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Thursday, August 14, 2008

78% Of North Dakota High School Kids Aren’t Ready For College

Not good.

Three of four North Dakota 2008 high school graduates are not ready for core college courses, according to data released Wednesday by ACT Inc.

The ACT college entrance exam shows

76 percent of North Dakota students aren’t ready for college English composition, algebra, social science and biology.

This compares to a national average of

78 percent who aren’t prepared.

So who do we blame?

How about we start with the teachers who are so thoroughly failing our kids despite making (according to released teacher pay information) on average more than the average North Dakotan (for working only about 2/3’s of the year).  Then we can move on to the politicians who seem to think that the only solution for education woes is to spend more tax dollars.

Because this is the reality: The modern high school student has more resources available to them than ever before.  Extensive libraries.  Computer networks.  Resource centers staffed with teachers who are there exclusively to assist them with their studies.

If these students aren’t ready for college despite all that it speaks to problems in our education system that go far beyond teacher pay and school funding.

Comments

It certainly can’t be the educational cabal’s fault; just ask them, they’ll tell you!

Kevin on August 14, 2008 at 07:07 am

That’s a hugely damning percentage!

Utter failure is the term. Imagine if 78% of any business’ product failed, where’d they be.

Worst part:
What will be done about it?

NOTHING!

golfmann on August 14, 2008 at 08:32 am

The education cabal will roll out their usual excuses and proclaim that we should “keep it in context” or “take it with a grain of salt” or some other mindless blather.
http://tinyurl.com/5wn6kx

Kevin on August 14, 2008 at 08:47 am
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What bugs me about this is that I feel homeschoolers in this state are sometimes held to a higher standard. If a homeschooler doesn’t make a certain percentile on a standardized achievement test, they convene a “multidisciplinary assessment team” of public school officials to determine and assess for a learning disability. Right off the bat they assume that a student who doesn’t score 30% could have a learning disability. If there’s no LD there’s a remedial program of learning to be drawn up.

Kay on August 14, 2008 at 09:14 am
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So who do we blame?

WHAT??  Are you serious??????  Bro....you are kidding me.

How about we start with the teachers who are so thoroughly failing our kids despite making (according to released teacher pay information) on average more than the average North Dakotan (for working only about 2/3’s of the year).

So when blacks blame the school system and the situation you phony republicans pretend that they lack personal responsibility, but when it is your own it MUST be someone else’s fault?

Thank you for the gem.  You are in rare form today Rob.  You have gone so far down the propaganda road you have lost all of your principles.  Not that I really thought you had any to start with.

Then we can move on to the politicians who seem to think that the only solution for education woes is to spend more tax dollars

Ahh....now it’s the liberals fault that you guys are so stupid.  Hysterical.

To quote a wise friend, “Nutter’s crack me up”!

Heh!

Hannitized on August 14, 2008 at 09:51 am
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Maybe these kids can vote for McCain for racial reason, as he might be able to relate to them and their problems? 

More excuse making and less personal responsibility.  This should be McCain’s campaign ad.

Hannitized on August 14, 2008 at 11:39 am
Avatar for onemorevoice

It’s funny that you call this blog Say Anything.

Both of the links in your post lead to sites where they just ask for registration. Assuming I register on those sites and confirm the data you claim to be quoting is correct..

You GOT THE QUOTE WRONG IN THE SAME POST.

reading comprehension for the win.

78% NATIONAL unprepared.
76% North dakotans unprepared.

do you even read the stuff that you post or do you just try to live up to the blog title?

onemorevoice on August 14, 2008 at 02:27 pm

Let’s stop fooling ourselves. High achievement is not a priority in this country anymore. Money is the gold standard of a successful American life. If I make more than you, what does it matter if I was a “D” student in school? I saw a bumper sticker once which said “My F student can kick your A student’s ass.”
There it is.
Schools aren’t failing students.
Students are failing students.

ollie-B on August 14, 2008 at 04:54 pm

It would help if the parents gave a shit about what goes on in schools, but I fear that is not the case. It is only right to blame the educational establishment for part of this. Maybe even most of it. But parents had better shoulder a significant portion also. Many simply look upon school as relieving them of the cost of daycare. Not a good thing.

Good Ol Boy on August 14, 2008 at 07:25 pm
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It would help if the parents gave a shit about what goes on in schools, but I fear that is not the case. It is only right to blame the educational establishment for part of this. Maybe even most of it.

Surely good ol American kids and their families can’t be responsible....must be somebody else’s fault.

Blacks and Mexicans on the other hand........now they are responsible for their own failure to educate themselves and integrate.

Hannitized on August 14, 2008 at 10:17 pm
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No comments on personal responsibility Rob?  I guess the blacks no longer have the market cornered on blaming others for the problems they supposedly create themselves eh?

Hannitized on August 15, 2008 at 09:40 am
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No comments on personal responsibility Rob?

