It’s too hard to do...
we should quit.
From the post
“has unleashed an unhealthy obsession with standardized testing that has reduced the time available for teaching other important subjects”
I have a boy in first grade and all the teachers, if you can get then to tell you what they think, hate the test. There is so many other things they FEEL they should be teaching your child.
The largest sign in the school says “Save the Planet recycle”
I think I know what the “other things” are.
Diane Ravitch wrote a very interesting book called “The Language Police”. It’s about how kids in school are losing access to good literature because everything offends somebody.
I got these three examples from the book from Wikipedia:
A true story about a blind mountain climber who scaled Mt. McKinley was deleted, allegedly because it implied that “people that are blind are somehow at a disadvantage compared to people who have normal sight”.
A story about a rotting stump providing shelter to various animals that contained a passage comparing the stump to an apartment building was unanimously rejected by a bias and sensitivity committee which felt that the reference was a negative stereotype about the residents of apartment buildings.
An entry describing owls was not accepted after a Native American member of the committee “said that owls were taboo for the Navajos”.
Excerpt - Wikipedia:
President Ronald Reagan promised during the 1980 presidential election to eliminate the Department of Education as a cabinet post, but he was not able to do so with a Democratic House of Representatives.
In the 1982 State of the Union Address, he pledged, “The budget plan I submit to you on Feb. 8 will realize major savings by dismantling the Department of Education.”
Throughout the 1980s, the abolition of the Department of Education was a part of the Republican Party platform (snip)
I sometimes wonder what the outcome of WWII would have been had government operated our factories, and I really wonder what language I might be using now.
Government, especially big centralized government, is ruining education.
For Hillary, There's No Such Thing as Dirty Money The Nation mag is getting in on the fun.
Donors Stir 'Bundling' Questions (another "shoe") I missed the original story.
From time to time, I’ll ping on noteworthy articles about politics, foreign and military affairs. FReepmail me if you want on or off my list.
Shows what a great name for a bill can accomplish. :’) Thanks neverdem.
There, I fixed it. I'm guessing that's what the writer really meant to say.
What she's saying is that the states, which get to design their own tests, are making the tests easier and easier to avoid sanctions.
The states know that it's impossible to have every child (even the mentally retarded) proficient, no matter how long a time they are given.
Basically, right now the states seem to "cheating" to maintain the status quo. Ravitch is saying that if the government established consistent national standards, then let the states find ways of meeting them, at least you'd be able to compare the real quality of education from state to state and district to district, then the locals could decide how to improve things.
Give schools back to the local communities.
That’s who controlled ‘em back when they last worked.