Depth vs. Breath

I don't know what's worse. Stooping to lesser standards to build students up for a reality they won't be prepared for, or crushing their dreams by holding them to the realistic standards that they'd be expected to reach.

We face this distinction between depth vs. breath: how we as educators are urged to teach less content but to go in greater depth in the lesser content... That to me is hypocrisy. How do you close an achievement gap by teaching more of less? Isn't that what makes it an achievement gap?! To me this reasoning is like arguing that to teach the whole alphabet is unnecessary, we should really emphasize the consonants and forget about the vowels. It's just too much for these kids...

It doesn't make much sense to me. I understand the social rationale, but I don't see the long-term benefits. It's also sad that even in a chopped down curriculum, like living environment, you encounter students who struggle and lack the necessary preparation. So in which direction do we move? Less content while widening the gap? Or more content and risk higher failure rates?

It seems like education at this level has truly hit its lowest point. To hold these students to an ACTUAL standard that isn't inflated would crush social morale and promote the same witch-hunt of accountability that we are all too familiar with. Who's to blame for these failures?! Schools! Teachers!

I think society needs a harsh wake-up call. What if for just a single-year the Regents were actually graded by their raw scores? What if students were actually held accountable for meeting and exceeding academic standards rather than these deflated standards? More students would fail, but people would finally realize that there's a solid target to reach.

If standards are rigid, the emphasis will now focus on student motivation (PARENTING). To teach more content also requires more highly qualified teachers who know the content better. If we are looking to fix the problem of student academic morale and teacher quality, hold schools to rigid academic standards!!

It annoys me to have students who enter my class after passing the Regents with a raw score of a 48%. That's not progress. That's not something to be proud of.