In a Sunday editorial today, the San Diego Union-Tribune has deservedly harsh words for school district officials in San Ysidro who engaged in what's called "social promotion" of 143 failing eighth-graders.. One passage in the editorial seems a dead giveaway that slacking teachers and fear of the teachers union is huge part of the problem. But regrettably, the writer fails to reveal more about that element of the situation.

Who is supposed to shake up and shape up San Ysidro Middle School? (Carolina) Flores, the fourth principal at this middle school in five years, has asked that teachers submit lesson plans and grade students consistently. Some do, some don't. Where are the superintendent and other district administrators to back up this principal? Where are school board members to support her requests? Where is an appalled union representative to demand that its teachers raise their expectations along with their teaching so their students can learn? Where are angry parents to raise cain? Where, as a necessary last resort, is state oversight?

Social promotion is the norm in San Ysidro, San Diego and many other school systems, but many of the students who do manage a 2.0 GPA and a decent attendance record still cannot perform at grade level the next year. Principal Flores made the decision to send the 143 most unprepared students forward into high school, but her cowardice is par for the course. Blaming the teachers is fair, up to a point. And the editorial at least makes a fleeting mention of parents. But the paper really needs to drill down, on the role of parents.

More (though nothing about parents or the all-important place of education in the community's culture) in this Friday article on San Ysidro Middle School from UT reporter Chris Moran:

...the problem is much worse than the promotion statistics indicate. How many students met promotion criteria and how many walk in the ceremony are irrelevant statistics to Hector Espinoza, principal of San Ysidro High, where today's ceremony will take place. They'll all be his students next year.

He just wants to know whether they're ready for ninth grade. He sent a team of teachers out to test middle school students, and they reported back to him that 70 percent of the incoming freshman class at San Ysidro High is not at grade level.

I tip my hat to all the parents who help motivate their kids, and wring the best for them out of public schools that are mediocre at best, and often much worse. Their kids may go far. But I gnash my teeth over the parents who are missing in action when it comes to the education and intellectual growth of their children. I know, "intellectual" is a dirty word. But "intellect" isn't. Ability to think and analyze, and a desire to learn are fairly essential tools these days. There's always somebody from Bangalore or Taipei ready to eat your lunch.

Yes, there there are special remedial courses at scores of high schools for incoming freshmen who never mastered the less-than-challenging middle school curriculum. And when they graduate, there are community colleges (a.k.a. "high schools with ashtrays") to bring them up to grade level for college.

Charter schools are no silver bullet. Some have crashed and burned rather spectacularly. You can end up with dolts and feather-bedders in charge of charter schools. But far less often than in public schools. More often, charters do really allow a culture of excellence and high expectations to thrive. We need more charter schools, more states which permit vouchers, and we need more frequent state-administered student achievement assessment tests within the framework of the No Child Left Behind Act. One for each of the last three years of high-school, for instance, instead of just 10th grade.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at June 26, 2005 12:39 PM

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