Certainly personal responsibility plays a part, but if you want me to believe that 75% of North Dakota’s high school students aren’t ready for college because they’re stupid or lazy you’re crazy.  Private schools routinely outperform public schools in this regard.

The problem isn’t the teachers.

We’re spending a ton of tax dollars on education, particularly teacher pay.  It’s about time we started holding them accountable.


When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

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Rob on August 15, 2008 at 09:46 am
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So when blacks blame the school system and the situation you phony republicans pretend that they lack personal responsibility, but when it is your own it MUST be someone else’s fault?

Actually, moron, that’s not true.  I have long been a proponent of fixing inner city schools with things like school vouchers.

But hey, way to set up a straw man and attack it viciously.


When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

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Rob on August 15, 2008 at 09:47 am

In Texas, there won’t be any more B.S. in the classrooms!
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5945430.html

“HARROLD, Texas — A tiny Texas school district may be the first in the nation to allow teachers and staff to pack guns for protection when classes begin later this month, a newspaper reported.
Trustees at the Harrold Independent School District approved a district policy change last October so employees can carry concealed firearms to deter and protect against school shootings, provided the gun-toting teachers follow certain requirements.
In order for teachers and staff to carry a pistol, they must have a Texas license to carry a concealed handgun; must be authorized to carry by the district; must receive training in crisis management and hostile situations and have to use ammunition that is designed to minimize the risk of ricochet in school halls.
Superintendent David Thweatt said the small community is a 30-minute drive from the sheriff’s office, leaving students and teachers without protection. He said the district’s lone campus sits 500 feet from heavily trafficked U.S. 287, which could make it a target...”
.
.
.
affirmative action has been the worst enemy of education in Texas.


Without an honest exchange of ideas, how can a mind grow?

RebTex on August 15, 2008 at 09:52 am

Certainly personal responsibility plays a part, but if you want me to believe that 75% of North Dakota’s high school students aren’t ready for college because they’re stupid or lazy you’re crazy.  Private schools routinely outperform public schools in this regard.
The problem isn’t the teachers.
We’re spending a ton of tax dollars on education, particularly teacher pay.  It’s about time we started holding them accountable

I stand by my previous comments. I think Good Ol Boy has a point, though. Many parents can’t wait for school to begin so they can get the kids out of the house. Academic performance doesn’t mean a thing until they get that “note” from the teacher about Junior failing his classes.
I am really getting tired of everyone praising private schools. If they outperform public schools, it is because the teacher to pupil ratio is low, they have tremendous assets and most importantly, the children want to learn.
Yes. We are spending a lot on schools. But not enough. And, in the wrong areas. No teacher should have to buy school supplies. Tying school districts to property taxes isn’t working either.
When the powers-that-be get their heads out of their asses and return discipline and high standards to our schools, things will change. But not until we ,as a nation, choose achievement and success over money and brute force.

ollie-B on August 17, 2008 at 03:33 am

Certainly personal responsibility plays a part, but if you want me to believe that 75% of North Dakota’s high school students aren’t ready for college because they’re stupid or lazy you’re crazy.  Private schools routinely outperform public schools in this regard.
The problem isn’t the teachers.
We’re spending a ton of tax dollars on education, particularly teacher pay.  It’s about time we started holding them accountable

I stand by my previous comments. I think Good Ol Boy has a point, though. Many parents can’t wait for school to begin so they can get the kids out of the house. Academic performance doesn’t mean a thing until they get that “note” from the teacher about Junior failing his classes.
I am really getting tired of everyone praising private schools. If they outperform public schools, it is because the teacher to pupil ratio is low, they have tremendous assets and most importantly, the children want to learn.
Yes. We are spending a lot on schools. But not enough. And, in the wrong areas. No teacher should have to buy school supplies. Tying school districts to property taxes isn’t working either.
When the powers-that-be get their heads out of their asses and return discipline and high standards to our schools, things will change. But not until we ,as a nation, choose achievement and success over money and brute force.

ollie-B on August 17, 2008 at 03:44 am

Yes. We are spending a lot on schools. But not enough.

There is no correlation between money and school achievement.

The Kansas City Story

In 1985 a federal district judge took partial control over the troubled Kansas City, Missouri, School District (KCMSD) on the grounds that it was an unconstitutionally segregated district with dilapidated facilities and students who performed poorly. In an effort to bring the district into compliance with his liberal interpretation of federal law, the judge ordered the state and district to spend nearly $2 billion over the next 12 years to build new schools, integrate classrooms, and bring student test scores up to national norms.

