What's wrong with it? Well for one, those 38,000 kids in peril are the best educated kids in the state.In MA our homeschooled kids are exempt from taking the MCAS (State achievement exam). Most h/sing families are just as glad they don't have to take it, but I suspect our kids could wipe the floor with most of the public schooled kids in the state. Maybe that's why the State doesn't require it; it would certainly make them look bad, wouldn't it?
Massachusetts Home School parents who attended the MCAS hearings several years ago were told that taking the MCAS would be optional for their kids. That was at a time when the MCAS was not "High Stakes". It will be important to keep eyes and ears open as the High Stakes status becomes fact. In order to work in the Commonwealth after that, the "Human Resources" will need a CERTIFICATE, which can only be had via the MCAS. The academic portion of the Assessments isn't the problem: the subtle way that it determines the values and beliefs and PCness of the "student" IS.
Well EDUCATED citizens are a threat to a Planned Economic System. THree cheers for Home Schools, Freedom and Liberty, they go hand in hand.