The Crisis of Low Expectations for College-Bound Black Students

[Ten/Four]

I'm 24 years old, and grew up in a family of educators from elementary school through college. I think part of the problem is that school districts nationwide want to get "cute" (for lack of a better word) with the curriculum. Like 7th said, there needs to be a return to the foundations. That means schools need to stop teaching to the tests. Kids wouldn't have a problem passing these state tests if they had the fundamentals.

When I was in elementary school my english book concertrated on sentence structure and proper grammar. The book was basically the same through out the grades it just become more complex as you advanced in grade level. And everyday the teacher would give us a topic to write about in our journal. It was expected for us to complete our class and homework. And there was no using a calculator in math. All work had to be written out to show how you arrived at your answer. There were no rewards for doing it because that was the norm. However, there were consequences if your work wasn't done.

And the teacher had complete control of his/her classroom. Now it seems like the kids run the classroom. That would never have happen when I was in school and the kids knew it. It was rare for a child to be sent out of the classroom. Teachers need to have full authority in their classrooms, and when a child needs to be disciplined the school's administration should back the teacher.