Word: walker
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Picture an 86-year-old man clutching a walker as he shuffles down a prison hallway. Not exactly the usual image of a dangerous killer locked up for the good of society. Chances are, it's not what the judge envisioned either when he sentenced John Bedarka, a Pennsylvania coal miner, to life without parole for shooting his wife's lover to death 30 years ago. But Bedarka is still in prison at Laurel Highlands correctional institution in Somerset, Pa., in frail health, severely depressed and a threat...
This spring, Walker, 15, the oldest of eight children, got another chance. But she failed again, by four-tenths of a point, on the Iowa test's reading section. She is headed to summer school for one final shot at getting into high school in the fall. If she doesn't make it, she will go to one of the city's "transition centers"--an educational way station for kids who haven't qualified for high school but are too old to remain in a regular eighth-grade classroom...
...self-esteem damaged and her determination waning, Walker is close to becoming a casualty in the war on social promotion in America's public schools. The idea driving the assault--that the performance of students can be improved if schools establish standards and insist that kids meet them before moving on to the next grade--has a simple, sound-bite toughness. It appeals to parents and teachers at a time when frustration with student underachievement is boiling over. Distressing test results released this spring in states like Louisiana (where 40% of eighth-graders flunked the state's exam in math...
...there is one thing missing: proof that cracking down on social promotion will work. Most research shows that retaining students in the same grade rarely lifts their achievement. More often it demoralizes kids like Walker--and increases their chances of dropping out. "With respect to whether retention is a good idea," says University of Wisconsin professor Robert Hauser, who studied the issue for the National Research Council, "the answer is no or almost never...
...spent on things like smaller classes, individual tutoring and improved teacher training without also flunking massive numbers. "Retaining students," Chicago education researcher Suzanne Davenport says, "is a blame-the-victim solution." But it will last as long as politicians continue to believe they need to punish kids like Lashawnda Walker in order to save them...