One of my paraprofessionals told me that he had gone to school in Honduras. In Honduras, students did not pass third grade if they could not pass the third grade exit test. Fail the test, you repeat the grade. Period.

I like the idea.

Eduhonesty: Pundits keep demanding that teachers be held accountable. That’s fine — at least, when rational standards are used to judge those teachers — but we also need to hold students accountable. Right now, it’s often all on the teacher to produce academic results. I believe this is part of the reason why we have so many passive, undermotivated kids. When failure is not an option, kids know they won’t fail.

Not failing is NOT the same as succeeding, though — not by a long shot.