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The GOP has been taken over by religious fundies. Public schools teach academic subjects
Good grief! Since when?
The fact is that NONE of the states' public school systems educate even half of their students to basic grade-level proficiency.
Public school student achievement is actually much, much lower than most people think. Each state's education officials establish their own state standards, commission/construct their own tests, and set their own 'passing' scores. This has resulted in manipulations that make it look like public schools are educating our country's children, when in reality the majority of students in many states are far below acceptable levels of proficiency. In some cases, there's as much as a 70 percentage point difference in proficiency levels between NCLB achievement tests and the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) tests. Not one state listed in the chart below educates even half of their students to grade-level proficiency on the NAEP.
If anyone wants to see their (or any other) state's reported proficiency level vs. the NAEP proficiency level (to see if their public schools are being honest about providing an adequate education), check here: NAEP Researchcenter - NAEP and State Equivalent Percent Table
For each grade level, the first column lists the percentage of students scoring as proficient (meets or exceeds state standards) on the state test; the second column lists the percentage of students scoring as proficient on the NAEP (National Assessment).
There's a LEGITIMATE reason why those with the means to do so send their kids to PRIVATE schools, including those affiliated with various religions. Their kids actually LEARN academics in them, as opposed to the disaster our public school systems have become.
The fact is that half of any large population of people will be below average in any measure.
No one said anything about average. What was said is that less than half of public school students are PROFICIENT at math or reading to their grade level. That should not be the case.
"A nation under a well-regulated government, should permit none to remain uninstructed. It is monarchical and aristocratical government only that requires ignorance for its support"
The fact is that half of any large population of people will be below average in any measure.
We're not talking about an arbitrary measure of which approximately half will be below the average. We're talking BASIC grade-level proficiency - BASIC knowledge and BASIC skills that each student must master before they can move up to the next grade level.
Public schools educate far less than half of their students to that basic proficiency level, so each subsequent grade is dumbed down much further.
We're talking BASIC grade-level proficiency - BASIC knowledge and BASIC skills that each student must master before they can move up to the next grade level.
I agree with that idea. But the American culture makes it challenging because education is considered of little to no value at the moment.
Among some. Unfortunately, public schools have deliberately chosen to cater only to that subset.
How? And did you go to private school, or public? Why?
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