Note, this doesn’t apply to Inner-City schools or schools seriously in need of funding. This applies to schools like I go to (RHS in Ramsey NJ). We are the 12th best school in the state, at least we are supposed to be, and are in serious trouble.
Why is my school in trouble? NJ schools are competing too much between each other. In NJ, and most of the country, a School’s federal and state funding depends on how well their students are doing. Student performance is measured via standardized tests (In NJ, those are the HESPAs, GEPAs, and FEPAs, as well as the SATs, PSATs, and CAT tests). Average GPA also plays into ranking.
Now this is where the problem arises. Schools are trying so hard to get more funding, it is at the expense of the student.
Now, here is my personal experience. In 8th grade, we took the GEPAs (Grade Eight Proficency Assement). These tests are almost completely around to test the school’s overal performance. Your score on the GEPA has almost zero bearing on your education.
But, it has a huge impact on your school’s funding. The Middle School I went to (Eric S. Smith) had the best GEPA scores in the state. They get a boatload of money, enough to give large (undisclosed) bonuses to every teacher in the school.
How did we get the best scores in the state? Well first off, my class (Class of 05) is probably the best 150 students Ramsey has ever seen (we’ve broken almost every record there is to break. We’re #2 in the nation on the National Current Events test, #13 in the National Knowledge Masters competition, Have the best PSAT and CAT scores in the state, and well, I have a 3.6 Average and I’m not even in the top 25% of the class. Hell, our Football team even won states. Theres more, we we #1 4 years ago in the state Word Masters competition, ect ect. There too much to name.
Now, the problem. How did we get the #1 GEPA test scores in NJ? Well, we took the GEPAs in April, and from February on, we did nothing else but review and prepare for the test. We didn’t learn anything, we didn’t take any non-Gepa related tests. We spent every minute of every day preparing for 2 months.
How did we get #2 in Current events? We spent 10 minutes of each Social Studies class preparing for it for the first 5 months of the year.
How are grades so high? Teachers are incredibly loose on cheating, screwing around, and teach a watered down version of the class. Grades are often rounded up in cases where they should not be.,
As a result, we are not getting the education that our taxes pay for. I can honestly say, in Smith School (rated as a top 10 school for the 3 years I went there) I walked away after 3 years learning close to nothing.
We need to stop this endless competition between schools. While the Feds and State Government are throwing money at my school, schools in Newark or Jersey City or Camden go to ruins. Teachers at my school are payed 60-97 thousand dollars per year, and for the most part they are not good teachers. Their saleries are inflated by inflated test scores.