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Thread: This is good - Buffalo graduation rate climbs to 61 percent

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    This is good - Buffalo graduation rate climbs to 61 percent

    The graduation rate for students in the Buffalo Public Schools increased to 61 percent for the Class of 2015, marking the first time in the past decade that the city’s graduation rate passed the 60 percent mark.
    Read the Full Story in the Buffalo News

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    Quote Originally Posted by WNYresident View Post
    Read the Full Story in the Buffalo News
    I'm definitely a cheerleader of positive news, but, this stat means very little without controlling for other variables. Maybe there was demographic change? Maybe there was a change in cutoff scores of the exams required to graduate? Too many variables unaccounted for to suggest "improvement" or "good news" as it were. I'm not poo-pooing the news, but without advanced statistical analyses it's impossible to tell.

    Besides if it's from the Buffalo News its sure to be rife with misinformation.

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    Quote Originally Posted by WNYresident View Post
    Read the Full Story in the Buffalo News
    I agree with genoobie's comments entirely. Everyone knows that the educational establishment controls the passing and graduation rates and can manipulate them at will. Leaving the fraud issue aside, on what planet is a 61% graduation rate a cause tor celebration?

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    Quote Originally Posted by grump View Post
    I agree with genoobie's comments entirely. Everyone knows that the educational establishment controls the passing and graduation rates and can manipulate them at will. Leaving the fraud issue aside, on what planet is a 61% graduation rate a cause tor celebration?
    On what planet is a 100% graduation rate cause for celebration? It's a stat that follows income directly and as such has little merit. Grad rate, test scores, etc., should never have been the measure to compare schools by. There shouldn't be any need to compare schools because that enables kids on both ends of the spectrum to shift the burden of education to outside forces. (i.e. I go to a "good" school so I don't need to work, I go to a "bad" school so I don't need to work). Education metrics are too easily exploited to say town "X" can raise taxes, keep home prices high and squeeze out the little guy while town "Y" can't raise taxes and has to scrape the bottom of the barrel as the demographics shift.

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    Of course I never mentioned a 100% graduation rate so confuse the issue with statistics that aren't mentioned. And I know that as a Buffalo teacher you don't believe in accountability for teachers because student failure is the fault of everyone but the teachers unions. What I do know, what everyone knows, is that people want their kids to go to good schools. That's why the Amherst school district has to monitor city residents trying to sneak their kids into Amherst to go to school. I don't think the Buffalo schools are monitoring for Amherst residents trying to sneak their kids into the Buffalo schools. You teach in Buffalo so tell us, how many residents of other municipalities are caught sneaking their kids into the Buffalo schools every year?

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    Quote Originally Posted by grump View Post
    Of course I never mentioned a 100% graduation rate so confuse the issue with statistics that aren't mentioned. And I know that as a Buffalo teacher you don't believe in accountability for teachers because student failure is the fault of everyone but the teachers unions. What I do know, what everyone knows, is that people want their kids to go to good schools. That's why the Amherst school district has to monitor city residents trying to sneak their kids into Amherst to go to school. I don't think the Buffalo schools are monitoring for Amherst residents trying to sneak their kids into the Buffalo schools. You teach in Buffalo so tell us, how many residents of other municipalities are caught sneaking their kids into the Buffalo schools every year?
    Oh you're right I guess. The students aren't learning anything because their teachers suck. So I find it especially funny that you highlight Amherst's policing of residency. Why don't you advocate for taking students to the far superior Amherst district? Hey, they'd even come with their funding. Let's take the bottom 100 performing elementary students and Amherst can show us their magic. Funny thing is I never see you in the paper or at board meetings or any such event to advocate for this change. Must be that armchair is too comfortable.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Genoobie View Post
    Oh you're right I guess. The students aren't learning anything because their teachers suck. So I find it especially funny that you highlight Amherst's policing of residency. Why don't you advocate for taking students to the far superior Amherst district? Hey, they'd even come with their funding. Let's take the bottom 100 performing elementary students and Amherst can show us their magic. Funny thing is I never see you in the paper or at board meetings or any such event to advocate for this change. Must be that armchair is too comfortable.
    You're right; that armchair is damned comfortable. Did my stint attending school board meetings in Amherst years ago. I didn't realize you regularly attend board meetings in Amherst. Good for you! Might be better off trying to change things in the district where you work. Just a thought. Why do you attend board meetings in Amherst? Oh wait, do you live in the Amherst school district and attend meetings so that your kids' schools don't end up like BSD? Just askin'.

