You all pass!

[nacho]

Npr reports this morning --

Morning Edition, October 31, 2005 · Denver residents will vote Tuesday on whether to approve a far-reaching plan to pay teachers extra based on their students' performance. School districts across the country are under pressure to raise test scores, and they are watching the vote closely.

So, every kid in Denver, after this passes, will grow up knowing only what's on a standardized test which is written under pressure to cater to the lowest common denominator and not offend anybody if they're slow at math or reading.  Yay!

[Tyson]

Both of my parents are teachers, and I've grown up with a pretty good understanding of why this testing shit is so ridiculous. My parents have done a pretty good job of skirting the standardization crap, but it's going to be impossible for them to do so for long.

The biggest problem is that all this testing shit is written up by politicians, not educators. There's a world of difference. Politicians don't care about teaching, they care about approval ratings and polls and campaign contributions.

America has one of the worst public school systems in the developed world. Under-funding is the biggest culprit. Who wants to spend five years in college for $27,000 a year with few benefits?

Thankfully, America's still got some of the best public college systems in the world. But that's going to change when the universities can no longer substitute private donations for all the public funding that's being cut.

CalPoly's tuition is up 300% over the past 3 years thanks to the fucking actor (an ACTOR!) in our capitol building.

Feh. I'm going to stop here because it's all so depressing.

[RottingCorpse]

It is depressing, but standardization won't be, er, the standard for long. It doesn't work., pure and simple, and ten years from now when the kids learning exclusively under this crappy system are part of the work force (and setting the cultural mean), it will be painfully obvious.