Tales of the Invisible Ben

"A most ingenious paradox..."

Here’s the breakdown from last Friday’s professional development:

The goal: Academic achievement across the curriculum.
The plan: Maintain high expectations and provide challenging, yet engaging, lesson plans to convey the material.
The snag: Students who are academically underprepared.
The conundrum: The district does not want its statistical profile to be dragged through the mud due to the overwhelmingly poor performance of its students.
The solution?: In order to prevent teachers from failing too many students, the district has implemented a plan whereby students may only be held back a grade after a slew of excess paperwork had been filled out.
What it boils down to: If my students choose not to do any assignments in my class, I can only fail them if I put in extra work equal or greater to that which they have ignored. It’s a kind of twisted karma.
What I am suddenly reminded of: The first law of thermodynamics.

No Child Left Behind indeed.


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