Teacher's Suicide Blamed on Test Scores

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Saint_
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Teacher's Suicide Blamed on Test Scores

Post by Saint_ »

Or as I like to call it, "Completely and Totally Screwed Up."

Here's a good, award-winning, and beloved teacher, willing to work with poor and disadvantaged minorities who can barely speak English, and he is vilified in the press for it. This country is screwed. I can retire in four years and I'm not looking back. Further, I'm recommending to anyone I can find to listen that they NOT EVER consider becoming a teacher.

As a teacher at an Alternative High School I'm in EXACTLY the same boat as this poor dude. I may bring kids up from a fourth grade level in math to a eighth grade level in a single year, four year's worth of progress where other teachers failed, but since they don't make it to a ninth grade level, I'm a failure.

Hey, you got a student that ditched 85 days of your class then failed the test? Too bad..that's YOUR fault. It's absolutely unbelievable.

News | tweentribune.com



R.I.P Rigo...you did your best and had to die for it.
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Teacher's Suicide Blamed on Test Scores

Post by Saint_ »

By all accounts, Ruelas did not shy away from problem kids.

Parents and former students described him as a mentor to youth tempted to join gangs and a tireless booster that low-income children could make it to college. He often stayed after school to tutor struggling kids and offer counseling so they stayed on the straight and narrow.


This is the kind of guy we label as a failure in our society? America is completely doomed...
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Teacher's Suicide Blamed on Test Scores

Post by flopstock »

I think it is a shame that this guys death is being used as a tool to try and manipulate the Times. Or was he the only teacher with this rating?

Are grades really a fair measurement of a students progress or is it simply what we have to work with when measuring their progress at this time? Teachers routinely hand out F's. Are we next going to ask the teachers unions to quit failing kids so that they don't feel bad about themselves?

This poor fella had issues or he would have found a better solution. It's sad. And it's wrong to use it in this manner, IMO.
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Teacher's Suicide Blamed on Test Scores

Post by LarsMac »

As usual, there is probably more to the story than we get from the media.

Being a good teacher is a heartbreaking task.

It is always sad when a good teacher is lost.
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Teacher's Suicide Blamed on Test Scores

Post by Ahso! »

flopstock;1338757 wrote: I think it is a shame that this guys death is being used as a tool to try and manipulate the Times. Or was he the only teacher with this rating?

Are grades really a fair measurement of a students progress or is it simply what we have to work with when measuring their progress at this time? Teachers routinely hand out F's. Are we next going to ask the teachers unions to quit failing kids so that they don't feel bad about themselves?I agree. Check your sanctimony at the door please.

flopstock;1338757 wrote: This poor fella had issues or he would have found a better solution. It's sad. And it's wrong to use it in this manner, IMO.He had issues with living and made the decision to check out, as was his right to do, though I hope he didn't leave any of his own children behind without at least an explanation. Was he married with children?
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities,”

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Teacher's Suicide Blamed on Test Scores

Post by LarsMac »

I've heard it said, and tend to agree, Suicide is the ultimate temper tantrum.

But, sometimes, the pain and despair just gets to be too much, and there doesn't seem to be a way out.

I have been there.

I can see where something like that article, after all the work he did, could be the last shove over the edge.

Then again, he could have pissed off some gang-bangers who pushed him off the bridge, too.
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Teacher's Suicide Blamed on Test Scores

Post by Ahso! »

LarsMac;1338772 wrote: I've heard it said, and tend to agree, Suicide is the ultimate temper tantrum.

But, sometimes, the pain and despair just gets to be too much, and there doesn't seem to be a way out.

I have been there.

I can see where something like that article, after all the work he did, could be the last shove over the edge.

Then again, he could have pissed off some gang-bangers who pushed him off the bridge, too.Former students even.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities,”

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Teacher's Suicide Blamed on Test Scores

Post by flopstock »

Ahso!;1338761 wrote: I agree. Check your sanctimony at the door please.

He had issues with living and made the decision to check out, as was his right to do, though I hope he didn't leave any of his own children behind without at least an explanation. Was he married with children?


That is one of the things that bothers me. The guy was obviously ill or else how could any of these folks suggest he is a great teacher and yet left his students with this life lesson on dealing with things. I can't believe that if he was not dealing with some severe issues he wouldn't have considered the affect on his students.
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Teacher's Suicide Blamed on Test Scores

Post by Ahso! »

flopstock;1338784 wrote: That is one of the things that bothers me. The guy was obviously ill or else how could any of these folks suggest he is a great teacher and yet left his students with this life lesson on dealing with things. I can't believe that if he was not dealing with some severe issues he wouldn't have considered the affect on his students.Maybe he did consider. I don't see suicide as such a horrible choice, but that's just me. Perhaps this person simply decided he was done, or for all we know LarsMac may be right about the homicide theory, or he may have recently learned he was terminally ill. Who knows.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities,”

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Teacher's Suicide Blamed on Test Scores

Post by Boogalette »

Performance scores should remain private, firstly.

