I’m sorry to all of you Fred supporters, but this is exactly what the Democrat (lazy, no accountability) teachers unions say about testing. I keep reading on here how Thompson is the great white hope but so far, he is luke warm at best. Still no major TV interviews, still no campaign adds, still no real platform. And yes I have been to his websites, however Howard Dean proved you can't win a nomination via the Internet.
The problem is some schools are just teaching to this because they only answer to groups whose only interest is high scores, not education. I am all for testing, but local school boards are pushing more for scores than actual learning. The problem here is parents not being involved in the school's actions and the boards aren't disclosing curriculum... this follows perfectly with Thompson's next comment:
"We expect you to get objective testing done and publicize those tests for the local parents and for the local citizens and suffer the political ramifications locally if things don't work out right.... It's your responsibility," he said. "If you don't like what's going on, don't get in your car and drive by your school board and maybe drive by the capitol and get on an airplane and fly to Washington and say, 'I don't like the way the school down the street is being run.'"
It goes back to the problem, the oversight in the testing piece is done by those whose only vested interest is in high scores, not education. It takes the parents out of the mix and leaves the responsibility to the government bureaucracy.