Our Collapsing Schools Dept.

Fox News comments on this New Orleans Times-Picayune story concerning the failure of the class validictorian at Alcee Fortier Senior High School to graduate because

(wait for it…)

she failed the math portion of the required exit exam.

Five times.

The exam tests at a 10th grade level.

She got an ‘A’ in algebra.

As Fox put it:

“They were giving her As for being a good kid. But they weren’t teaching her.”

I’m sure she felt good about herself. Until the real world reared up and smacked her in the face as it has a habit of doing.

Of course,

The principal blames the test.

It couldn’t be the fault of the school system, could it?

Read both pieces. The Fox bit has a lot more on other education topics. The details in the Times-Picayune piece will make you want to burn the school down so we can start over from scratch.

Nod to Ravenwood for the pointer.

UPDATE:

Commenter Teri brings up something that I should have noted:

You didn’t point out the absolute worst thing about this situation:

“With the kinds of grades she’s earned, Green said she doesn’t have any doubts about her abilities to do well in college. If she passes a summer retest, Green said she plans to enroll at Delgado Community College and pursue an elementary education degree.”

Makes me want to scream!

Yup. Infinite feedback loop. With the kind of grades she’s received, most people would expect to be able to do well. But earned? I think not. And if she goes to a college that actually requires her to learn, she might discover that those grades she “earned” have less value than the paper they’re printed on.

And she wants to inflict her educational experience on our kids.

You’re right, Teri, I missed that opportunity. Good catch.

And educators wonder about the people who home-school.