Posted on 03/27/2007 6:19:06 AM PDT by Psycho_Bunny
State lawmakers appear on the verge of dumping the math and science sections of the 10th-grade Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL), and replacing them with a very different kind of test.
The idea is to do something about the fact that so few students pass the math and science sections. But the proposed remedy is generating a lot of concern because it could mean big changes in what students are expected to learn, and how they're tested.
"We need to make sure that the cure is not worse than the ailment," said Marc Frazer, vice president of the Washington Roundtable, a nonprofit group of business executives.
(Excerpt) Read more at archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
I read through it thinking "What the hell? Where's the money-grab?"
Obviously, someone at a teachers union is in trouble today.
Do they get to use calculators on their math assessment tests like they do here in Maryland?
Not by changing the education, mind you, but by dumping the test.
By eliminating math and science from assessment testing, this means more time can be spent on feel-good, politically correct subjects that are the darling of the uber-leftist elites. Without strong math and science education, there is no future for this country. We will have to be managed by our educated overlords from China and India in the future.
Math curriculum needs to be changed. There is no new material introduced in 7th and 8th grades, and that is when students lag. Historically, primary school was just lengthened to keep kids out of the labor market without sound knowledge objectives.
I'm not aware of any changes in basic algebra. Change for the sake of change is pointless, especially when the subject matter hasn't and that subject matter is the foundation for future learning and for analytical thinking. Those concepts do not need to be changed. I think the fundamental problem is that math and science are not subjective. THey are rational and quantitative. Such subjects, IMHO, go against the current education trends like group learning or self esteem building. Moreover, these courses aren't easily made to fit the 'everybody is right' arguements that would apply in social science types of classes. Same reason why colleges and universities have super subjective, yet totally useless, liberal arts programs rife with socialist underpinnings, yet math, the hard sciences and engineering schools are brutally quantitative with no wiggle room for subjective opinion. The public schools need to make sure the students get a strong foundation in these areas, otherwise, Washington State is setting the groundword for a future Idiocracy.
This is the next stage in public education. The purpose is no longer to educate children and teach them how to learn. The new purpose is to produce easily manageable adults.
LOL
"replacing them with a very different kind of test."
Back in the distant past when I did QC work, we used to say - be careful of what you measure, that is what you will become.....
Calculators? Oh, you mean fingers. Yep, they can use their fingers. And most can count up to seven.
Cheers!
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