Students Boast on Twitter About Taking FCAT Drunk and High

It seems that somepeople keep one eye closed when analyzing the problematic surrounding “failing”schools.  Failing schools should be usedto prove that academic success is not solely dependant on what is providedwithin the school’s curriculum.  The studentsattending these schools need additional support because it is not simply theschool that is failing.  Those who insiston identifying one factor of this incomplete equation for the failure arewrong; the principal, the teachers, the students, the parents, the curriculum,none of these alone are the sole problem.  

It is shameful thatthe FCAT is used to diagnose a community’s academic maladies. It is as usefulas having a doctor solely use a weight scale to measure diabetes in apatient.  Sending the patient home andtelling him to loose weight isn’t going to address the diabetes if there areextending circumstances.  You need toanalyze the blood sugar levels, the pancreatic function, prescribe medication,monitor possible consequential damage in other organs due to the diabetes, inaddition to addressing the diet.   In thecase of a failing school, you need to look further into the reasons the failingschool’s community is having these academic challenges as well. The abuse ofthe FCAT, as well as the input of self-promoting leaders, has obliterated anylogical reasoning in addressing failing schools.  I can only hope that logic will soon overtakeblind sighted politics.

Failing schools aresuffering from socio-economic barriers that need to be addressed in order toprovide healthier grounds for educational prosperity.  Instead the addition of “scales” to measure“weight” is continuously added to schools as if these would truly make any longterm impact.  Goals are set as to whatscores schools and students must receive and just as quickly as they are set,tricks are learned as to how to demonstrate some gains in order to stay afloatlong enough to secure as much actual teaching as possible within the politicalconstraints set from outside.  As soon asthe tricks are no longer inner circle trade secrets the rules are changed inorder to circumvent their use. But new tricks are created and the game beginsagain.  In the end, what has beenachieved;   educational gain or politicalgain?

In reality, studentsin these communities need more than simple academic support or staffrestructuring, or textbooks and curriculums updates to achieve proper academicstandards.  For some reason this is thetrue issue that no one wants to deal with. These students and their families need economic, social and emotionalstability in order to focus on education. More aggressive outreach centering from the school site to support theparents must be made available. Communication does not mean “send a note home” or “have an openhouse”.  Parents need to be communicatedwith on their home turf.  In many casesthis means that the service provider needs to go out to them, either by meetingthem at the local shopping markets, by visiting local churches or schedulinghome visits.

School based clinicswould help to address health problems that impede learning.  Students are attending school with impairedvision, hearing speech impediments, fine motor skills issues just as other moreserious health issues are also being neglected.  If parent could be offered health services fortheir children at the school most would readily accept it. 

After-school programsshould be revamped and well funded.  Theyshould attract the working parent but also the high achieving student.  They should attract students by offering  structured low-cost or fully subsidizedprograms that improve the student’s physical, social/emotional and academicskills.  Programs should be created sothat students actually choose to attend them over choosing to watchingtelevision or being idle with their friends somewhere else.  After-school programs should provide qualityhomework assistance, tutorial and enrichment programs, as well as arts, sports,guest speakers, and field trips. These programs should also be open yearround.  Summer programs should include acomplete summer experience for these students including recreational reading,organized sports leagues, traveling and visiting museums. 

There is an urgentneed to keep both eyes open when attempting to see how to keep a student from“failing”.  With both eyes open all thefactors that push students, teachers and schools into failure are more clearlyvisible.  Teachers, curriculum and policymakers, and parents have a daunting task before them and need inter-agencycooperation to fill in the gaps if failing schools are to be saved.  Miamiranks as one of the top five cities with the highest poverty levels.  MDCPS is also the fourth largest schooldistrict in the nation with demographics in 2003 of the student body as 56%Hispanic, 31% Black, 11% White and 2% Other. By 2015, Miami-Dade Countyestimates there will be 431,000 children in our system of which 64% will beHispanic, 28% Black, and 8% White/Other. The lack of success of our multicultural student population willcontinue to be severely exacerbated by our high incidences of poverty, crime,and limited English proficiency. Unfortunately politicians and policy makers continue to invest on theFCAT as the panacea for what ails our schools. For them it seems easier to steal away attention from our real problemsand place them on a test.  In themeantime our community suffers as our children’s true ailments are ignored suchas crime, health, and the economy.

Wow, and the politicians have tied the teachers' livelihood  to these scores. Just a sad example with what is really wrong with American society...

I got high as shit before all of my final tests last year and got 3s and 4s in everything. You've obviously never smoked weed if you think that taking a test high automatically means you fail. More than half of these kids fail anyways, and none of them are high.

 WHY GO TO HIGH SCHOOL WHEN YOU CAN GO TO SCHOOL HIGH?

good for them.

The bums will always lose! Do you hear me Lebowski! The bums will always lose!

all future obama votesnext stop after they "graduate", they will get their own welfare check,food stamps,medicaid, section 8 etc...signed working tax payer

Oh yeah like a 9-5 is so much more productive then a FCAT test? Its the same mindless work. At least they are only smoking weed. And not taking pills. Thats much worse. And if your going to argue that weed is a malicious drug, vs a few shots, then your just another sheep. A few hits off a jay will just make you hungry or tired, but not angry and disoriented, and paranoia comes from the fact that it is taboo in our cookie-cutter society and is illegal. Wake the fuck up Joes.

 "Well, the world needs ditch diggers too."

Sad part is that we, the productive, are paying for their "Education" and will be paying for their lazy, entitlement lifestyle,

i used to get high before highschool, whether there was an important test or not, i passed them all(at least the ones that i had knowledge of the content for). I smoked before fcat, before my SAT, and still do in college, and im just fine. Maybe the problem to be targeted should be the fact that kids care so much about being idiots and bragging about it they don't focus on the actual test, not to mention the FCAT is the worst test and judgement of knowledge.

I like how you guys put all those kids on blast