I hate American education.

I just watched a show on CNN about standardized tests.

I'm pretty mad right now. Apparently, there was this thing called the "Houston Miracle." Texas adopted a standardized test called the TAKS (under the governorship of GWB), and all of a sudden the next year everyone had near perfect test scores. This "miracle" is what the No Child Left Behind Act is based on.

They failed to mention that they held back a ton of ninth graders (tenth graders take the test), so all the "smart kids" were the only ones who took the test. One girl was held back for *three* years. Then she was promoted to eleventh grade. She never even took the test!

I know it's all propoganda, but I believe it. I've been through a standardized test program in New York and teachers *do* teach to the test. They don't have a choice. It is fast paced because every day is scheduled. All of the material has to be covered.

One of the amazing things is that in this school district in Virginia (who administers the SOL - Standards of Learning test), over the last six years passing rates of the SOL have risen like 80%, but SAT scores have remained the same, and college tests to see how college ready the kids in Virginia are have resulted in about the same scores.

All of these proponents of standardized testing (specifically, the No Child Left Behind Act) keep saying that it's bad to promote a student to the next grade when they're not ready. I agree. However, if a student is getting straight As (as another featured student from Florida had) and fails the FCAT (Florida's test), that tells me that there's either a problem with the teacher, or a problem with the FCAT. If a student is getting As, then they're doing everything that is expected of them throughout the school year, and it's not right to punish them for something that's obviously not their fault.

Grr.