Flag Day Letter to the Editor

Ref: Grade Inflation Making It Tough To Evaluate Students’ Performance, Tribune Editorial, June 14

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/jun/14/na-grade-inflation-making-it-tough-to-evaluate-stu/ 

 

Your editorial on Flag Day discusses some of the flaws in the grading system as it relates to students pursuing academic excellence.  The Florida Partnership for Minority and Underrepresented Student Achievement Act of 2004 increased the availability of college-level AP classes to high school students.  The Class of 2008 is the first to spend four years in high school under this legislated initiative.  In Hillsborough County, 31 percent of the senior class graduated with a 4.0 or better grade-point average. 

 

Hillsborough County schools provide opportunities for even unprepared students to LEARN how to grasp college-level concepts.  There are drawbacks to pushing some students towards AP classes.  Nevertheless, the school district helps change outcomes for a number of these students who otherwise would not be in AP classes. 

 

Flag Day is a reminder that America is the “Land of Opportunity.”   Teachers who embrace the challenge of helping unprepared students grasp college-level concepts add value to that phrase and America’s system of public education.

 

 

Jason D. Mims
Lieutenant Colonel, US Army, Retired
3906 W. Tyson Ave. Tampa, FL 33611
CELL: (813) 787-0392