Public education continues to rot...

Posted as a comment to 'Stop, Children, What's that sound?'s post "Education Crisis!":

Both your and "Government of the people? Lol"'s statements were correct. Public education is something that needs considerable revamping. So many good teachers can't stand having to teach for TAKS. The fact that their pay depends on their students test scores may seem fair, but in reality it's not.

While it may be true that failing test scores can correlate to failed teaching skills, many times bad grades are because of the student, not the teacher. Bad scores could be because of lack of interest in school and education, or simply a fear of tests - because yes it's true that some students don't do well in a structure testing environment - as well as different ways and paces of learning.

To show how messed up at least one school district has become: I had the most amazing pre-AP and AP chemistry teacher in high school - Mrs. D, let's say. She, and one other Mrs. E, were considered the best science teachers, and Mrs. D was not only the sole AP chemistry teacher, but was department chair as well. Mrs. D put in all her love and dedication in teaching us what we needed to do well in chemistry and any future science class we possibly chose to take. Because of that, many of my friends became science majors.

However, to prove how the system is flawed - she was demoted from department chair because she refused to treat the regular class like morons, and thus teach solely for TAKS. The school board wanted her to teach only the necessary information to get her students to pass TAKS with good scores, but she refused. Mrs. D nearly quit, but when Mrs. E retired, Mrs. D stayed because she honestly worried about how the students' education would fare without both of them.

In fact all my AP teachers are unhappy with the direction of the school board and system. Some want to quit, some already have. When the good teachers run away, that's when you have a problem. I keeping asking myself why students realize this, but not the school boards.