Monday, August 18, 2014

New Mexico State University and Public Education

My opinion is the mission of the College of Education at New Mexico State University is to influence America through public school teachers.

Las Cruces Sun News
August 13, 2014

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

The Grading System

For most of us Americans we are all too familiar with the grading system A,B,C,D,F.  For undergraduate courses at NMSU the same grading system is utilized, but at the graduate level the grading system is A, B, C; A and B are both passing grades and a C means you failed the class.  I am only pointing this out because when I went back to get my Masters in C & I with a Teaching License, I did not know this.

Jamie Baker, Assistant Director of Secondary Education, gave me an F in the graduate course Exploration of Education.  This course is required to get into the Secondary Teacher Education Program and you have to get in this program in order to get  a teaching license.  Thus, I cannot be a teacher.  All she had to do was give me a C to keep me out of the program, yet she felt inclined to give me an F.  What message do you think she was sending my way?

Self-governing:  When I went through the grade appeal process, it became very evident to me that NMSU is a self-governing entity.  I presented a detailed letter appealing my grade to the department head, James O'Donnell, that documented my experiences and my classwork.  His response was a letter that merely stated, "I am denying your grade appeal", and referred me on to the Graduate School.  Per the grade appeal process protocol, I asked the Graduate School to let me present my case to the review board which would at least gotten it reviewed by someone outside of the College of Education. The Graduate School denied my request stating, "it has no merit".  In a letter to the Graduate School I asked how they came to this conclusion and they said they talked to James O'Donnell.

Self-serving:  Another rude awakening from the collegiate system.  I did not know the college classroom could be used by professors as a platform to promote their own personal ideologies.  They can and they get paid really well to do it.

Bureaucratic:  The power solely belongs to the administrators of the collegiate system. Students are merely pawns...means to make money.  In any other business, the business is held accountable to its customers.

All of the other professors in the program deemed my work to be of a high quality (3.7 GPA not counting the F) so I do have enough graduate credits to get a Masters in Curriculum & Instruction, but a Masters in C & I is a worthless piece of paper without a teaching license.