Abogados de Inmigracion

In New York City, minorities and the poor have been held back and are being held back in the area of the equivalency exam. A few years ago I wrote to French Education Minister Jack Lang, asking to meet with him about promoting the French equivalency of the baccalaureat, but nothing happened. Now there is violence in hundreds of French cities and zero tolerance only for crime is not paying off as crime has escalated. The news is revealing the lack of educational opportunities provided to the African, North African, and Arab youth. Will the same thing happen in the United States soon? Only time will tell.

The violence, at the time of the writing of this article, has spread into cities in Belgium and Germany too. I know people in France who would like to take the GED, and perhaps testing them is only around the corner. The English GED is now available online through Thomson ProMetric in different countries and I hope to bring the Spanish GED to Latin America soon, but it can be made available to small groups through the American Council on Education in Washington, D.C.

In France and in the United States, there is large unemployment among youth, tremendous desertion from school, and millions of people have not been assimilated. And in both countries, religious issues are playing a major role in building discontent. Life is not about dousing a middle age woman with gasoline and other forms of violence, but fifty million Frenchmen can be wrong and a hundred million Americans too. Let us unite and find the greatness of our nations. Let us bring people up instead of down!

Memories of the Ebbets Field GED Program!

Students were not permitted to take the practice test in the first month of school.
Everyone had to pass the Official Practice test with a cumulative score of 250 while the actual minimum passing mark on the real test was 225. And other students who got more than 250 were held back in different ways from taking the real GED right away.
Students were not allowed to take GED books home.
Students who passed the practice test were denied admission to the real test by the guidance counselor because of poor attendance.
Teachers told the students they did not have to teach, since the program was a learning center and the students had to do the work themselves.
A Puerto Rican female was placed in English GED when Spanish was clearly her stronger language, and she had only started studying English in New York a year before.
Students went on frequent class trips to museums, instead of preparing for the GED.
Students who were denied access to the real GED test left the school and came back later with their diplomas, waving the diploma in the faces of staff members, and/or did not return to show their diplomas.
Students were only allowed to take the practice test with the support of a few teachers.
Students who took a faulty math placement test were held back for weeks or months in pre-GED. In many cases, students that were in pre-GED that I tested on the Official Practice test did as well as students who were in the GED math class.
Students who failed the practice test with a cumulative score of less than 250 were denied permission to take the real test, while some others were secretly granted permission.
A paraprofessional read and graded the compositions, while teachers did nothing.
No analysis of the GED practice test was done, while at the Jamaica Learning Center each student got a printed copy of the analysis.
Students who could not get a passing mark on the practice test and at least five points higher than the minimum passing score on each part were held back and they were only allowed to be tested in the middle of the year.
Students’ complaints, including being cursed out by teachers, went unreported by the director.
Students’ GED practice tests were frequently lost and they had to be retested.
Students who obtained high passing scores on the practice test (around 300) were not told that they had the chance, with a little more study, to enter a four year college program, and those students did not receive any extra help.
Only about 30 students passed the GED and this site had about eight teachers, a director (who did not teach classes) and assistant director, three teaching assistants, a part time counselor, a full time guard and a half time guard, and a budget well above a half a million dollars.
About a month after I reported student comments about rumors of a threat of violence to be committed against the director and was ostracized by a united staff, a student was removed with a knife from the program as she tried to attack another student.
I was threatened by the Deputy Superintendent with disciplinary action after I appeared in an article about the students being held back in New York Newsday on December 19, 1999, the Deputy Superintendent telling me that the site director said that I was sending students to take the real GED in violation of school rules (which I was not and there was another teacher doing that).

Mayor Bloomberg is responsible for the GED programs in New York City. With certain victory in his grasp tonight, he must finally unite with New Yorkers, addressing the needs of its youth and keeping New York City far from the rioting that is witnessed by everyone in France. I suggest the establishment of my RPM Centers in libraries, boxing gyms, Police Athletic League programs, and other non-profit institutions including the Boys and Girls Clubs and programs in churches. Mayor Bloomberg must recognize, just like French Prime Minister Chirac that he has failed a large portion of the population during his term in office, but it is not too late.

The youth of New York and all adults need more help and we must bring the American dream to more people. Mayor Bloomberg focused only on school children in his campaign, but future campaigns must focus on the family. The people tearing the fabric apart in France are not third and fourth graders who failed their final promotional exams. The levees have broken in New Orleans, other governmental levees have broken in France, and New York City must not be next. No place should be next! From Bloomberg to Villaraigosa, there has to be change across our nation now!

FEEL FREE TO WRITE TO ME ABOUT GED PROBLEMS WHERE YOU LIVE.

Photo of Martin N. Danenberg with his late father wearing a vote for Leonel Fernandez for President of the Dominican Republic hat.

MARTIN N. DANENBERG
7 BLAZER DRIVE
ISLANDIA, NY 11749
GEDHOTINE@AOL.COM
631-348-1341
WWW.GEOCITIES.COM/GEDHOTLINE
WWW.AHORRE.COM