Proof Positive

On Tuesday I was handed proof that our education system fails our children; more specifically it has failed MY CHILD.  My son reads at a 6^th grade level and does math computations at roughly a 5^th grade level although he’s currently in grade 7^th in our local school.  

I’m sure there are plenty of “reasons” that could be given for the statistics and results of the tests that were provided; but the facts are this:  Regardless of the educational instruction he’s been given since he left private school after 3^rd grade, his “knowledge” hasn’t progressed past the 4^th or 5^th grade level.

Sure, It’s “my fault” because I homeschooled him in 6^th grade.  Or, it’s the change from private to public to home-school in four years time. Or, he has a learning disability (he doesn’t).  Maybe he needs to be medicated (he doesn’t). 

Sadly, I could spend a lot of time and energy and emotion blaming or faulting someone or something for the problem; instead I’m going to take charge and spend MORE MONEY fixing the problems that have been created; money that I’d rather spend on vacations or clothing or food or just about anything else.

I’m furious that I need to make the decision to spend money to fix a problem that wasn’t created by ME OR MY CHILD.  I’m outraged that, year after year, budget after budget, levy after levy; the school district has the nerve to ask for even more money to fund a system that just isn’t working.  Not just for MY CHILD, but for many other children and parents and families who find themselves driving long distances, re-organizing calendars, and finding alternative ways to finance tutoring and educational assistance for children that the current school system just isn’t helping.  Because their system is faulty, flawed and just plain falling down useless.  

According to the National Center for Education Statistics about $10K per child is spent annually through government funded schools (Public – 2007/2008 figures).  http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=66 So because my child is falling behind in basic skills and processes and educational instruction; based on his last three years of public education (4^th, 5^th and 7^th grades), I’d like a refund of $15K, please.  I calculate at $30K for three years (that’s on the low side, as the cost per student has increased since 2008), and if I assume he learned half of what he needed to know (which is a fairly large assumption based on the assessment test results I received) I think asking for half of those funds back is only reasonable.  

The largest majority of his 4^th grade year was spent instructing students to pass the WASL and 5^th grade (for us) was lost mostly to bullying and social struggles, which is why I pulled him out and home-schooled for 6^th grade.  7^th grade has been a lost year as well, as without the foundation of 4^th-6^th grades, he falls further and further behind.  And, to make matters worse, the system would just pass him onto the next grade instead of finding out ways to help him.  Failing grades in CORE SUBJECTS and they just move him up to the next level of frustration.

With this refund of $15,000, I can afford to pay for the roughly 200 hours of tutoring that’s estimated to be needed to get him ready for 8^th grade in the fall; and have enough to have him tutored for another 200 or so hours to keep him up to speed.

I am shocked at how much the educational system has changed in 30 years.  I don’t remember struggling in school; only in one class – Algebra.  My teacher worked with me after school, every day; my mother worked with me during homework, every night and I worked hard during class; only to pull a “D” out of the year.  My teacher and my mother communicated almost weekly on my progress, challenges and ways I could improve.  The rest of my classes, although not easy, weren’t particularly hard either.  I studied for tests, did and turned in homework and was a “B” student in every other class but that Algebra class.  I don’t remember having issues with writing assignments, studying for tests, organizing my binder or turning in homework.  And if I had, I knew that before I had gotten home from school, my teacher would have called my mother and worked out a solution to the problem.  No emails, no computerized grade system, no online ‘web-notes’, no daily agenda (calendar/day planner) to complete.  

My son struggles with division because he doesn’t adequately remember his multiplication tables.  My third grade teacher, Mrs. Potter (who was 80 when she taught me that year) made us memorize our multiplication tables until I’m sure we could say them in our sleep.  I think I still can say them all without much of a memory lapse after 40 years.  Without multiplication knowledge, one can’t calculate fractions or process any higher functions of math.  You can’t even go the grocery store and buy more than one soda without needing multiplication.

Reading 7^th grade story problems and text books are twice as hard when your vocabulary level is only at the 6^th grade level.  Spelling, writing and just plain understanding anything is all affected by reading.

Is my son smart?  Oh yes!  Does he have a disability?  No.  Can he learn?  Yes!

But the schools have focused more on test scores and passing kids from one grade to the next without actually finding out what the kids know and don’t know.  He would have been “graduated” to 8^th grade in June even with failing grades in all four core subjects.  It’s easier to overlook the actual problem than it is to fix it.  Their solutions?  A set place and time to do homework.  Checking the online system for what’s due (this subject is another ENTIRE post on its own).   Writing homework in the agenda.  Providing Motivation for him to complete.  And the grand finale?  Summer School.  They want me to send my child to the same system that is already failing him for another two months at an additional cost.  

So, here we are, less than two months before 7^th grade is over, financing 200 hours of tutoring to get him back to where he needs to be.  Thanks for nothing Public School educational system. 

How many of our kids graduate from High School?   According to the Alliance for Excellent Education http://www.all4ed.org/files/Washington_wc.pdf “about 62 percent of all students in Washington (State) graduate from high school with a regular diploma in 4 years.”   That’s 38 out of every 100 kids in OUR STATE ALONE who don’t graduate from High School.

“Since 1983, more than 10 million Americans reached the 12th grade without having learned to read at a basic level. In the same period, more than 6 million Americans dropped out of high school altogether.” (Reference: Education Statistics Reference Information “A Nation Still at Risk, U.S. Department of Education, 1999)

Why is our educational system so flawed?  I don’t know.  I’d like to think that it’s a simple solution.  More likely, it’s changing the entire system to be more beneficial and useful to all children in our country.  

I do wonder though how many of our graduated students who can barely read at an 8^th grade level will eventually end up on welfare or other government-aid programs.  And I wonder if that’s been the goal all along…