Jackson Jambalaya

The MDE should snap back to reality. My high school senior at a 5-star, 6A high school had to withdraw 3 weeks before the end of school due to failing all classes. After meeting with administration and teaching staff during the previous two years to address some teaching methods, no one really gave a damn.

More prison labor for state use coming down the pipe.

Which, in your opinion is worse: 'False Ratings' or those administrations that huddle in July-groups to figure out a way to dick with the tests and pass those students who should be failed?

Schools forever have gone to great lengths to justify their existence and at the head of that parade is the reality that they will do whatever it takes to keep the doors open and the funds flowing - most notably passing those who fail and pushing them through the funnel of graduation for the sake of numbers.

10:57 - Hopefully you mean members of the MDE board and some top administrators.

hmmm....I think a school with only 20% of its students having an IQ of 100 or above that graduates 45% ought to get 6 stars and a high school with 90% of it students with average and above IQs that just graduate 80% ought to get no stars.

What I wanted to know as a parent was not just how many students were accepted at accredited universities, but what rating the universities gave the high schools.

There have been even private schools that inflated grades, and puffed up activities, got the kids into colleges at a high rate only to have them promptly fail due to poor preparation.

There have been even private schools that inflated grades, and puffed up activities, got the kids into colleges at a high rate only to have them promptly fail due to poor preparation.

Which ones? Name them.

Woodland Hills comes to mind.

Never heard of Woodland Hills - did they shut their doors?

Always remember, because you sit in a position of authority, does not mean you are qualified to make the right decision or capable. There in is the problem with most of the leadership in this state. More important, never is covered the ill intent built into the establishment.

Woodland Hills closed about 13 or 14 years ago. I don't think that's valid for today.

Now, JA, that's another story. Several of their seniors fail their freshman year of college and come back home.

I'm not familiar with the rating colleges assign to high schools (see 8:27's post). Can someone elaborate?

Some what off tpic but under agencies giving the finger a young friend of mine who works at Bureau of Revenue told me that all revenue employees got a raise. She went from $24K to $28K. Ithought we were broke.

2:44 The Banking Commission had a "salary realignment" as well, and some of their examiners got a raise. I think they were having a hard time keeping them.

My mother retired from the Rankin County School District 2 years ago. She probably would have taught a few more years, however, when her principal told her that she was "failing too many kids," that's when she decided it was time for her to go. My mother didn't "fail" anyone. They failed themselves by not doing their schoolwork, homework and not studying for tests. She taught ninth through twelfth grades and the last few years it was nothing but a daycare for teenagers. She became unable to actually "teach" the students, but rather had to focus her attention on who was sleeping in class, who had their cell phone out, who needed to go to the bathroom nineteen times during class due to a "medical condition," etc. etc. etc. And don't get her started on the lack of responsibility on the parents' part. Little Johnny has been making Ds and Fs all year, and at the end of the year when his parents figure out he's not going to pass the class, they come out of the woodwork wanting to know why he can't complete any "extra credit" to bring his grades up. I'm sorry, but if you haven't made above a 60 all year, "extra credit" isn't going to get you anywhere. Unless of course you're told by the principal that you have to pass him. the system is ridiculously broken. It is nothing but a money game at this point. And to ANON 10:31 - the reason the JA graduates are going to college and failing out their freshman year is probably from partying too hard - not the lack of preparation by the school. Just a guess...

It's the job of the schools to expose the students to what they need to learn and to help them along the way in any way they can. It's the job of the parents to provide the student with a safe and warm place to study, food to eat and clothes to wear, and the motivation to make something of himself. It's the student's responsibility to prepare himself for whatever's waiting at the next level. Students who are products of struggling schools and poor parents can do just fine in college if they have the necessary discipline and desire. It's easy to blame parents and teachers, but it's the child's fault if he flunks out of college.

I thought schools were just for football?

What a joke.

When are communities, whether they have kids in school or not, going to realize their communities are unsafe raising failures?

This is endemic nation-wide folks.