Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter
Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter
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CAT Tracks for December 5, 2005
52 OF 69 |
Before there was AFA...before there was Modern Red...in the beginning...there was Mesa!
On a cold and snowy day during the '80s, then Superintendent Ed Armstrong assembled the humbled masses...yes, WE the infamous failed educators of Cairo School District Number One...so that outside consultants from Mesa, Arizona, could enlighten us...share their knowledge of teaching techniques/methods that worked...to save us from ourselves and our falling/failing test scores!
It was only years later that we learned that the Mesa folks forgot to share one tiny detail of their "success"...that they cheated! Mesa was one of the first school districts caught in what is now a routine occurence...helping students with answers, stealing tests, changing answers on test sheets after they had been turned in, etc.
Well...Mesa is back in the news...and it's still not good. Granted, the entire metropolitan area is the focus, but the schools will surely catch some of the flack.
Maybe we should fly a team of CATs out to the desert and share some of our experience of being labeled far and wide as a failure. Maybe we could find a way to boost their self esteem.
If nothing else, a team of CATs could deliver a bottom line message: "Payback is a dog!"
From The Arizona Republic...
Literacy ranking of major U.S. cities
A new study ranks Phoenix and Mesa below the middle of the pack for literacy.
The study by Central Connecticut State University placed Mesa 52nd and Phoenix 54th out of 69 cities in the nation for literacy. Tucson did much better, finishing 34th. Seattle was No. 1 and Stockton, Calif., ranked last.
The study looked at cities with a population of 250,000 or more.
Previous versions of this study focused on five indicators of literacy: newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, and educational attainment, according to the university. The latest study introduces a new factor, Internet resources, to better gauge the expansion of literacy to online media.
The study is meant to be an interpretation, not a definitive study, according to university President John W. Miller in a written statement.
Here are the top 10 cities:
