I’m exhausted. Not by the loss of one hour of morning sleep to DST, although that is never a good thing. No, I’m bone-deep tired from getting sucked back into the world of public school education.
I had a good thing going these past three years while Teen Daughter attended a private middle school. No more evenings supervising mind-numbing homework assignments. No more supplemental work to cover academic areas missed in school. I was able to relax as I had complete confidence that this school community had the highest expectations of all their students. I also knew, from experience, that her teachers would immediately shoot me an email if a child wasn’t working to potential. And somehow, they managed to encourage the very best from my daughter without wasting weeks on assessment tests, busy-work homework, and other stress-inducing assignments.
Unfortunately, the good times are over.
Next year, Teen Daughter will rejoin the public school system when she enters high school. It’s not a great high school, but it’s not bad either. It’s not on the local list of top public high schools in the nation, but it has enough Honors and AP classes to challenge and engage most students. If she is allowed to take those college-track classes, she’ll receive a good enough education.
And that’s where my headaches begin.
Our school district severely limits who can enter those accelerated classes. In order to enter 9th Grade Honors English or the accelerated Social Studies class, the 2-year AP World History, public middle school students have to: write a statement of interest; earn a minimum high level 3 on the NYS ELA 8 Exam; maintain an academic average of 90% in Social Studies; obtain a teacher recommendation; complete the mandatory Summer Project; AND earn a satisfactory score on a qualifying test. Fortunately, my daughter doesn’t have to take qualifiers for Math, Science, and Spanish as these are determined by performance on the Regents tests in June. (I think, still not 100% certain about this.)
As a private school student, she is exempt from the New York State assessment. Thank goodness! Not that she wouldn’t do well, it’s just that we don’t have the time. As it is, I have to pull her out of school so that she misses two afternoons of classes to take the English and Social Studies qualifiers. I’d hate for her to miss an additional three days of school for the NYS ELA tests.
I’m glad she doesn’t have to take the ELA test, and I’m confident that she’ll do fine on the Honors English qualifier without any preparation other than the usual writing-intensive Language Arts schoolwork.
No, the headache starts with figuring out what all the hoops and hurdles are in order to enter the college-track classes. And then, the headache worsens in trying to prepare my daughter for a test of two-years worth of US History content. At her current school, she is taught to think, reason, and write. The students discuss the relevance of Supreme Court cases and political ideas to current events. They develop research and writing skills on annual thesis reports and other interest-led projects.
She has been developing the skills and habits of mind necessary to succeed in the 21st Century, but not the content knowledge that is needed to pass the Social Studies qualifier. Modeled on the AP US History Exam, the qualifier will cover historical content from the onset of the “discovery” of the Americas through the Great Depression. The test will include multiple choice questions as well as a DBQ, a writing assignment that requires the student to use primary source scaffolding to generate a formulaic 5-paragraph essay.
At her current school, my daughter has had no experience writing DBQs. In my opinion, that’s a good thing because allocating time to these would have wasted time that was better spent actually doing research, learning how to locate primary sources, and then crafting a well-reasoned thesis which often requires more than 5 paragraphs.
Still, the DBQ portion of the test won’t be a problem. Now that my daughter knows what a DBQ is, and how to follow the formula, she’ll be fine. It’s getting through the content that’s painful.
At first, we were advised by the Social Studies Department Chair to have her study from Barron’s Regents Exam Preparation for US History, but my daughter was struggling using this. Struggling to stay awake, that is. Later, a young friend who is currently in the AP World History class suggested using a prep book for AP US History, which makes sense as those are the kinds of questions that will be on the test. Using the AP prep book also had the added benefit of not being as sleep-inducing as the Regents book. It may be material that is harder to comprehend, but at least it’s interesting.
It’s the difference between stating that President Monroe issued the Monroe Doctrine, or making that statement and then explaining the Monroe Doctrine within the foreign policy context. The first is meaningless, but the second leads to all kinds of passionate debates.
And there is the reason that I’m encouraging my daughter to jump through all these hoops and hurdles. I want her to be allowed to take the classes that are interesting, even if she has to work hard to get in.
It’s worth the headache. Now, if this was the only public school related headache, I wouldn’t be exhausted. I’m too tired to share the rest of this story right now, but I promise it’s a doozy. Enough to bring the local news vans into my neighborhood, and to put my face on the 6 o’clock news.
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I think this is the most important passage in the entire post:
“It’s the difference between stating that President Monroe issued the Monroe Doctrine, or making that statement and then explaining the Monroe Doctrine within the foreign policy context. The first is meaningless, but the second leads to all kinds of passionate debates.”
The second is where the big buzz of learning lies for me. The first is where I fear we’re headed as a nation as the “gold standard” of standardized tests forces us into “learning” that’s a mile wide and an inch deep. I can see it already in first grade. We’re in a test-crazy district now (and if you’re going to do something, do it well – they do at least test really well here), and the cost has been history all but disappearing this year. They do the occasional science project, but my 6-year-old actually learned more social studies last year in kindergarten than he has this year.
.-= 9to5to9´s last blog ..Recess and rules =-.
Feeling your pain – honestly, I’m uncertain how we going to get through the next seven years. The combination of academic and social battles is the one, two punch that’s going to ko me! And now with all of the funding cuts, what type of courses will be offered at the high school level in three years? Worry, worry and more worry – I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about our next course of action.
I love your website. You have helped me so much with writing my son’s portfolio. My state doesn’t require one, but I do it anyway.
All the stories of budget cuts, tests, and meaningless homework make me so thankful to be able to homeschool my kids in their younger years.
Keep your chin up and thanks again for a wonderful website!
Somehow we’ll figure it out, Denise, it’s not worth making ourselves sick over the situation. The good news is that no matter how hard we may try, there’s a limit to much we screw our kids up. I’m sorry for all the children locally and nationally who are being shortchanged academically, and I’ll do all I can to speak up for them. Meanwhile, I’m going to try to adopt a zen attitude (after the budget hearings,) and we’ll see what we can do to make things better. One small battle at a time…
.-= Sandra Foyt´s last blog ..Jumping Hoops To Get A Good Enough Public High School Education =-.
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