Author Archives: FactChecker

Student Promotion – Whose Decision Is It?

Posted on September 3, 2014 | Comments Off on Student Promotion – Whose Decision Is It?

Question: Who should decide which students will be promoted and which students will be held back? The state, county, school council, principal, teacher, parent … what do you think?
Who actually makes that decision has become increasingly unclear this year. The Georgia Academic Placement and Promotion Policy requires students pass various tests to be promoted to the next grade. Georgia Milestones will replace CRCT and EOCT this year and will allegedly be harder to pass.
The state is not enforcing those standards this year according to Wayne Washington.  Washington wrote in the AJC that New standardized test and end-of-course exams won’t be used for promotion this year. State officials are saying, “This year, students in grades three, five and eight won’t have to perform at grade level on the reading portion of the test to be promoted. Fifth- and eighth-graders also won’t have to perform at grade level on the math portion to be promoted.”
Apparently the promotion requirements have always been routinely ignored.  State education department spokesman Matt Cardoza said, “Students who failed those tests in the past could appeal to local panels, which often approved the students’ promotion”.
This is much to the chagrin of Byron Merritt, President SW DeKalb High School PTSA. In a statement to the board in July, Merritt said, “We have 88 9th grade students coming to SW DeKalb HS on waivers this August. We have 80 9th grade and 10th grade students not reading on grade level. Our graduation rate has dropped to 7th from the bottom in the county. “
The state is encouraging local school districts to develop their own policies to determine which students should be moved to the next grade. It is the policy of the DeKalb County Board of Education to comply with the requirement of the Georgia Academic Placement and Promotion Policy. DeKalb Schools has not communicated how they will determine which students are promoted and which students are held back.
References
§ 20-2-282. (OCGA) Georgia Academic Placement and Promotion Policy
Hasta La Vista CRCT and EOCT
New standardized test, end-of-course exams won’t be used for promotion
eboard link icon DeKalb County School District Policy IHE: Promotion and Retention

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Posted in Board Policy, Graduation Rates, Standardized Testing

Dekalb – Incompetence Punctuated By Fraud – #TBT

Posted on August 28, 2014 | 1 comment

Nancy Jester always said, “We only have two problems in DeKalb: Incompetence and Fraud.”  Many of DeKalb County’s leaders are either in jail or on their way to jail.  The AJC reported yesterday, “DeKalb County taxpayers forked over more than $34,000 to the boyfriend of Commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton, mostly for his advice on how to be a commissioner.”
Whether it’s DeKalb Schools or the County Government, Nancy Jester’s article, Subsidizing failure in government, is as germane today as the day she wrote it.
Subsidizing failure in government
By: Nancy Jester
So, what’s the solution to bad government? More government! DeKalb’s Interim CEO, Lee May, recently created a new full time position: Chief Integrity Officer. The word ironic comes to mind but doesn’t really do justice to the situation.
The problems demonstrated by DeKalb’s officials won’t be solved by an ethics board or an integrity officer. You know what solves ethical problems? Elected officials and government workers with ethics. DeKalb’s real and perceived problems will only be resolved with new leadership. Spending more money on faux ethics and integrity is simply just spending more of the people’s money. It doesn’t ensure or purchase ethics or good government. In fact, in addition to increasing the cost of government, it creates more opportunities for corruption. It increases cynicism. So in the style of Ben Franklin: A government that lacks ethics and public confidence to the point it creates a position to implement integrity, is likely to have neither.

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Posted in DeKalb County School District, Incompetence and Fraud