Philadelphia teachers complain of pressure to promote...

Joanne Jacobs has a post up about Philadelphia teachers who are pressured to pass students who aren't ready. One teacher was forced to pass a student with 89 absences for the whole year. Some schools require teachers to give students a minimum grade of 50, whether or not they did any of the work or attended class. This has to do with passing enough students so they can get the full amount of federal dollars.

The Philadelphia Inquirer states (emphasis mine):

The pressure to pass students - even those who rarely go to class or can't read - is pervasive in the Philadelphia School District, teachers around the city say.

The push comes in memos, in meetings, and in talks about failure rates that are too high, the teachers say. It comes through mountains of paperwork and justification for failing any student. It comes in ways subtle and overt, according to more than a dozen teachers from nine of the city's 62 high schools.

"We have to give fake grades," said a teacher at Mastbaum High in Kensington. "The pressure is very real."

Personally, I can't get past the first paragraph - the part that says "or can't read." It seems to me the problem of pushing to pass students who aren't ready, and who may have unaddressed learning disabilities such as dyslexia, is starting earlier than high school. I would say they need to take a look at their middle and elementary schools.

How do you get out of elementary school - much less middle school - not knowing how to read?! How? How does a parent NOT know their child cannot read? Both of my nephews went to public school and, as I recall, they had reading homework in elementary school where they had to read to a parent.

But what do I know? After all, I don't have an education degree or a certification to teach. Or, I should say, I'm not a principal or school superintendent.