WISHLIST:
- See any member of state government pass the Social Studies test.
- See any member of state government make above 50 on the ELA test.
- See any member of state government make above 50 no 40 on the math test
- See any member of state government make above 20% on the science test.
MORE REASONABLE WISHLIST
- Accomplish any of the above.....on the middle version of said test.
- How many New jersey or was it Ohio people that are employed creating these wonderful instruments of educational disaster?
- (TIME TO SHOP TEXAS FIRST)
oh yes - as the circus says send in the clowns...
First draft - this was 12 tests to be passed with a cumulative average of a 70....
Sounds good till someone figured out that passing all 3 English and all 3 Social Studies and making at least a 50 in the math and Science - could still work out to a 70.
Second Draft - this was to be all 3 tests within one subject with a cumulative average of a 70.
Smart kids figure out that an 80 on Algebra 1 and a 90 on Geometry lets you flunk Algebra II and still earn a 70.
Third Draft ...who knows what will pop out next....
(After all budget shows most of the legislature lacks basic understanding of algebra like what negative numbers mean)
DEJA VU: (INSANITY REVISITED)
One has only to return to the much beloved End Of Course Algebra test to fully grasp just how this wonderful state board can screw up and the $$ wasted on what has to be the worst produced test in the country. With a mainstream passing rate of somewhere around 15-35%....this test was not even passed by more than 60% state wide when dealing only with the elite students - the 8th grade honors algebra students ....students who are among the top 3-10% of the student body. 9th Grade honors algebra students faired slightly less better than their 8th grade counterparts.
Ok - a State wide EOC test - run for what was it - 5 years and never got to 50% state wide.
And guess who wrote that one.....yea - the wonderful New Jersey or was it the Ohio test people ...
Now we want to plan on giving them 12 EOC tests to create....by what geometric progression will the number of bad ideas coming out of Austin expand by.
And for the freshmen - who are often so culture shocked at high school who flunk 2 or 3 of the 4 tests their first time have to look forward to ? 6 or 7 tests the next year - or just 4 and the knowledge that they have to score even higher to make up for past mistakes?
When it gets to 6 or 7 tests that must all be passed to return to being on target for graduation...how long will it be before the weaker students throw up their hands and give up.
And when that happens - unacceptable will become a common rating statewide and the moron squads like Obama's Money Tree (if you tie scores to teacher ratings).....will be out again proclaiming how teachers must be the problem. And there will come that line in the sand where the better teachers will leave for private schools - affluent schools ...or college or just leave the profession cause all the blame and finger pointing will convince them it time to quit.
Personal Note - this is why I am telling my child to pursue a Masters if they wish to teach - and stay out of K-12. Sad coming from someone whose extended family includes 20+ K-12 teachers.
So yes - once more thank you Austin for all you do on Teachers and Students behalf.
And the highest level of Bloom's Taxonomy is now to create - create a product of learning. And student's love to design and produce something useful which helps the dropout problem. They hate tests, as we all do. I see more dropouts in the future and more profits going to the developers of test prep software and other prevention programs. I heard somewhere that those in power don't want to "fix" public education, but instead want to kill it. If true, they are doing a good job doing that.
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