Where is balance Academic priorities 291

I'm glad we at least agree that it's a problem. Now how such an obvious flaw could be ignored in implementing statewide or nationwide testing is beyong me.

The problem is the testing doesn't help actually solve any problems. In fact, it diverts resources that could be used for solving problems into yet another round of tests.

And it identifies the problem as teachers or school administrators, when in many cases they aren't the problem at all. How about the legislature? Our state consbreastution defines K-12 education as the paramount responsibility of the state, yet large airplane makers get 9-figure tax breaks while the schools get less per student each year. How about the voters, voting for budget-making by initiative, one idea or tax cut at a time, without looking at the overall picture. How about parents who must work two jobs, and are both too exhausted at the end of the day to help their kid learn? Or parents who just don't give a damn -- friend of mine from a rural area said the parents gave their school board hell for too advanced clbuttes, saying their kids were just going to be loggers or housewives and didn't need any math beyond balancing their checkbooks. Yes, that was in the 1980s, not 1950s as you might think. Then there's the kids themselves and all the ways groups of them vary from place to place.

I don't want teachers punished for going to work in the most difficult areas, where they're needed the most. It makes as much sense as firing surgeons who have a lot of patients die, regardless of whether they work hospital emergency rooms or have a private cosmetic surgery practice somewhere.

-- Patrick