Well this sucks...

[mrsltd]

Originally Posted by Sierravillian

Performance based on what measure? A well educated student won't perform as well on multiple choice standardized tests as a poorly educated student trained to perform well on multiple choice tests.

Basing student or teacher performance on standardized multiple choice tests is one of the dumber ideas to come down the pike.

Let me demonstrate take a look at Bloom's taxonomy, multiple choice tests only evaluate the lowest levels of learning:

mostly simple remembering. A well educated student has been trained to understand, apply, analyze, evaluate and create. Those are the important skills, and are not tested for, and because they are not tested for, in most classrooms, they are not taught.

In short, anybody with a good memory is thought to be learning, and thought to be INTELLIGENT, according to the current system of things in public education testing.

But then, having mass education doesn't necessarily prepare anyone for any one thing. As it has been said, "teachers pretend to teach, students pretend to learn in order to receive their diploma, and people hiring pretend that the diploma is a qualification for the job".

This is, of course, under the scenario of API testing being the main criterion on whether or not a school and its teachers are doing their job.

[jeremy2788]

Originally Posted by Snort

+1 Most folks have absolutely no idea what sort of pricks runs school administrations in this state. You'd see an immediate jump in administrators' salaries. They gave themselves a raise as they laid off teachers during the leaner times. Only speaking from experience here.

I agree, and this is not a problem in just California beyond any doubt. But I would be hard pressed to find any organization that has or hasn't had to make cuts that will first bloat the top of the food chain with their raises and whatnot and have the scraps of left over money flow down the chain. It is a sad reality that nobody is seeming willing to fix.