From Seattle writer and consultant Matt Rosenberg...: Powdered Milk for All

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Powdered Milk for All

June 30, 2004

Baltimore Sun columnist Gregory Kane doesn't think much of local school officials giving prompt re-tests to high-school seniors who fail exit exams because they haven't mastered the material.

The masterminds down at the Kremlin -- school headquarters on North Avenue -- in their zeal to "help" 12th-graders, allowed some seniors to retake final exams and gave them a chance to graduate. Purely altruistic motives, you understand. No attempt to pad graduation numbers and push kids out the door to comply with the federal No Child Left Behind Act. No hanky-panky of any sort. Just plain, old, down-home lovin' and a-carin' and a-hankerin' to help the po' chilluns.

More such nonsense abounds. In suburban Clover Park, Washington - outside Tacoma - ace Advanced Placement calculus teacher Jay Paulson of Lakes High School resigned after the district's superintendent ultimately erased failing grades he'd given to two students. Parents of the two had complained.

Lakes Associated Student Body President Albert Hwang criticized the Lakes leadership, and said students and parents fear what will happen to the calculus program next year. "Mr. Paulson is highly regarded," Hwang said. "There are tons of kids who are ticked off."
...Meanwhile, Paulson will teach math at one of Sumner's junior high schools next fall, then move to the new Bonney Lake High School when it opens the following year, Sumner spokeswoman Ann Cook said.

"We hear we're getting someone who's gotten proven results and a lot of kids passing the AP calculus test," Cook said.

"That's very exciting for us."

I wonder: how about a reality TV show on the grueling world of high school AP courses, and top-performing charter schools? Maybe we need to glamorize the "nerds."