Comments for District strives to lift student performance at http://pattersonirrigator.com , comment 1 to 3 out of 3 comments http://pattersonirrigator.com Fri, 09 Jan 2009 07:09:41 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://pattersonirrigator.com/content/view/217/42/#comment-158 I am a teacher at the elementary level in Patterson. I work tirelessly to get these children where they should be and I feel the need to express some hardships we constantly face. At Apricot Valley, our school started with 300 children. Within a year and a half, it has expanded to over 700. Please remember that these new students don't always start on the first day of school. I am constantly getting new additions to my class. I have no idea what reading or math program they have had so I don't know if they have holes in their education when they get to us. Some holes can be filled, others aren't easily seen and sometimes there just isn't enough time, literally, to fill all the holes. There are students that come to our school the week before the state test; even though we haven't taught them for the year, we still test them...and their scores, good or bad, reflect on our school. MOST IMPORTANTLY, parent support can make or break a student. As a teacher, I work 12 hours a day and all that goes down the tubes without parental support. Believe me when I say WE ARE TRYING AS HARD AS WE POSSIBLY CAN!! :-\ - Working at 150% Fri, 21 Sep 2007 08:48:56 +0100 http://pattersonirrigator.com/content/view/217/42/#comment-153 Wow....what scores....Hope the improve....or else we might just end up with a load of unprepared students...that's not good....fix it....fix it now.... - Doc Holliday Thu, 20 Sep 2007 23:20:13 +0100 http://pattersonirrigator.com/content/view/217/42/#comment-45 I'm baffled that this report, and the assistant superintendant's comments, attempt to put a positive spin on these dismal numbers. According to the figure, 4 of the 10 reported math percentages and 7 of 10 english percentages have taken a turn for the worse from 2005 to 2007. More importantly, the only robust gains come at the elementary school level -- the middle and high school scores are atrocious. This suggests that the hard work our elementary teachers are doing to bring our students up to par will ultimately be squandered as they progress through middle and high school, when the skills they've learned (or haven't learned) become critical as they enter the workforce or consider college. The fact that our children are considerably worse off in 2007 compared to a mere 2 years ago suggests that major shake-ups need to occur in the Patterson Unified district. I'd like to suggest that this begin with the sacking of anyone who thinks these abysmal numbers portray a positive trend. - Concerned in Patterson Sun, 16 Sep 2007 22:26:39 +0100