"Let Are Kids Walk"

From WFAA.com: Students who had been planning to walk across the stage at graduation ceremonies this weekend were instead walking a picket line Thursday morning. The Trimble Tech High School seniors marched in front of Fort Worth Independent School District headquarters to protest Wednesday's decision by trustees to bar students who failed the TAKS test from commencement exercises. About a dozen young people, carrying signs and chanting, began picketing at 8:30 a.m. Thursday. They represent the 613 Fort Worth seniors who did not pass the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exam. Okay, lets start with the worst part of the article. The photo used to lead the story includes a protester with a sign which reads "Let Are Kids Walk." This is just so sad that I have no words. Next, we have the apparent overachiever on campus lamenting the fact that she will be unable to graduate with her 3.5 GPA: Crystal Martinez complained that while she finished at the top of her class with a 3.5 grade point average, she is now blocked from graduation by failing the TAKS test. How sad a day for education in America when the best a student at any school can do is pull a 3.5. And what does this say of the teachers when they GIVE her the grades that amount to a 3.5 and she is still too dumb to pass a test which the teachers essentially TEACH TO in the first plac.? Parents of several teens that I know have long commented about the fact that their children are being taught the test and little else in school, and now the kids not only can't identify the Republic of Texas on a map, but they can't even pass a test that the teaches emphasize in the curriculum. And don't tell me the test is too difficult. Obviously it isn't the test. Look at the sign in the article.