Posted on 02/22/2009 10:17:27 AM PST by dbz77
One of the most contentious social and political debates of our time pits the opposing goals of equality of opportunity versus equality of outcome.
Some would claim the point was settled before the Founding of the American republic in that the Declaration of Independence recognized as an unalienable right the "pursuit" of happiness rather than happiness itself. Others argue that various social and political disadvantages through history create the need for more balanced outcomes as recompense for past wrongs.
This discussion is no more heated than in the world of education. The question of opportunity versus outcome is vexing and whether the discussion revolves around K-12 education or higher education, opportunity and outcome continually collide.
We increasingly see this conflict played out in the way colleges and universities decide whom to admit and the unfortunate trend is that too many schools are redefining merit as it has traditionally been recognized.
The main engine behind this effort to change the nature of academic merit is a group called Fair Test, a Boston-based organization that characterizes itself as working to "end the misuses and flaws of standardized testing."
The reality, however, is far different. The efforts and track record of this organization demonstrate that simply administering a standardized test constitutes a misuse, while the primary flaw of such tests is that they exist at all.
Standardized tests have been accused of potential bias since the 1970s when activists insisted that an Scholastic Aptitude Test question involving the word "regatta" was biased against women, minorities and anyone else who hadn't sported a silk ascot at the yacht club. In fact, the SAT and the ACT, another widely used college admissions test, have long since addressed legitimate claims of bias in testing. Both are scrupulously developed, reviewed and updated by dedicated educators to ensure they reflect a student's academic merit. They also are administered in a consistent manner, which is more than you can say about a lot of things in life. Anyone who must adhere to a set of standards in any endeavor knows they sometimes seem arbitrary. But arbitrary as college admission standards may be, they are nothing compared to the tyrannical anarchy of ill-defined or holistic admissions, which Fair Test promotes.
Human nature demands that we be given a target something for which we can strive. This is why humanity sets and seeks specific goals. But the holistic college admissions structure promoted by Fair Test and others destroys empirical standards and leaves such decisions to the whims of shifting admissions policies and those who formulate them. It's reminiscent of the uncertain standards I sometimes faced as a young black man coming of age in the post-segregation world of Cincinnati.
And who is formulating such policies? It varies from institution to institution but a look at the funding of Fair Test is troubling. Writer and college educator Mary Grabar revealed in her recent article that Fair Test is funded by men like liberal billionaire George Soros and the Woods Fund, who counts among its board members Bill Ayers, the former domestic terrorist who admitted complicity in a series of bombings from New York to Washington, D.C. during the 1970s.
All this, of course, would be forgivable if the goal was sincere, however misguided. But it's largely an extension of an education strategy that has been in place for nearly a half-century. In the 1960s, liberals began a concerted effort to seize control of higher-education, via dominating professorships and tenure. It worked. Now, the social engineers aren't content with dominating the faculty rooms they want to control who gets admitted to colleges and universities.
Ideology aside, the efforts of Fair Test and others who want to eliminate standardized testing stand to put all of American higher education at risk. Jonathan Epstein, a senior researcher with the private sector educational consultancy Maguire Associates, notes that colleges with test optional admission policies could disorient students and their families in terms of determining which college to attend. The result, says Epstein, is that "a disoriented customer market is not in the best interests of any institution or higher education in general."
Standards of academic excellence are critical to the future of students and our economy. If we forsake such standards based on the ill-conceived ideology of Fair Test and like-minded individuals, we risk not only our children's future but that of our nation.
The poor performance by some groups on standardized testing is not culturally based. Hell even common observation reveals that fact. It broad terms basic intelligence is biologically based and inherited. Further, standard tests do not measure impulse control; such control being necessary for socialization and at least a modicum of success in this world.
writer get paid by word
what writer say
The use of school supplies, or the library, etc. really does not lend itself to real hard study, as, in most cases, access hard as supplies are limited. Face it, it's easier to study at home than in a library for a youngster.
Schools try to make up for the imbalance between what the poor and the rich have access to, but it just doesn't make it.
My wife is a Teacher's Aide at the local elementary and she sees it all the time; the well-off kids bring in work that is obviously written on a PC, proof-read, corrected, formatted correctly, and them printed on an inkjet printer, with images from Encarta, etc. pasted in - very good looking stuff.
The poorer kids bring in hand-written documents, with crossouts and corrections intact (If done at all!), barely legible, on regular lined paper in pencil.
Sad, really. She says they all try to compensate for this and look past the fancy stuff, and try to focus on what's really in the work, but it's hard to read some kid's scrawling as compared to a nicely formatted print document. Sometimes they just give the benefit of doubt to the poorer kid, but then they worry about letting some kid slide just because he doesn't have a PC and printer and can't write a slick paper. What do you do?
“Standards of academic excellence are critical to the future of students and our economy. If we forsake such standards based on the ill-conceived ideology of Fair Test and like-minded individuals, we risk not only our children’s future but that of our nation.”
It is a very sad day here in the US of A. We have allowed our schools to dumb down to the lowest level. Look at the work your kids are doing in school and getting away with. There is no respect for teachers. It goes on and on. It is astonishing. Now they want to get rid of any standards. What is left without a standard?
Anyone remember something called the Gold Standard? Now we have fiat currency. What does a currency based on supply and demand mean? It means sky-rocketing oil prices followed by doldrums($4.00 gas to now $1.50 in 5 months). The gold standard would limit the power of governments to inflate prices through excessive issuance of paper currency. Trillion dollar deals would not happen. But I digress...
What is education and what is it worth? If no standard, does it become fiat schooling. Schooling that is intrinsically useless? Yes we in the USA emphasize in our teaching individuality and creativity, however we ignore the 3R’s at our expense? What is creativity if not grounded in a sound basic education and principles? It is Sci-fi dreaming and worse. It is thinking that marxism is ok. It is thinking that anything goes is ok. It is not understanding that abortion is murder. It is not understading that our constitution must be enforced.
We MUST u-turn our schools.
This statement alone has as much weight as the rest of the article! And the author is correct that they deserve much of the credit for both dumbing down the entire education system and its charges, as well as criminalizing 'the streets'! The Streets, because I include Wall Street as well as the Hood. I don't know who came first, Karl Marx or P T Barnum, but useful fools (I like to call them rubes or communists) were the result, and our country has as many as the middle east swine pool of muslim 're-educated' souls! But, hey, without them, Sienfeld would never have had an audience!
A case in point:
Yesterday I was at the window of a drive-in having ordered a burger and a shake. A girl walked up to the window and said she wanted two t’s.
This seemed to set off some confusion behind the window and after a few minutes I was handed two cups of iced tea.
Then I saw that the girl had come down come from a ladder where she was posting a sign. From behind the window they now handed her two t’s for the sign, retrieved the two iced teas, and went back to work on my order.
I glanced at the sign when the order was handed to me. It read: “Happy Birthday! Mr. Washinton.” I told the guy behind the window, “Washington has a g in it.”
“Why don’t you tell her?” he said.
“I’ll leave that to you,” I said.
“Hey, Rachel, Washington has a g in it.”
I know what you mean.
I love to do this...my tab comes to $2.53, I give them $3.00, they ring it up and then I say, “Wait, I have three pennies.”
Makes my day everytime.
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