Rant ‘n Rave

High school English teacher Susan Boesch rants about her school being labeled failing and raves about the students’ impressive accomplishments in Sunday’s Fort Wayne Journal Gazette.

“As teachers, parents and students, we should be accountable for our performance, but the deck should not be stacked against students before they even begin,” she writes, citing NCLB’s one-size-fits-all testing requirements as putting her English Language Learners and special ed students in a no-win position.

Her ”failing” school is doing something right, she argues, as she lists the elite colleges granting admission to the top seniors, the awards the school has racked up, even a Pulitzer Prize winner among its alums.

I do not feel the measure of success for a school can be found in the ability of its students to correctly fill in a bubble sheet supplied by the state. The true measure of a school is the impact it has on the community. Judging from the successful graduates from North Side who have had a positive influence on the community, I’d say North Side is a pretty remarkable high school.

And Ms. Boesch sounds like a pretty remarkable teacher.

Explore posts in the same categories: AYP, ELL, accountability