Me and a few colleagues are discussing this.

 

 

2 days of test.

 

Day 1 - ACT taken @ 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th grades at every school in the country.

 

Day 2 - Standardized open response designed by ETS or another company.

 

 

 

Help given to schools who score below avg. for more than 2 years.

 

 

Do away with all other state testing.

 

 

Eliminates waste in Dept. of Education

 

Gives a true measuring stick for ALL schools in the U.S.

 

 

Thoughts?

How can you have a standardized open or constructed response? The very nature of this type of question leaves plenty wiggle room. If it is standardized the answer would have to be exact. Also, on the ACT, 6th grade is too early, and senior year is too late.

This is a good place to start the discussion. I would also do away with some of the required classes and have schools replace them with more business and vocational classes. Everyone is not headed for college. We need to prepare students for the work world. Many need additional training and that is what 2 year schools and vocational schools are for. Some will later realize they can further their careers with a 4 year degree. By then they will be ready for more education, as opposed to when they were not ready when they left high school. Amazing how the work world and a little maturity changes one's attitude about more education.

How can you have a standardized open or constructed response? The very nature of this type of question leaves plenty wiggle room. If it is standardized the answer would have to be exact. Also, on the ACT, 6th grade is too early, and senior year is too late.

 

I took the ACT once... I was a senior... I got a 29. I guess I didn't wait too late. :lol:

As a teacher, it would be best if educators made decisions to improve education instead of politicians. I applaud their effort, but it's hard for a politician to know the best way to improve education, just as it is hard for anyone in one field to tell another field how to better themselves.

How can you have a standardized open or constructed response? The very nature of this type of question leaves plenty wiggle room. If it is standardized the answer would have to be exact. Also, on the ACT, 6th grade is too early, and senior year is too late.

 

That was my question.

As a teacher, it would be best if educators made decisions to improve education instead of politicians. I applaud their effort, but it's hard for a politician to know the best way to improve education, just as it is hard for anyone in one field to tell another field how to better themselves.

 

If it were ACTUAL teachers, instead of lobbyists with teaching degrees working for the NEA, then I might agree with you. But you and I both know that the NEA and those that sit on all the "Boards" that advise the politicians on educational policy are nothing more than hired guns every bit as much as the trial lawyer's association or NRA.

Make parents repsonsible for the child's education and that would go a long way to improve the overall quality of a child's education.

 

Was told of a story today by someone who eyewitnessed it and whose word I trust.

Student got off the bus and they were outside. Told mom he had homework. Mom grabbed it, leaned over onto a car hood, answered all of the questions for the child and handed it back to him. He was a middle schooler.

As a teacher, it would be best if educators made decisions to improve education instead of politicians. I applaud their effort, but it's hard for a politician to know the best way to improve education, just as it is hard for anyone in one field to tell another field how to better themselves.

 

Of the present situation, a governor's wife.

If it were ACTUAL teachers, instead of lobbyists with teaching degrees working for the NEA, then I might agree with you. But you and I both know that the NEA and those that sit on all the "Boards" that advise the politicians on educational policy are nothing more than hired guns every bit as much as the trial lawyer's association or NRA.

 

Agreed. It's certainly a long way down the lobbying totem pole before you get to the "real" teachers.

Here's an interesting article.

 

http://www.newsweek.com/id/234590

Our education system doesn't need to be "fixed". We are blessed with excellent teachers throughout the country who go well beyond what should be expected of them to educate our young people. It's the dysfunctional families, a scourge of society these days it seems, that need to be "fixed".

This is a good place to start the discussion. I would also do away with some of the required classes and have schools replace them with more business and vocational classes. .

 

I would have agreed with this 10 to 20 years ago but not today.

 

We need to teach students how to think and respond to change quickly. We don't need to train them on technology that will be gone in 10 years.

Here's an interesting article.

 

http://www.newsweek.com/id/234590

 

From the article:

 

One recent review of the evidence by McKinsey & Co., the management consulting firm, showed that most schoolteachers are recruited from the bottom third of college-bound high-school students. (Finland takes the top 10 percent.)

 

 

 

YIKES!!

Make parents repsonsible for the child's education and that would go a long way to improve the overall quality of a child's education.

 

.

 

This always comes across as a copout to me. Blame the parents and remove any burden from you the teacher. "Its not me. Its those dang parents."

 

Hearing it once is one thing but hearing it over and over again makes me think its being used as a crutch.

 

And I'm not going to get into the fact that its a waste of breath since its literally unenforceable.