The problem is that not all are incompetent. Some are very competent. And like Stalin's purges of the 1930s, if you got
rid of the good with the bad, you'd be stuck with a huge hole to fill.
Granted we have a spectrum of competency. We are asking for parents to have the choice of good or bad. Or is it best to have someone else make this choice for them?
The current political thinking seems to follow the mantra of "accountability". There is a push to standardize tests and
apply them to all schools, as some great measuring stick of their worth. Those on the bottom will be lobbed off, while
those on top will be rewarded.
Lawyers take the bar, engineers, CPA's, and any number of others pass licensing exams. What is the alternative?
Of course singers, actors, artists and other do not, but they do compete nevertheless. How do you eliminate even the concept that this is not a meritocracy?
Problem is, at least in CA, is the incredible pressure that puts on the schools, administration, and teachers. So much
so, that the TEST because the end all, and the EDUCATION suffers. At our local elementary school, the teachers are
almost TERRIFIED of the STAR test, because they know that their school and their performance will hinge on it. So,
they start teaching to the TEST and not the ciriculum. Also, the pass the pressure to the kids; a lot of kids are
becoming 'testphobic' because of the pressure.
This is the responsibility of the parents to not measure their kid's worth on tests. The phobia comes from false values in society and not anything real. Even if you didn't go to the school of choice, you can likely achieve your goals. If it is only to go to a certain school I would consider that a hollow goal. JMHO
I don't know the answer. As an engineer, I see incredible value in getting some hard qualitative numbers, so that we
can compare and achieve improvement. But having a single, standardized test seems to be a flawed mechanism. I
certainly don't want to see us end up with Japanese style schools. With all their accomplishments, I believe they
distort the psyche of the children.
The Japanese are a homogeneous society. We don't pound down the nail that stands up. They have a respect for their schools that in clearly lacking here in this country, a physical respect that enables the majority to accomplish at a high level. We need to concentrate on the attributes of the successful students and their families to fix the system. Dwelling on the unsuccessful and "intellectualizing" the possible cures is not a good strategy. I find little evidence of it's past success.
Tough problem. By the way, it gets worse with private schools, as there would be different agendas and ciriculums at
each school. How could you tell if you child was getting a good education, relative to other schools? Maybe a
standardized test across ALL schools. It would be a shame to find out that your childs education was 2nd rate only
when they get their SAT scores.
There's a charter school in San Francisco that is succeeding in a predominately ESL environment and the district and teacher's union is not looking at it as any thing other than a threat. There were standardized tests in my day like the IOWA tests in elementary schools. They give the SAT 9 every year in CA. Unless the teachers are cheating and falsifying scores (and some have) there is some relative testing. It would seem a simple matter to require SAT 9 testing for voucher schools if this was a flaw in most people's opinion. The opposition to choice in schools is driven by more than some perceived flaw in the voucher system. It is being opposed because institutions are being challenged for their failure to deliver on their promise. Maybe they can't and should admit it rather than spend so much time defending their system. It comes back to that same old definition of insanity, doing the same thing over again and expecting different results. My question is that the system didn't seem to be broken in the early 60's and yet it was changed radically. If it wasn't broken why were we busy fixing it? If it was, prove it.
Don't have an answer...other thoughts? |
