for at least 7 years or more before they reach 8th grade. These kids aren't stupid, far from it. It's stupid these kids aren't challenged to read or count because of the people in the system who says who gets what and when. Those CCSD officials by contrast are very stupid, but they still get paid. These kids can learn. What we need are people in the system that can see it and make it happen. These experts for hire are too deaf and too dumb. How callus to claim an institutional victory in the presence of such systemic failure.
This year's literacy numbers printed by the P & C are wrong. They are pre-NCLB.
What about the communities and parents failing these kids? Why is always the school system? Why aren't parents reading to children before they reach kindergarten so that they are on a more level playing field with their more affluent peers?
Why do the business community, the greater community and parents always given a free pass.
I hate numbers cooking as much as anyone, but its time to lay the blame in all places.
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