A+

In order to make sense of the many schools and attach a measuring stick, schools are now graded. There's nothing I enjoy more than hearing people talk about a certain schools grade. The majority of people who talk about grades don't have the slightest clue how such grades are derived.

My wife and I were house shopping and the realtor mentioned that a certain neighborhood was great because the schools were "A" rated. It took all that I had not to ask her if she knew how schools were graded.

Schools are graded with a meter stick but no one is using the metric system. How can a parent really understand the intricate details when they don't speak the language? Oh, since private schools don't take federal money they are exempt from the same grading scale. Schools need to be graded. There needs to be a measuring stick that provides and normative scale for all. All schools should take the same test in order to truly compare apples to apples.

If you think healthcare needs help, education needs a complete overhaul. I go to work everyday and pray for a day when someone will have the vision and hutzpah to really look at what we are doing.

FCAT-Florida Comprehensive Aptitude Test. Each year, more students are passing the FCAT with greater success. However, each year the number of students who pass the CPT(College Preparedness Test) decreases. The test that is used to grade Florida schools is rendering our students unprepared for college. Testing has been around since the beginning of time. However, until recent when schools, not students, got grades, no one cared. You failed the test, tough. The school is graded as a "F", ring the alarm.

People...your children are not being educated, and I should know. Sure that was an exaggeration, but it's time to sound the alarm. The country and its children are not getting dumber, the education system is not preparing students for anything beyond high school.

Square peg

Whenever you try to fit the square peg in the round hole, two things are certain. The peg will be damaged and so will the hole. Each day I try to do just that; fit the square peg in the round hole.

Why am I trying to force students into a path that neither fits their goals or meets their needs?Has anyone ever asked a student if they want to go to college? Those who do aren't asking with any sense of sincerity. They are completing the rhetorical process that so often accompanies our profession.

Why is college seen as the ends to every means?

When the workforce was dominated by industrial jobs, a college education was afforded to only the elite few. As time and demand changed, we have also fought to reform education. The result of reform and change has devastated education.