We had a mandatory meeting with the principal today regarding the dreadful writing scores. Somehow, it feels wrong to have the blame placed in my lap. Frankly, based on the evidence, I would have been able to predict who of my students would pass, who would fail. I don't want to sound like a whiner, but why is it my fault that students who have been doing poorly for years wind up failing the proficiency test?

The news, though, is bad. Only something like 39 percent of the students who took the test passed it. That number has dropped since 2008. then, over 65 percent passed the writing proficiency. So, why the drop?

So, I am being asked to tell my principal what I am going to do to get the students to pass. Hmmm....hold them captive? take the test for them? force them to do the work? I don't know what the right approach is. I go in every day wishing that the planned lesson I present grabs their attention. Often times it does not, yet I show up every day trying. I am making no progress. What am I going to do? Talk to these kids and say, "If you want to pass the proficiency in writing test, you better do what I teach. Write every day and stop telling me you have nothing else to write. Expand your horizons."

Sure hope that approach works.