Kid protests not being allowed stage crossing w/priceless pi

[APE]

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/w ... e879b.html

FORT WORTH — Students who had been planning to walk across the stage at graduation ceremonies this weekend were instead walking a picket line Thursday morning.

The Trimble Tech High School seniors marched in front of Fort Worth Independent School District headquarters to protest Wednesday's decision by trustees to bar students who failed the TAKS test from commencement exercises.

About a dozen young people, carrying signs and chanting, began picketing at 8:30 a.m. Thursday. They represent the 613 Fort Worth seniors who did not pass the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exam.

Crystal Martinez complained that while she finished at the top of her class with a 3.5 grade point average, she is now blocked from graduation by failing the TAKS test.

With classic picture. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree now does it?

Walking the stage is a privilege for those who are graduating. Having a 3.5 could be piss easy classes with 0 challenge. The California version of this exam was pretty damn easy if you didn't have any obvious problems, and if you did you got a dictionary and a calculator.

[Luriden]

Bleh, I hated the TAKS. While I don't think it's right to not let people graduate if they fail, it's kinda hard to feel bad for them. You get like three different chances to pass the test during the last few months of school...

[Veggita2099]

I guess that test is probably similar to the ones Ohio required to graduate. I passed all 4 of them the first time I took it. What was funny is there was a lot of 4.0 students who didn't pass it till there junior and senior year. There was a handful of students who dropped out because they couldn't pass it though, but they was pretty much the types that didn't care to begin with. But they gave you 2 chances a year up until you graduated to take it. I think you actually got 3 or 4 your senior year, but most everybody had it passed since then.

I don't know about this Taks test but something tells me if a student was having a really hard time passing it the teachers would take some time to help them study etc.

[melancholy]

Ours in Indiana is the ISTEP. It is given every year in the spring, meaning you have 4 chances to pass it from when you are a freshman to when you are a senior. If you don't pass it the first time when you are a freshman, you are required to take a class in the fall that is an ISTEP preparation class. If you don't pass it the second time, you retake the class on a more advanced level and so on until you are a senior.

[Jaded JAaron77]

while I'll admit that the TAKS is harder than the TAAS used previously... if you can't pass the TAKS, then you probably don't deserve to graduate.

TAKS is a joke, a waste of time ... makes the ACT look difficult.... I think I missed four, maybe five on the entire test when I took it, and I didn't try because I didn't care.

We know we're not going to get our diplomas, but we just want to walk across the stage

uhh... duh... that's the whole thing about walking across stage - to get your diploma ... or at least make it look like you are...

that story makes it seem like it was just that school's policy not to let them graduate for not passing... ...I thought that was part of the reasoning behind the new test - to prevent people from moving on if they couldn't pass

[Synlor]

Last year there was a big scandal in the public schools in town. There was a kid who had cancer so he missed quite a bit of time and was only a few credits short of graduating, but they wouldn't let him walk across the stage. I guess I don't remember how that one turned out... I was kind of torn between the two sides, afterall the kid had freaking cancer and was going to finish that summer.... but he also didn't meet the requirements to graduate so definately can see the other side.

In this case they definately shouldn't allow them to walk... from all that I have heard these state tests are jokes. I know the Dakota STEP is the one we take here, and that was a good waste of 2 mornings. It was pretty ridiculous just how easy that was, I mean basic math I learned in 7th grade made up the majority of the test.

Speaking of which... 3.5 GPA and at the top of the class? No wonder Texas has a stereotype of stupid hicks..... Atleast over half of my class had a higher GPA than that....

[APE]

Speaking of which... 3.5 GPA and at the top of the class? No wonder Texas has a stereotype of stupid hicks..... Atleast over half of my class had a higher GPA than that....

Using the false GPA math created by the AP whiners sure. Somehow the AP grades at my school were worth more than anyone elses but that A in the class difficulty right below it was worth as much as an A in math classes for the kids with brain damage.

4=A
3=B
2=C
1=D

Divide by number of classes and bingo, your GPA. No need to weight it based on if you have an AP class or not. Good thing colleges really don't care about that anymore.

[Synlor]

That using the normal calculation method APE, not the "cheating" way. Now with the cheating way, 33 people would have a 4.0 or better GPA out of a class of 176.

I don't understand the problem with having a class that is harder showing up that way to a college. It may not be the best way, but it does easily show that a student tries harder. At my school, all they did was add .02 to your GPA if you take an AP class, but the scale itself works the same as you had said.

[ace]

Let ARE kids walk?

[APE]

That using the normal calculation method APE, not the "cheating" way. Now with the cheating way, 33 people would have a 4.0 or better GPA out of a class of 176.

