Public Education

I have never worked in the field of education although I am a product of public education.  I guess I would be considered an educational success.  I graduated public school, my middle class parents were able to provide the means to my obtaining a B.A. degree.   I then returned to school part time and obtained a M.A. degree.

My wife now teaches the Third Grade and has been a teacher for 16 years.  She is the teacher that knowledgeable parents requests for their children.  What I don't understand is the fact that not one of her current students are able to perform on the third grade level.  In fact most can not even perform on the second grade level.   Several do not know their alphabets.  Why is her designation third grade when she is not teaching third grade?

When I was in school I feel sure that the majority of my fellow students in a particular grade were functioning on that grade level.  Some classes were more advanced than others but all were more or less the same overall grade level.  In other words while some fifth grade classes might be less advanced than others, they were fifth grade levels.  If I did not succeed in mastering fifth grade materials I was given a grade of "F".   I would have failed the fifth grade and repeated that grade until I made a passing grade.  The fifth grade teacher was responsible for teaching fifth grade material which to me only makes sense.   There were classes for intellectually challenged students but these were on their on system of grading which did not apply to regular classes.

I understand this phenomena is not just at my wife's school but is common in public education.  It seems to me a principal would be opposed to such a inefficient means of providing education.  It would seem a student should remain in the appropriate teaching situation for his level of understanding.  Why would you want a student performing on the first grade level in a third grade class?   If a teacher has to divide her time to students of different abilities then she would be unable to excel with her proficiency in the grade she is suppose to teach.  If there are students in her class who are of the third grade level are they not being cheated since they are in their appropriate grade level class but are not receiving full attention for that grade level?

I can only surmise a student who "fails" must reflect negatively on some political statistic.  It would appear it is assumed that the failure is due to the incompetence of the school rather than some problem with the student.  Now I am in no way suggesting there are not incompetent teachers.  A teacher who passes a student who can not compete in the next level of work is setting that student up to fail. Thus, this becomes a moral issue of purposely not providing a student with his particular needs and setting him up for failure in order to improve the school statistics.