[Phys-l] WaPo : standardized tests

[John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>]

A couple of articles from the Gomorrah Post:

  "When an adult took standardized tests forced on kids"
  By Marion Brady

  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/when-an-adult-took-standardized-tests-forced-on-kids/2011/12/05/gIQApTDuUO_blog.html

> “I won’t beat around the bush,” he wrote in an email. “The math 
> section had 60 questions. I knew the answers to none of them, but 
> managed to guess ten out of the 60 correctly. On the reading test, I 
> got 62% . In our system, that’s a “D”, and would get me a mandatory 
> assignment to a double block of reading instruction.
>
> He continued, “It seems to me something is seriously wrong. I have a 
> bachelor of science degree, two masters degrees, and 15 credit hours 
> toward a doctorate.

=========

That links to another article, which I find particularly interesting:

  "Principals rebel against ‘value-added’ evaluation"
  by Valerie Strauss

  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/principals-rebel-against-value-added-evaluation/2011/11/03/gIQAHEHBjM_blog.html

> Scores of public school principals in New York are fighting the
> state’s new educator evaluation system, which ties the evaluations
> and pay of teachers and principals to how well students do on
> standardized tests.

IMHO some kind of revolt is long overdue.