It didn’t work. When the judge, in March 1997, finally agreed to let the state stop making desegregation payments to the district after 1999, there was little to show for all the money spent. Although the students enjoyed perhaps the best school facilities in the country, the percentage of black students in the largely black district had continued to increase, black students’ achievement hadn’t improved at all, and the black-white achievement gap was unchanged.(1)

The situation in Kansas City was both a major embarrassment and an ideological setback for supporters of increased funding for public schools. From the beginning, the designers of the district’s desegregation and education plan openly touted it as a controlled experiment that, once and for all, would test two radically different philosophies of education. For decades critics of public schools had been saying, “You can’t solve educational problems by throwing money at them.” Educators and advocates of public schools, on the other hand, had always responded by saying, “No one’s ever tried.”

In Kansas City they did try. A sympathetic federal judge invited district educators literally to “dream"--forget about cost, let their imaginations soar, put together a list of everything they might possibly need to increase the achievement of inner-city blacks--and he, using the extraordinarily broad powers granted judges in school desegregation cases, would find a way to pay for it.

By the time the judge took himself off the case in the spring of 1997, it was clear to nearly everyone, including the judge, that the experiment hadn’t worked. Even so, some advocates of increased spending on public schools were still arguing that Kansas City’s only problem was that it never got enough money or had enough time. But money was never the issue in Kansas City. The KCMSD got more money per pupil than any of 280 other major school districts in the country, and it got it for more than a decade. The real issues went way beyond mere funding. Unfortunately, given the current structure of public education in America, they were a lot more intractable, too.

http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-298.html

Kevin on August 17, 2008 at 09:42 am

Actually, moron, that’s not true.  I have long been a proponent of fixing inner city schools with things like school vouchers.

So Republicans DON’T blame blacks lack of education on personal responsibility?  And how does you supporting vouchers mean that you don’t hold them responsible for the lack of education they receive?

Let me hear you say here and now that if 75% of blacks are suffering in any way, economically or in education it is not because of their own responsibility, but the failed school system.


Combating Republican dirty tricks since 2002!

Example: Republican Dirty Trick

Hannitized on August 17, 2008 at 10:08 am
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So Republicans DON’T blame blacks lack of education on personal responsibility?  And how does you supporting vouchers mean that you don’t hold them responsible for the lack of education they receive?

Are you really this dense?

My support for vouchers means I hold teachers, and the unions that facilitate their lackluster job performance, for the problems with inner-city schools.


When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

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Rob on August 17, 2008 at 10:13 am

Jobs, cars, money, the internet, cell-phones, facebook, myspace, texting, video-games, iPods, MTV, BET, VH1, drugs, alcohol, indifferent parents, single-parents, and an emerging cultural sub-set that being smart and successfull ‘ain’t cool’ are all contributing factors to student failure.


"Here lies, in honored glory, an American soldier, known but to God.”

The times, they are a-changin’...
Bob Dylan

pparets on August 17, 2008 at 10:17 am

My support for vouchers means I hold teachers, and the unions that facilitate their lackluster job performance, for the problems with inner-city schools.

Rob, your side tends to be a bit slippery.  You can hold teachers responsible and still claim, later, that if blacks are not doing well in education that is has a lot to do with their personal responsibility and failure to take education seriously.

I am asking for specific clarification, and you avoided answering it.  So I will ask again:

Let me hear you say here and now that if 75% of blacks are suffering in any way, economically or in education it is not because of their own responsibility, but the failed school system.


Combating Republican dirty tricks since 2002!

Example: Republican Dirty Trick

Hannitized on August 17, 2008 at 10:32 am

PP,

All of my friends who work for Oracle, Verizon engineering, NetApp, HP all have cars, jobs, money, cell phones, ipods, play video games, have a myspace and facebook accounts.

I don’t know how old you are but if you are denying your kids the ability to see that being successful isn’t cool, then you are getting the wrong message to your kids.

My opinion is that it all comes down to parenting and even a single parent can raise a smart and successful child, not sure what you implication was there.

As a parent you are responsible for these things:

- Mentoring your child
- Teaching them the importance of education
- Influencing your child
- Watching who their friends are
- Introducing a lifestyle that is cool, so they dont have to worry about being cool
- Sex education and responsibility
- Diet

The list goes on and on.  Bottom line is it is a parents responsibility to educate a child that you can be cool and still get a good education and be successful.  In fact, I would argue that todays kids see that both are possible with how the tech industry impacted the way Americans do business these days.


Combating Republican dirty tricks since 2002!

Example: Republican Dirty Trick

Hannitized on August 17, 2008 at 10:42 am

H: Parents have always been the key.  It is the involved, alert parent who limits time and access to TV, the internet, and time spent away from home.  It is the alert parent who requires that study-time and home-work get done.

What has changed to day is the predominance of working parents - paired or single - who come home tired and worn out, latch-key kids, and the idea that the school will do for their kid what they cannot or will not do.


"Here lies, in honored glory, an American soldier, known but to God.”

The times, they are a-changin’...
Bob Dylan

pparets on August 17, 2008 at 10:50 am
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flower girl dress on October 29, 2008 at 10:43 pm
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