crazy. but that's how it goes.

i have one student who has chosen to make the 3 hours during which we meet completely futile. he is identified special ed, but with little to no support because there are not enough resources in the special ed department to manage the 15 seventh graders who are special ed.

this morning in science, the students were to design their own experiment. next week, they are learning about what makes good experimental design, which is a little on the dry side, so i thought it would be useful for them to have their own experiments from which to draw. anyway, he refuses to work and chooses to put himself on time out in the hall. there is no phone in the science room so i could not have called anyone.

i follow kid to hall and remind him that he can't just hang out here unattended, and may go take a time out in the nearest teacher's room (a time out that he hates because the teacher is strict/effective and would tolerate the junk). so he refuses. i ask a teacher's aide who is walking down the hall to escort him to the other classroom so i can go back to mine. she brings him to the office, instead. he later returns with the principal, who is equally stumped by his refusal to work on project that, for the most part, kids are enjoying. they agree that he will work in a group of one, and produce something by the end of class. end of class comes. he has nothing. of course.

i speak to vice principal, who is handling these discipline cases or whatever, who then tells me that of course he is acting out because he is bored, and he can't be expected to sit through a 90 minute science/math class and why aren't i changing up the science/math curriculum to reflect individual learning styles.

i explain that the curriculums are required and that i am doing what i have to and that i am trying to reflect individual learning styles the best i can and that the other 29 students have no problem doing what is expected and does it make sense to change something that works well enough just so one kid who is 3 to 4 grades below grade level and is legally entitled to individual attention but doesn't get it because we are out of budget can stop interrupting my class with bouts of rampant cursing, feet on his desk, and complete lack of respect (just because he is bored)?

So they decided the best option is to pull him out of science class, return him to Social Studies, which he failed anyway, and also pull him out of math class for 1/2 of the period so that he can get individual attention. for 1/2 of the class.

i'm not sure how i feel about this whole treating the symptom, not the disease sort of remedy.

the genius that is a forced math curriculum

In addition to my landlocked, urban middle-school students learning about graphs while rejoicing in the tales of Molly and her friends as they take a two-week bike tour along the New Jersey coastline (thanks, Prentice Hall!), they can also study rates of change in a more relevant context: snow in the Rocky Mountains. Which span seven states. Yet seem to enjoy the exact same snow conditions.

Right.

If there's one thing kids in Denver know, it's that snowfall distribution is never even, not in the city, let alone the majestic 7-state spread of the Rocky Mountain Range.

why don't you test this.

I am hoping that with a new governor and a new, possibly smarter Congress, someone will change this whole No Child Left Behind fuckfest and realize that the ONLY benefit from these stupid tests goes to the Educational Testing Service of Princeton, New Jersey.

The president of Educational Testing Service was the CEO of Dupont until 2000, at which point he became head of the non-profit ETS. Dupont contributes to the GOP campaign.

On their website, ETS claims non-profit status. Uncoincidentally, the President/CEO believes in our President's NCLB extravaganza. Excerpted from his 2001 testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Education Reform (and Destruction):

As the president of the nation's largest educational measurement institution, I understand the value of testing and the vital role it should play in education reform.

Good testing, done right, is a good thing. Without standardized testing, parents and taxpayers can't know how much their students have learned relative to standards or to other students.

He goes on to say that the only way you can do testing right is to update and individualize the tests to each state's standards. Also, give him all your money.

Developing a high quality test, even in just one subject for one grade, is a lengthy multi-step undertaking. Unreliable data and costly mistakes keep reminding us that we should spend what it takes to get it right the first time.