I feel bad for him and his family. He must have seen no other opportunity to rectify the situation, and felt this was the only option left.

Poor guy.
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Teacher's Suicide Blamed on Test Scores

Post by Accountable »

Saint_;1338750 wrote: R.I.P Rigo...you did your best and had to die for it.Had to? Had to?? Unless he was murdered as someone has suggested might be the case, He didn't have to die; He chose to.



Granted, he was ill-treated. No teacher should be embarassed as he was in this way, but such treatment doesn't force one to kill himself.
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Teacher's Suicide Blamed on Test Scores

Post by Saint_ »

I don't think he had to die at all. But he did. And don't you think the press and the people that bullied him have some responsibility for that?
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Teacher's Suicide Blamed on Test Scores

Post by Ahso! »

I don't, I think it was a choice. That's America for ya where only the strong survive. Tough love we call it. We can't have it both ways, we either ditch this 'tough love' bullshit philosophy and seek a more compassionate one or we live with the consequences. Eventually perhaps all the weak ones will die off by means of suicide, starvation, lack of health care, or exposure and America will once again be the envy of the world. Its a small price to pay when you think about it in the grand scheme of things.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities,”

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Teacher's Suicide Blamed on Test Scores

Post by Saint_ »

ahso!;1338903 wrote: . Eventually perhaps all the weak ones will die off by means of suicide, starvation, lack of health care, or exposure and america will once again be the envy of the world. Its a small price to pay when you think about it in the grand scheme of things.


whaaaaaaaat?!!!!!!!!!
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Teacher's Suicide Blamed on Test Scores

Post by Ahso! »

Saint_;1338907 wrote: whaaaaaaaat?!!!!!!!!!Oh that's not what tough love was intended to accomplish? I beg to differ, thats what its always been about.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities,”

Voltaire



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Be the wave that I am and then

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Teacher's Suicide Blamed on Test Scores

Post by Accountable »

Saint_;1338897 wrote: [QUOTE=Saint_;1338750]R.I.P Rigo...you did your best and had to die for it.I don't think he had to die at all. Saint_;1338897 wrote: ... But he did. And don't you think the press and the people that bullied him have some responsibility for that?Do you mean they should feel ashamed of their actions, or they should go to jail? Yes, I hope that whoever publishes accusations as fact feels the sting of shame for what they've done. 'Innocent until proven guilty' represents a principle that everyone should live by, imo.
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Teacher's Suicide Blamed on Test Scores

Post by along-for-the-ride »

Saint_;1338750 wrote: Or as I like to call it, "Completely and Totally Screwed Up."

Here's a good, award-winning, and beloved teacher, willing to work with poor and disadvantaged minorities who can barely speak English, and he is vilified in the press for it. This country is screwed. I can retire in four years and I'm not looking back. Further, I'm recommending to anyone I can find to listen that they NOT EVER consider becoming a teacher.



As a teacher at an Alternative High School I'm in EXACTLY the same boat as this poor dude. I may bring kids up from a fourth grade level in math to a eighth grade level in a single year, four year's worth of progress where other teachers failed, but since they don't make it to a ninth grade level, I'm a failure.

Hey, you got a student that ditched 85 days of your class then failed the test? Too bad..that's YOUR fault. It's absolutely unbelievable.

News | tweentribune.com



R.I.P Rigo...you did your best and had to die for it.


Your thread has been on my mind these past couple days since I first read it, Saint. Don't let this single tragedy affect your dedication to the teaching profession. There are children who really want to learn. When these children grow up, they will not remember test scores, they will remember the teacher who motivated and inspired them. I do.
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Teacher's Suicide Blamed on Test Scores

Post by Accountable »

:yh_clap Now that cuts to the heart of what's really important.
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Teacher's Suicide Blamed on Test Scores

Post by K.Snyder »

The problem lays at the heart of the culture and while these efficiency scores may have lead to this person committing suicide the man was obviously troubled and needed his own guidance in many ways.

I find these evaluations to be deplorable, however, and this idea that passing grades is an indication of how well educated one might be is ridiculous. Each district has its own definition of "educated" because we as a nation we try and educate our children with the least amount of money as possible to remain economically efficient. This blatantly highlights our values being the sole purpose of monetary gain as opposed to nourishing lives that could have saved this man.

In a society with such perverted values how then is it possible at all to evaluate teachers when the problems they face are far beyond their requisite abilities?

Miami University uses students to evaluate professors. Can anyone rap their brain around that one for me please? Here we have Ph.D scholars being evaluated by these rich daddy's boy and girl rich kids. And somehow we as a nation are surprised our education system is sub-par at most?

Fixing it is not going to come to fruition by dumping more money into schools from the backs of the middle class. Our schools will be successful through a more equal distribution of funds from those at the top 2% so that middle class families are not wading through loads of meaningless and repetitive jobs who have not time at all to be at home nourishing a child's spirit and guiding their sensibilities toward intellectual habits that presuppose higher values.
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