superfly (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} foxinsocks) wrote,@ 2006-08-17 12:22:00 |
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Ok, so I need your help. Please comment!
I have a job at a certain test prep company, where they teach you the tricks to score well on standardized tests (and by tricks I don't mean concepts that will help you in the future necessarily, although some will, but tricks specifically designed to get around the design of the test). I have a moral problem with working for this company, but I want to keep the job. I can't do the job right, though, because every time I start to prep for it, I get really pissed about the injustice of it all. I need you to tell me how I'm looking at this moral issue in the wrong light.
Here's the problem. In my career as a teacher, I've taught approx. 80 students, either in freshman comp or UK 101. Of those, do you know how many have been something other than well-to-do, white, suburban students? FOUR!!!! That's 5%! And we're talking about one of the poorest states in the nation here (we're like 48th right?) Of those 80 students, only 1 has come from a place east of Maysville or Mt. Sterling.
Now, the MINIMUM price of a class at the company I'm working for is almost $600 dollars. They offer private tutoring starting at about $1000. So, in other words, this company is designed to get well-to-do kids who either have no test taking skills or just aren't that smart and get them scores that will get them into better schools or, worse, better scholarships--scholarships that would be better given to people who actually need them to go to school. Because lets face it, if you can plop down that kind of money for test prep, you don't need a big scholarship. I feel that by working at this place I'm furthering a system that is profoundly unjust. I mean, Kentucky schools are some of the worst in the nation (49th I think), and my school district is BELOW KENTUCKY'S AVERAGE in all but 2 of 30 tested categories. What chance does a sort of smart kid from my high school have against some rich kid from Louisville or Covington to begin with, let alone after that kid has been taught all these ways to circumvent a test designed to give an even chance to everyone? Do these kids really need any other hands up when the system is already overwhelmingly weighted in their favor?
I have a job at a certain test prep company, where they teach you the tricks to score well on standardized tests (and by tricks I don't mean concepts that will help you in the future necessarily, although some will, but tricks specifically designed to get around the design of the test). I have a moral problem with working for this company, but I want to keep the job. I can't do the job right, though, because every time I start to prep for it, I get really pissed about the injustice of it all. I need you to tell me how I'm looking at this moral issue in the wrong light.
Here's the problem. In my career as a teacher, I've taught approx. 80 students, either in freshman comp or UK 101. Of those, do you know how many have been something other than well-to-do, white, suburban students? FOUR!!!! That's 5%! And we're talking about one of the poorest states in the nation here (we're like 48th right?) Of those 80 students, only 1 has come from a place east of Maysville or Mt. Sterling.
Now, the MINIMUM price of a class at the company I'm working for is almost $600 dollars. They offer private tutoring starting at about $1000. So, in other words, this company is designed to get well-to-do kids who either have no test taking skills or just aren't that smart and get them scores that will get them into better schools or, worse, better scholarships--scholarships that would be better given to people who actually need them to go to school. Because lets face it, if you can plop down that kind of money for test prep, you don't need a big scholarship. I feel that by working at this place I'm furthering a system that is profoundly unjust. I mean, Kentucky schools are some of the worst in the nation (49th I think), and my school district is BELOW KENTUCKY'S AVERAGE in all but 2 of 30 tested categories. What chance does a sort of smart kid from my high school have against some rich kid from Louisville or Covington to begin with, let alone after that kid has been taught all these ways to circumvent a test designed to give an even chance to everyone? Do these kids really need any other hands up when the system is already overwhelmingly weighted in their favor?
