Set Our Teachers FREE!

 

Smoke and Mirrors


The New York Times had an excellent editorial on the craze of national testing that is occurring thanks to the mandates of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). This editorial is based on the results of a recent study by Policy Analysis for California Education, a research center run by Stanford University and the University of California. 

These results were shocking enough if they had applied only to California, but NO, they analyzed the testing practices of dozens of states.

If you’ve read “Set Our Teachers FREE! A Plan to Save Public Education” by Don Kingsland, then you know that he emphasizes how much valuable classroom time is wasted just preparing students to take tests, rather than teaching to learn. Now, this recent study confirms that the complaints about NO national standards for testing prove that these tests are a waste of time and money.

Let me share a couple of quotes from the editorial:

“Congress hoped that if it required the states to give annual tests in return for federal education aid, state politicians would be encouraged - or at least embarrassed - into improving dismal schools and closing the achievement gap between rich and poor children.”

Hah! But guess what? The editorial continues:

         

“That’s not how things have worked out. Many states have gamed the system - and misled voters - devising weak tests, setting low passing scores or changing tests from year to year to prevent accurate comparisons over time.”

The study reports that nearly all of the states did worse on federal tests than the weak math and reading tests devised by those individual states. In some states, the results were 60% WORSE!

What do you expect? Federal money hinges on the results of state tests. Did you expect states to stand idly by and have federal funds stripped from their coffers, just because students are failing miserably. Get real!

There are mechanisms in place for Congress to force fair testing through the NAEP, if they will implement them. But, wait a minute, I almost forgot that Congress is on a two-week Thanksgiving holiday. Oh, and the Department of Education (co-chaired by Senators Ted Kennedy and Mike Enzi) have already said they’re not going to work on education until next year because they “don’t want to be rushed”. GRRR!

I don’t always agree with the New York Times, but they really ‘nailed’ this one. The final line of the editorial is something that is so true that it must not be ignored:

         

“Americans need an accurate picture of how this country’s students are doing.”

Once you fully understand how desperate the situation is in our public schools, you need to learn about The Kingsland Plan and discover how we can fix it NOW!

Brennan

Filed under: Education News