Dropout, graduation rates not the same
To mask the vast failures of No Child Left Behind and various other “innovative” programs, politicians and educational administrators rarely mention the term “dropout rate” and instead have replaced it with the term “graduation rate.”
According to a definition I read on the U.S. Department of Education website a couple of years ago, the term “graduation rate” is an often vague and hard-to-define term. The most widely accepted term is based on the percentage of students who have never before repeated a grade who start the first day of their senior year and then graduate on time.
Sadly, If you dig through the statistics deeply enough, you will find that 1 out of every 3 children in our country who start the first grade this year will never graduate – no different than it was 30 years ago. The only time the term “dropout rate” is now used is in the context of “the dropout rate used to be 33 percent, but now the graduation rate is 88 percent” giving the illusion both terms mean the same thing.
JOE KIRKPATRICK
Cleveland, Tenn.
U.S. held hostage over burning plan
Headline! Muslim world holds the United States hostage over a reverend’s plans to burn a Koran.
The imam associated with the planned mosque near Ground Zero in New York warns of possible terrorist attacks on Americans if mosque plans are thwarted and compares people who exercise their free speech right to object to the mosque with radicals, comparing them to Muslim terrorists.
Pundits rush to warn the reverend that he cannot use his free speech rights to intimidate or offend sensitive Muslims. Meantime, sensitive Muslims in Pakistan burn American flags and the reverend in effigy, plus blow up a couple of markets in anticipation of being intimidated or offended. Is this insanity or what?
MAURICE SCHMOLL
Signal Mountain
Hope for progress will end with GOP
Polls predict a move in the U.S. House to the GOP side. I urge caution. It’s tempting to “throw the rascals out.” Remember which “rascals” were in office previously.
Examine the Democratic or Republican platform – what they stand for and who they fight for. Health care, banking reform, insurance oversight – these are consumer issues, personal issues. The saying, “all politics are local” rings true: people discuss national/international issues, but base their decisions on incomplete evidence, falsely skewed information and “how it feels.”
If voters elect a Republican House majority, the U.S. Congress will devolve into true partisan divide, and hope for continued progress will end. What party was in command the prior eight years?
The election of 2008 brought in new ideas and a new culture while inheriting enormous fiscal burden and years of eroded American confidence. Give the current administration their time; don’t go backwards.
Have you forgotten the enormous cost in lives and misdirected resources of two wars? Work hard on the local and state level on your financial, social or cultural issues.
Look beyond headlines and television “spinners”; read various sources from different mediums. Check facts and make an informed decision. The negative spin is just that: spin. Make up your own mind.
RICHARD ZACHARY
Republicans stoke the flames of fear
Republicans, unwilling to offer constructive solutions to the current fiscal and economic challenges, remain obstinate to the end. Refusing to acknowledge the failed policies of the Bush administration, they proffer only more of the same.
On one side of the political spectrum is a rainbow coalition of well-intended (sometimes misguided) compassionate representatives. On the other resides a homogeneous group of inveterate politicians having difficulty adapting to a president who by happenstance is black with a white mother – or is it a president who is white with a black father? Because of this conundrum, the Republicans stoke the flames of fear, ignorance, division and racism to their political advantage.
American demographics are changing: By 2042, Caucasians will be a minority. Many immigrants, particularly non-Caucasians, are targeted as an imminent threat to the American way of life.
This is the genesis of the compelling fear emanating from those who proclaim that they are “losing their country.” Their distorted point of view is a toxic mixture of moral ineptitudes, religious intolerance, corrupted Christian values and naiveté to an evolving world around them. The ideology that they are immersed in (I want my country back) is failing this country.
JOHN HIGHT
Citizens’ rights being yanked
What happens when a neighbor protects a private cemetery from likely trespassers and possible vandals? In Hamilton County, he is arrested! Arrested for what? Doing what I hope a police officer would do, safely detaining suspects until help arrives.
Is a concerned home owner just a convenient and soft target for police officers? Is something personal going on here, or are the police scared of armed law-abiding citizens?
The right to protect private property and the right to bear arms are cornerstones of any free society. When they are yanked out from under one citizen, the freedoms of all are endangered.
I hope my neighbors aren’t less likely to look after my loved ones and my property in fear their good deeds will be punished by a prison sentence.
WILLIAM SANDERS
Hixson Middle principal the best
Top administrator in the great state of Tennessee:
Sandy Barnwell is the principal of Hixson Middle School, and the community and staff would like to commend the outstanding job she does every day.
Greeting students, staff and parents with a rousing “Good morning” and genuine smile, she sets the tone for another positive day of learning and fun for everyone in the building.
During the school day, Ms. Barnwell is out in the classrooms, reviewing test results, monitoring hallways, and making informed suggestions for improvements. She enjoys the learning environment and treats everyone with respect and kindness.
Ms. Barnwell has never forgotten from where she came. As an outstanding student and teacher, she can certainly empathize with everyone encountered and move toward a every positive solution. She works hard with the staff to keep our new building clean and great lunches for all.
Sandy Barnwell is a tireless worker in a profession where rewards are fleeting, but she is the absolute consummate professional. She is an outstanding role model and we feel is the best in our state at what she does on a daily basis. We feel fortunate to have her!
JIM THOMPSON AND STAFF OF HIXSON MIDDLE SCHOOL
Admissions policy for schools flawed
In May, I contacted the admissions counselor at Chattanooga School for Arts and Sciences/Chattanooga School for Liberal Arts and asked when applications would be available and how to turn them in. I was told the applications for 2011-2012 wouldn’t be available until after school started in August.
On Aug. 26, I called the same admissions counselor. She told me the kindergarten applications wouldn’t be available until after Labor Day, and that copies would be available at the schools and online. Two days later, I hear a line had been started and many families are now ahead of us in this first-come first-served process.
Can someone please explain to me how honoring a sign-in line for a process that is supposed to be first-come, first-served is fair? Was there advertising for it that I missed? The only information we had to go on was the information on the school’s website and the information given to us by the admission counselor.
I am disappointed that the school district supports a process clearly not in the best interests of all children in this area.
DAWN McABEE