Posted on 10/25/2015 8:08:43 AM PDT by artichokegrower
Addressing one of education’s most divisive issues, President Barack Obama on Saturday called for capping standardized testing at 2 percent of classroom time and said the government shares responsibility for turning tests into the be-all and end-all of American schools.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
These days, some students are a lot dumber than others.
So teachers, make sure you keep minute-by-minute records of how your classroom time is used, and submit them to the Federal Government.
It's for the children!
My take is a little different.
- Blacks and browns continue to do worse than whites on standardized tests. “Progress” has been made in getting colleges to consider other measures for admission, but those pesky tests still exist, and lend fuel to charges of reverse discrimination, as when blacks get a 300 point SAT credit
- If the tests are eliminated, this complaint goes away
- The emphasis on “as you go” testing for promotion can be blamed on Bush
- The teachers’ union hates any measure of accountability based on teaching effectiveness, and always tries to eliminate any measurement thereof.
Granted, the implementation of the Bush ideas was ham-handed, as many programs are, but Obama’s non-solution is worse.
Everybody wins a prize and everybody gets advanced. No. Matter. What.
you can’t compare youth.
The advantages of having two parents, one male, one female are quite evident.
single parent or two parent families that start as a freak show do not help.
California is ahead of the game in regards to this matter:
Bill would retroactively lift Exit Exam requirement for all
housands of students who failed the California High School Exit Exam since its 2006 debut would be eligible to receive their diplomas — if they meet all other graduation requirements — under last-minute changes Gov. Jerry Brown requested to a bill the state Legislature is considering.
http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Legislation-would-retroactively-suspend-Exit-Exam-6486231.php
To be fair, No Child Left Behind was another gift from Ted Kennedy. Bush signed onto it to show he “could reach across the aisle” in the months after he took office. Fat lot of good it did him, because the reaching across business apparently only goes one way.
Like teaching the Koran; it’s indoctrination not education. Just ask his Muslim Advisers.
The federal government has no business being involved in education.
All types of academic performance tests are embarrassing to liberals. After 50 years of affirmative action they still won’t admit failure so they would rather eliminate the tests.
Because some students are dumb and fail. Many of them belong to a certified victim group.
For Obama, that means Affirmative Action cases are exempt from testing, while all others must score perfectly for whatever slots remain.
I am a former classroom teacher. Other than a few who cheated, I have never known a single classroom teacher who lost his/her job for poor student performance. Not a single one, and there are plenty who deserve it.
I’m just not sure where I fall on this “to test or not to test” subject. When I was in middle school (a thousand years ago, lol) I received, IMO, an excellent education. However, we were not, I repeat not, tested every other second like it seems is happening in schools all over the place now. We were tested, but not all that often. Along with the occasional pop quiz of course. But we learned a lot as the teachers were always teaching, or horrors of horrors, actually using innovative techniques to aid learning.
We played learning games, gave speeches in class, wrote our own poems, did flash cards, broke off into problem solving teams and competed against one another. There were lots of extracurricular activities to choose from, sports, art, music, cooking for girls, shop classes for boys, theatre, there were choices for everyone. But there wasn’t that much testing. When it came to ACT and SAT testing tome, however, are school system had consistently high scores by its pupils.
To me, constant testing would be nerve wracking, ulcer producing, and ultimately counterproductive. A little goes a long way. I’m glad I was allowed to have an actual childhood without all the pressures forced by our school systems on today’s kids. Add to that all the PC baloney and Moochelle’s lunch program, and I’m mighty glad I was in K-12 way back when and not now.
What my non-PC education gave me was a lifetime love of learning and a great curiosity in life. I hope we aren’t stifling those qualities in our kids today by making the learning experience too onerous.
tome = time, above. Typo.
Without being there myself, I can’t tell what is really going on. I do know that in MA, they had something called the MCAS, and the teachers seemed to spend more time than they needed to “teaching to the test.” I wouldn’t be surprised if testing to see how successful the indoctrination of Common Core is had been carried to absurd levels, but I don’t know.
On the other hand, the privately developed SAT/ACT tests seemed to have some predictive value in rating students capacity for advanced collegiate work. I suspect getting rid of them (or anything else) which provides merit assessment, which tends to work in favor of whites and Asians, is a priority for Obama. He’s less interested in whether or not the tests are useful or not useful; everything with him is based on political goals.
That choice and freedom is why the US system largely excels, despite its faults. One is not restricted from education just for having the wrong number a la Germany).
When I entered Public High School, I was so far ahead of the others, I graduated a year early and was Valedictorian...
They don't teach anymore...they are to busy worrying about how they can tenure their jobs...they don't care about World History, American History, or anything else...
My grandson just entered Kindergarten this year, and so far so good, but I'm teaching him also....he's bright, he's well mannered and he knows what's up....
And you can tell when you deal with these people in the public, ‘me work? I'm just here to look good and make money’ they don't care if you come back or not....
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