I think the standards/testing program is part of the larger conspiracy to
eliminate public education, which the rich now see as an expensive burden.
Creating large numbers of educated US workers is considered superfluous,
since the New World Order prefers to seek cheap labor abroad. The middle
class seems content to go for privatization (vouchers, etc) so as to
educate their own children to become tomorrow's high paid yuppies.
Our state Sup't of Education, Delaine Eastin, recently called the previous
governor's insistence to test non-English speakers with the standardized
English test as a tactic to humiliate them. I agree, but it's also a ploy
to add to the impression that "it's impossible to educate these minorities,
so why bother trying?"
Pete Farruggio
>I have begun talking with parents and teachers about the testing mania. I
>think this is how the pendulum will begin to swing back. I was at my older
>son's magnet school orientation this morning, and several parents started
>discussing the harrowing experience of the Stanford 9's. I was surprised to
>see my first-grader being tested on fractions. They were surprised to see
>their fourth-graders tested on calculating the volume of spherical solids.
>
>I'm all for math reform that brings more abstract concepts and thinking into
>the hands of younger students, but the testing process appears to have
>become a way of forcing teachers to teach certain things "to the test" just
>so they look good. And my sense is that we're again sacrificing breadth for
>depth.
>
>I think the AP testing mania at the other end of the scale has the same
>whiff of turning learning into a Jeopardy game of rote memorization and test
>cramming. Sometimes being slow is a good thing in learning.
>
>Louise
>
>P.S. Ken, thanks for the newspaper cites. You're right. You haven't been
>given a fair shake by Colvin in the Times. Has he ever talked to you?
>
>
>