school question (Bailey: home, school districts, vs)

[achtungpv]

A friend's kid is a 6th grader at Bailey, which is considered on of the better middle schools in AISD. She mentioned that she keeps all her textbooks at home and doesn't need a single one of them at school. I asked why and she said all they do are worksheets for the TAKS test all day long. Her mom confirmed it.

Is this really what's going on in public schools? I knew they taught to the test but that's a bit out of control.

[hoffdano]

We did not find this to be true in LTISD. Can't say what goes on in AISD.

[austinnerd]

Well they are taking the TAKS right now. I assume that the implication is that this is all they do _all_ year long vs around this time frame? Plus, at least in elementary school, the TAKS is taken in sections so it seems to go on for a long time, but they focus on various sections at different times.

[h886]

Let's be candid about the fact that we don't always get the full truth out of kids. Every time my mom asked what we did at school that day, my answer was, "Nothing." Obviously that wasn't quite true. Plus, if mom gets all excited when they hear that and starts on a rant against teaching to the test, the kid knows they have a captive audience and they play it up a bit. I would guess that they do some practice worksheets as TAKS is right around the corner, but I highly doubt that's all they do the entire day.

At most of the schools I know of, every child is issued their textbooks to be kept at home. There is a class set that always remains at school for use in each classroom. This is done to reduce the weight of the backpacks so that an 80 pound child isn't carting home 30 pounds of books every night (which studies have shown is bad for their backs.) This doesn't mean they don't use the books, just that they don't cart them back and forth.

[capcat]

Originally Posted by h886

Let's be candid about the fact that we don't always get the full truth out of kids. Every time my mom asked what we did at school that day, my answer was, "Nothing." Obviously that wasn't quite true. Plus, if mom gets all excited when they hear that and starts on a rant against teaching to the test, the kid knows they have a captive audience and they play it up a bit. I would guess that they do some practice worksheets as TAKS is right around the corner, but I highly doubt that's all they do the entire day.

At most of the schools I know of, every child is issued their textbooks to be kept at home. There is a class set that always remains at school for use in each classroom. This is done to reduce the weight of the backpacks so that an 80 pound child isn't carting home 30 pounds of books every night (which studies have shown is bad for their backs.) This doesn't mean they don't use the books, just that they don't cart them back and forth.

This explanation is the truth, at least for AISD. I have no knowledge of the way it is done in other school districts.

[riaelise]

Considering people are ridiculously obsessed with TAKS scores I wouldn't be surprised. How sad.

[HappyTexan]

Many schools got rid of their lockers..for obvious reasons.
Rather than have the kids lug all their books around all day long there are either 2 sets (one classroom and one home) or one home and worksheets done in class which reflect the textbook work.

[Trainwreck20]

Have you seen the people that approve out text books? Maybe not using them is a good idea....

[deathpenalty03]

Aye!

[JohnHenrySDM]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

Have you seen the people that approve out text books? Maybe not using them is a good idea....

Indeed. I haven't seen any firsthand, but from what I read in the media, they certainly haven't been very intelligently designed.