I don't understand the problem with having a class that is harder showing up that way to a college. It may not be the best way, but it does easily show that a student tries harder. At my school, all they did was add .02 to your GPA if you take an AP class, but the scale itself works the same as you had said.

Well the problem as stated was that only the AP kids got rewarded. In my HS you could have AP, Honors, College Prep, "regular", and then a sliding scale for even lower classes for people with issues like dyslexia and so on. I believe honors classes got a slightly better GPA ranking, not entirely sure. They wanted to group the college prep and below with each other for an A being worth the same amount. If there was a sliding scale for all that it would've been fine as a college prep class was definitely far more difficult than the one for the dyslexic kids in curriculum. On the other hand being a dyslexic made it extremely difficult to get even the basic work done so one could argue they deserve the GPA of the AP courses simply for being able to work past their own disability.

But that wasn't the case. The AP kids wanted their ivory tower, which meant a lot of them took AP art just to get that elusive figure above 4.0. If there was an AP football you'd have skinny nerds out there playing, not to say AP is all skinny nerds but those who were would be taking the class.

As for just the very basics of having the GPA worth more to look that way to a college, you think they won't know what AP means? Whats wrong with a regular A? It's good for the regular people but the higher class need that boost? Self-satisfaction isn't enough you gotta have the entire school know it?

[Synlor]

I definately can see why it would be frustrating at your school because that system does sound pretty messed up. I still think the way my school did it was fair. We only had the regular classes and then the AP classes for just a select few, so there were only 2 tiers. Our transcripts still say are unweighted GPA, but we could choose if we wanted to have our weighted GPA added onto when sent of to a college.

Its not about everyone recognizing how "special" I am, I really don't care about that. Its just an easy way for a college I applied to, to see that I worked harder than a kid with a 4.0 who just took gym and art classes all the way through school. Colleges know the differances and weigh those aspects based on how important they personally find it.

[Wagh]

From the schools I've been to I can tell ya that they wont even bother looking at your GPA.

[butters]

Speaking of which... 3.5 GPA and at the top of the class? No wonder Texas has a stereotype of stupid hicks..... Atleast over half of my class had a higher GPA than that....

A halfway decent school won't give out that many As.

[Ex-Cyber]

Speaking of which... 3.5 GPA and at the top of the class? No wonder Texas has a stereotype of stupid hicks..... Atleast over half of my class had a higher GPA than that....

A halfway decent school won't give out that many As.

I guess that depends on what your definition of "decent" is, or what you think the purpose of grades is. If all of the students master the material, why shouldn't the class GPA be 4.0?

[butters]

Speaking of which... 3.5 GPA and at the top of the class? No wonder Texas has a stereotype of stupid hicks..... Atleast over half of my class had a higher GPA than that....

A halfway decent school won't give out that many As.

I guess that depends on what your definition of "decent" is, or what you think the purpose of grades is. If all of the students master the material, why shouldn't the class GPA be 4.0?

In which case the teacher should have challenged the students better. I personally feel like I got cheated in high school because it was way too easy compared with what I encountered starting college.

[Synlor]

My school is actually supposed to be quite a bit more difficult than the public schools around here. Everyone that has transferred between the two agree with that. It probably helps that we have to pay $3000 a year to go to the school, so parents are making sure there kids are going to be doing well otherwise why waste the money. Thats the big differance really, the fact that it is a private school. We really don't have any special education students that have severe mental handicaps, which would help bring up the average grades.

We're supposedly one of the top high schools in the country. They are always talking about some national award that we are getting...

[AuroEdge]

Don't they have worse things to worry about like how they're never going to get a real job without a decent college degree much less a simple high school degree? Seriously, it seems like these students are more concerned about raising a stink than providing for themselves. I don't really get it. Must be a Texas thing or something else I guess. No offense butters.

[Roofus]

High School students always protest when they don't get their way.

[Nico0020]

Let ARE kids walk?

yea i noticed that too. lol i wonder why they didnt pass

[pixel]

My school is actually supposed to be quite a bit more difficult than the public schools around here. Everyone that has transferred between the two agree with that. It probably helps that we have to pay $3000 a year to go to the school, so parents are making sure there kids are going to be doing well otherwise why waste the money. Thats the big differance really, the fact that it is a private school. We really don't have any special education students that have severe mental handicaps, which would help bring up the average grades.

We're supposedly one of the top high schools in the country. They are always talking about some national award that we are getting...

Yeah, due to No Child Left Behind, your school was awarded a blue ribbon.
You missed out, however. Unlike your school, the public school I attended down the street had a cavalcade of delightful characters: Sex offenders, alcoholics, meth addicts, racists and the occasionally child rapist.