As I see it, it's a problem with the whole perception of the Public Education System that has been created by a number of things, starting with a unionized teaching corp. The only answer that those "Professionals" who have a plethora of @ss covering rulesets within their contracts and Union work rules, along with the Job Guarantee of "Tenure' which makes moving or discharging an inept educator nearly impossible in the very least. This, of course leads to total irresponsibility throughout the system because as union members, one cannot rat out another brother/sister Unionista . .

We have literally created an "Educational Assembly line" to educate our children. We categorize them by age, not ability, and then place them in "Grades", K thru 12 typically. And for a couple of hundred years it kind of worked. It worked better back when it was started, for a number of reasons. Back then there were few outside diversions. Kids came to school and were entertained by learning. There were smaller classroom sizes by the grades and often the grades were more or less intermingled. There were some who believed (and still do) that the "One Room School House" was the best approach to educational achievement because the teacher was constantly aware of where, academically, each of his/her students were . . and because no matter which grade was being taught, everyone got to hear/see this and by the time it got to them in a test form, they knew it well . . And, while some argue that there's far more things that students need to know today, that's a false premise. An Eighth Grade Graduate (they graduated Eighth Graders back then) knew far more about far more than a sophomore in the average State College or University does today.

And that was because, for one thing, when the teacher in that little school sent Johnny home in the Spring to work on the farm, she knew that next Fall, that same kid would be back in HER classroom studying NEXT YEAR'S Grade and ready for it. If he wouldn't be, in her summation, then she held him back and repeated that grade . .

There was no one to pass off the non achiever on to . . .

Today, we not only pass off non-achievers, slower students and potentially mentally ill or mentally handicapped children to the next grade, we do it, often as not, with the blessing(s) of the Administration . . The Entire system is complicit in this. We don't want to make "Waves". Not at any level. So if Sally, in the first or second grade, doesn't read at her acceptable level, the problem is seldom diagnosed, partly because the teacher doesn't want to deal with it and partly because the Administration (and sometimes the parents) don't want to spend the money and time to do it . . Because, quite like a faulty circut board or automobile on an assembly line, once you pull it off the line to diagnose and fix it, you have to adjust it's place in the line . . Our Educational systems are no longer prepared to do this efficiently. And to a School District, "efficiency" is everything . . and we can improve "Efficiency" by throwing money at the problem . . and when that doesn't work, we add more money by labeling the problem and assigning another administrator to it . .

And, in the ensuing "passing on" of the non-achiever (or whatever) we (the lower teacher) hopes/assumes that the receiving teacher can "MAKE DO" with the student he/she has sent up . . And of course, the receiving Teacher says nothing, once realization of the capabilities of the "Gift" has been ascertained, and tries to help the student "Catch Up" . . or not . . Apparently few do. In Pueblo, it's one out of every four, an admirable fact (?) . .

But the punch line is this. If a child cannot read at Third Grade level at the end of the Third Grade, what kind of heroic effort(s) are going to be made to bring this student up to Fourth Grade skills before he/she gets there? Generally, not a whole lot . . The student may not fit the assembly line model but "WE'LL MAKE DO" . . and sooner or later the student says, in one manner or another, "Enough" . . They drop out, or coast, just showing up and being a "Warm Body" which to school administrators, is actually all they're concerned about. If Billy/Sally just shows up on the "Count" day so that the school/district gets the bucks that the Feds and the State pays out for each and every warm body in the classroom, and of course, assumes that Billy/Sally is literate and an attending, involved student . . like every three out of four . .

And the teachers/administration are happy . . Until somebody grades the system . . .

The system has failed, and neither the teachers nor the Administrators, or the School Board really care . . Their only mission has been converted from education to funding education . . Screw the results . .

Perhaps we had better figure out how to pay for results rather than rhetoric . .

I'm betting that it would be a D@mned site cheaper . . .