I some of this the reason for the bad exit exams? It wouldn’t surprise me. Perhaps when the students are distinguishing themselves at puberty by failing the (IQ??) screenings the school medical officer should be reviewing their case to see if there is something treatable going on.

That is if they even have a medical staff in these districts. They would if I were allocating the budget. But then they’d probably have driver’s ed classes also. You know how I’d balance the budget. It is more important to provide a floor for the proles than to provide a basketball team and calculus classes for the (relatively) few strivers.

That fact that your students flunked the test at age 14, when other students breeze through it, then pass it closer to age 18 with your coaching – does not refute at all what I am saying.

You should focus on why your kids don’t pass at age 14. Remember, the pass level for that test is that of a child – an “8th grader”. The fact that you manage to coach the hell out of your students and get a 72% rate on a child’s test from students that are essentially adults does in fact reflect what I say is happening.

Good for you and the students that you managed the 72% – at last.

It’s an IQ test. And you managed to get peak performance out of your class to finally “pass”. Don’t you see? Normal children reach that level at puberty.

All you can do with the students is do the best you can for them and their future. My point is that there are ways for lower IQs – the left side of the Bell Curve – to make it in society. The way does NOT include trying to compete with the right side of the Bell Curve on their terms. Our schools should identify the left siders and give them the tools to prosper with what they have to work with. We do harm by foolishly trying to turn them into something they are not – college material. There’s too much earning power to be had in technical and other vocational skills.

Anon79: If a school is holding back a student who is not performing at grade level, I would consider that a good thing. Schools that continually pass non-performers are not doing the students any favors. So if AIC achieves high test scores by leaving 2% behind that is certainly better than low test scores resulting at schools where all students are advanced regardless of ability.

I know how you got your numbers; its easy but no one has said it outright.

I visited your school. I asked aipcs leaders, I believe you were not a leader then, questions about the academic program and instructional strategies and all I got was a constant regurgitation about a model and about capitalism.

Thats fine and all, but no one could tell me about the specifics of the instructioanl program other than that.

Others that have visited, including national orgainzations, have said the same about your school.However, I liked the schools focus, but when you look at a sea of Chinese students (around 70%, some classes were even 100%) of the school’s population-the secret is no longer as such!

This city has a 14% Asian population rate, but your schools have over 85% among all of your campus’?

Amazing how the Asians only flock to YOUR charter isint it?

Why, I truly think that your model is magic! ou should open in West Oakland, East Los Angeles, or the Bronx to spread the magic!

I think the obvious is telling. I would like to hear from a teacher who has taught at your schools and then for a “real” demographic school to see what their experience was in comparison? I bet rough!

If the student is impaired, or not suited to the material or has no aptitude for the subject, no amount of “teaching” or “education” is going to “make” the student do well on the test.

That is part of the problem with rad-lib educrats, they don’t want to explore or address the suitability issues, and on some level they don’t want to try and work with the students to make them more suitable either. They don’t want to “change” the students, preferring to “keep it real”.

Correcting their English to begin with.

Good schools do this. AIM for example.

(Please don’t tell me that it’s because they teach to the test and don’t offer deep and well-rounded instruction; I’m confident that at least two — which I’ve toured — are no more test-focused than their non-charter counterparts.)

Look up the racial breakdowns on those tests. The CA Bar results are online at CALBAR.Org.

Truth Hurts seems to insinuate that one can be coached through those exams – dramatically increasing the score. Well not exactly. No amount of coaching or studying can make someone with no significant aptitude ever pass the CA Bar Exam. Black Law Student Failure rates on the CA and NY exam are very distinct and high and there are those who write that it’s fraudulent for the schools to accept the numbers of black applicants they do knowing to a certainty that the high number of them will never pass the bar. It’s argued that the law schools create the black failure rate by enrolling students they know will fail, enrolling them for the schools’ own political & economic self-serving reasons. It is suggested that higher LSAT score minimums be imposed with the black students or at a minimum a dire warning issued that at certain scores the student is statistically certain to never be able to practice law – and any student “loans” be blocked at underwriting to prevent the failed students from being saddled with $100k + in nondischargable debt.

Interesting thing about the Brave New World, the science of statistics and actuarial instruments have reached the point where you can accurately predict human behaviors – well enough to place your money on them. And this trend is accellerating.

This high school exit exam is just the beginning of what the black students and all students will be encountering.

And believe me, 85s are not taking the LSAT.

The students much below 85 are often gone gone gone by the end of 12th grade, they are your drop outs and throw aways – and your retarded students (70 and below).

The fact remains that time pressure testing especially those requiring reading comprehension, fine distinctions and calculations, are IQ tests. We are using this test to block diplomas from those who test out too low. Not a bad thing if the Diploma is to mean something. The diploma means the holder is not an idiot. Too many idiots were getting diplomas for the taste of the legislature and the people.

Ralph: I have a student I worked with who had some trouble passing high school and more or less flunked out of Jr College. These results were at odds to his clearly demonstrated intelligence. He did poorly on all the screening tests. I booked him an appointment with a psychiatrist, he was tested and placed on Rx for Attention Deficit Disorder. He is now working in the Bay Area at $10k a month as a licensed professional after two years of training (I still can’t believe that cash flow). In hindsight this should have been done years earlier but the parents didn’t believe in psychiatry. I remember him saying to me that he was able to think and concentrate in school for the first time ever when on the drugs.

There are many reasons why people don’t test out to their potential. Sleep disturbances will also throw it off, so will other medical issues. A good school, good parents, good Dr or good luck will make sure the student is doing the best they can. Some people walk in with no obstacles to testing, some have baggage from bio mom & dad, physical, cultural or bad house.

The fact remains that this is a time pressure & high stakes test that most children nationally breeze through but the black kids don’t.

Yes there are things the schools can do to improve their black student’s odds on the standardized tests. Those “things” are not pleasant for the students. Kind of like black students at McGeorge Law School. But try as you might you are not going to make a low IQ students test out as a high IQ student. You don’t have to, you are just making them pass a cut off on a large screening test.