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    Quote Originally Posted by grump View Post
    You're right; that armchair is damned comfortable. Did my stint attending school board meetings in Amherst years ago. I didn't realize you regularly attend board meetings in Amherst. Good for you! Might be better off trying to change things in the district where you work. Just a thought. Why do you attend board meetings in Amherst? Oh wait, do you live in the Amherst school district and attend meetings so that your kids' schools don't end up like BSD? Just askin'.
    Funny, checked the minutes of the board (they are public record). Didn't see where you were quoted as having advocated for placing Buffalo's lowest performing students in Amherst so you could show us all how your district works such miracles.

    I know it's hard to believe but there's actually this large repository of information called the i-n-t-e-r-n-e-t. You can look up all kinds of stuff on it. You should try it. Here's the link to the minutes so you don't actually have to attend board meetings. Not that it's your business, but I live in Buffalo, my kids went to BPS.
    http://www.amherstschools.org/district.cfm?subpage=483

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    Well, you said you never see me at a school board meeting. I'll admit I'm not as sophisticated as some at the use of this internet thing but I'm pretty certain that reading the minutes on line doesn't allow you to see me at school board meetings. And as I said my school board attendance was well before the period of time covered by the posted minutes. Still waiting for the number of suburban parents trying to sneak their kids into the BSD.

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    Anyone can look at the minutes and see the section titled "Visitors wishing to speak" In there is the name and subject of the visitor's discussion. I've never seen anyone propose that Amherst take BPS students and show BPS what great results they would get. Funny, because I was just talking to a student the other day whose parents live in Tonawanda. So there's at least one.

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    Oops. Did I just see something on the Democratic public relations office locally known as Ch 2 news about an investigation into graduation rates at Buffalo schools? Why, by gosh, I did! It seems there's a number of teachers & administrators on paid leave while they sort it all out. My guess is it's all because of class size and unfair pay. Double the number of teachers and double their pay, that's what I say. The graduation rate might not improve but there will be more people to help perpetuate the fiction of improving schools in Buffalo.

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    Quote Originally Posted by grump View Post
    Oops. Did I just see something on the Democratic public relations office locally known as Ch 2 news about an investigation into graduation rates at Buffalo schools? Why, by gosh, I did! It seems there's a number of teachers & administrators on paid leave while they sort it all out. My guess is it's all because of class size and unfair pay. Double the number of teachers and double their pay, that's what I say. The graduation rate might not improve but there will be more people to help perpetuate the fiction of improving schools in Buffalo.
    You must be a graduate of the Buffalo Schools that you decry so loudly because you cannot read or even watch TV. The first quote from the story is "We don't know why a Buffalo Principal has been on paid administrative leave for months."

    So even your source isn't reporting "news" but some kind of opinion. Your source also sucks because the teachers on paid administrative leave in Riverside High School have NOTHING to do with graduation rates and East High School. These two facts are strung together in such a way to contrive the creation of a narrative. But go ahead, keep believing the pap that local "news" feeds you. Someone with such unquestioning acceptance of "information" will be an excellent candidate for the emerging idiocracy.

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    The story was about an investigation of graduation rates in Buffalo schools. I didn't say any of the paid leaves were connected to each other or anything else at all. I said a number of teachers and administrators were on leave while it gets sorted out, which, apparently is what's happening. It wasn't my source; it was ch 2's source. This is the second time in just a few days you've questioned the accuracy/veracity of local news stories. The other was in the thread about Panepinto and, by extension, the financial windfall showered on his cadidacy by NYSUT. I guess the local news never get it right when they question activity surrounding education. But I love your term "emerging idiocracy". It so well identifies the output of the BPS. If you don't mind, I'll use it too.

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