Reinforcing what you want

The administration says that they want a more rigorous program.

The administration tells us we have to let the students recover work they fail because people learn at different speeds.

The administration calls teachers in if they fail more than 15% of their students.

The students know all of this.

We had a teacher who wasn't exciting or hip. He failed a large number, although he did allow recovery. He lectured (teacher led) rather than engaging the students in student led lessons. He drilled - and drilled. His pass rate on state tests was 70% where other teachers had closer to 50%.

He was repeatedly lectured about his failure rate in his class.

He left this past week.

You reinforce those things that you want. Ours is so focused on the immediate AYP that they cannot see the dropout rate that will happen soon when new curriculum hits. Or, we dumb the program down even more.