WHAT THE HELL DO THEY DO ALL DAY????

 So as Outnumbered (FNC) went on about the Chicago Teacher's Unon, one of the ladies brought up some statistics from schools in all of Illinios ...
and they are SCARY ...

in 67 Illinios school NO STUDENT was proficient in MATH
In 32 Illinios schools NO STUDENT was proficient in READING

But 70% of these sudents GRADUATED ...

Wait ... WHAT???

Yup ... they just pushed the kids out these high school doors ... 

OMG - this is like St. Paul schools when I sent my 2 oldest ... they both showed up knowing a LOT already ...
My son could read at a 3rd grade level (according to the district) and my daughter was already doing Geometry ...
We were being told by HIS teachers in 3rd grade that he would be able to pass the graduation tests required by the state already, and while we thought about it, we decided he needed to stay in class (and it was a good thing too, as we found out later)
Our daughter, the one who did Geometry, had some speech issues, so according to her teacher, she didn't have a lot of classroom time in Kindergarten but it didn't really matter since it was mostly "socialization" ... umm ... no.  She came out of Kindergarten having learned to read and write one word ... Aplle.

We moved ... fast .... other option was home schooling - which I was willing to do but had no idea where or how to start ... so an opportunity presented itself and we jumped at it!

New district ... Our son - who every year from 3rd -6th grade we were being told to have him Graduate - suddenly became a Small Fish in a Big Pond ...
Our daughter, who had 4 teachers in1st grade (they couldn't keep a teacher worth poo), 3 in 2nd grade, and 2 in 3rd grade ... was tested when we got to the new district.

OMG -- she was reading, they said, at Kindergarten level! (0.5 grade) and her math skills were about grade 2, but her computer skills - and they were supposed to have a computer program at the old school - were NON-EXISTANT ... we were compleely floored!  
Don't worry, by the end of he year both kids caught up FAST ... alhough my son had to deal wih simply being "average" for a while.

Our two younger kids were there when "Everyday Math" came into the district ... at my oldest daughter's 8th grade "graduation" ceremony I heard 2 mother's talking about how great it was going to be and it was about time this district started to be like St. Paul's.

Yes - I told them the truth about St. Paul schools ... and they were shocked!
But yes, the Everyday Math system as taught in the new district was taught differently than in St.Paul schools and things went better until High school ... but that's a different story.

Wait ... what was this about again???

Oh yeah ... Illinios schools ...

I'm just saying -- the tests that these kids are failing at are made up in THEIR OWN STATES, the kids should be able to pass them!

But see those kids???

They are the Future of America ... the Nation ... the World ...

I suggest you READ or listen tot eh audiobook, "Hitchkider's Guide To The Galazy" ... there's a bit in there where they run across a bunch of Earthling's on a planet ...
Turns out that they were "insignificant" folk who had been loaded onto a ship and blasted off, while the "imporant people" stayed to live their wonderful lives ... quite interesting ...

These statistics are horrible ...

And remember, they origianlly blamed all this on the Lock Down ... um ... that was 4 years ago now ... No - its just poor teaching!