Quote:
Originally posted by Sidd Finch
If this is irrefutable -- even un-debatable -- fact, does that mean that if I look on the California Teachers' Association website, it will say that CTA opposes all standardized testing and supports social promotion?
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They have put money against, and lobbying efforst against every bill that has proposed in increase in standardized testing or an end to social promotion. In negotiating conferences they don't even hide their support for social promotion. They say what the voters do not understand is that students that are held back become a major disruption in class. In other words, older students held back make it harder to teach the other kids. Therefore, kids need to stay with their age group no matter what.
They also argue, that in the inner city schools, that teaching Junior High School and High School kids reading and writing is not an option. If they haven't learned it by then, then they won't. Expecting the teachers to teach something to kids this age in the inner city is unrealistic. They see their job as merely keeping the kids of the streets and out of trouble. This is the "reality" the public doesn't understand.
Like most special interest groups, to the public they spin their arguments differently, but behind closed doors this is what they argue. You saw this with the proposition that would increase the tenure for teachers from two years to four years. They made it sound like all sorts of good teachers were going to get fired. They put up thirty million to defeat that initiative. That money came from mandatory dues extracted from teachers salaries, which you pay for. So in othe words, you paid, with your tax dollars, the effort to defeat that initiative.
