Students Protesting After Not Being Allowed To Graduate Because Of Failing Grade On Test
Because you shouldn’t have to know stuff to graduate, I guess:
FORT WORTH — Students who had been planning to walk across the stage at graduation ceremonies this weekend were instead walking a picket line Thursday morning.
The Trimble Tech High School seniors marched in front of Fort Worth Independent School District headquarters to protest Wednesday’s decision by trustees to bar students who failed the TAKS test from commencement exercises.
About a dozen young people, carrying signs and chanting, began picketing at 8:30 a.m. Thursday. They represent the 613 Fort Worth seniors who did not pass the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exam.
Crystal Martinez complained 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.
One can’t know for sure, but I do wonder if Crystal’s failure of the TAKS test despite a relatively high GPA isn’t an indication of teachers lowering standards in classrooms to inflate GPA’s. I’ve posted about it before, and I suspect that it’s happening all over the country. After all, public school teachers are under a lot of pressure to improve the education of our children given that we a) spend more on education per student in American than any other country on the planet and b) routinely see our kids rank in the middle of the pack and below by international standards.
It’s easy to simply make assignments easier and pass kids along. It’s harder to actually teach them things.
Anyway, here’s a picture of one of the protesters:

Seems to me like there’s probably some pretty good reasons why these kids aren’t graduating. A diploma isn’t something we should be handing out simply because some kid attended classes for 12 years.
(via FIU)














