Good Golly

Today I learned that 10 of AISD's 14 high schools did not meet the No Child Left Behind standards. I'll admit that I don't know a whole lot about No Child Left Behind but from how the Statesman article explains it, this is ridiculous.

It seems that 60% of students must pass the reading section of TAKS and 50% must pass the math section. Ten of 14 schools didn't do that?! Come on! What are we teaching the kids then? I'm sure its not that all the teachers just up and said "eh we don't want to teach this year."

There are a lot of possible problems. The teachers and administrators could be so busy dealing with issues like bullying, violence and teen pregnancy that actual teaching falls to the wayside. Classrooms could be incredibly overcrowded. On the same token, there may not be enough teachers. Resources, even as basic as books, could be lacking. Perhaps there is a large number of non-English speakers in some of these schools. I am sure the problems that exist are many and varied. I am also sure that AISD is aware of many of them and working to address the issues. But we can't address them too soon. These kids will be our employees, neighbors, soccer moms, voters and more soon enough. If we want to keep them off of government services, we need to prepare them with at least basic literacy and math skills. AISD - GET ON IT!

Meanwhile my inner Girl Scout says "THIS is why Girl Scouts is important." We have programs that help girls learn these skills in fun nurturing settings. We can't solve all the world's problems but we're doing our best to help these girls succeed in school and in life.