Not always. In Texas, the standardized testing in done and approved by the state government and it's truly terrible. Not to mention the link between the government educational agencies and programs like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top coercing teachers to teach the test not the individuals in the classroom, and then using that as a basis for continued employment. Blame it on companies all you want, but the government is only helping them. (The companies, not the students)
edited 18th Sep '17 5:53:32 PM by Serenity92
"Sometimes the scandal is not what law was broken, but what the law allows." - Edward Snowden
Visiting from the Hoag Galaxy
I get needing standards. If a school is consistently flunking a significant chunk of the student body every year, there's clearly something wrong. But, a standardized test that can't adjust for crap and that determines how much funding a school gets is clearly broken. Like, maybe give the struggling schools more money? Their problem might just be that they can't afford to buy any new textbooks and are teaching out of ones that say the Soviet Union is still hanging around and that NASA is planning the Apollo 3 mission. And the school with the full football field and a TV PA system in every classroom maybe doesn't need all its funding.
Especially a test that uses multiple choice. Because the correct answer is in there. Always. You could get someone who does incredibly well, entirely because they're good at puzzling out the right answer without actually having studied, but someone else who does extremely poorly entirely because multiple choice questions are difficult for them to parse (that really is a thing for a lot of people).
The only standardized test I've ever seen that wasn't a complete waste of time was the CA Ts, which the Canadian government occasionally levies on private schools and home schools. The intent there is to figure out whether or not the school is teaching to the standards of the given province or territory. If they aren't, they get forcibly shut down.
edited 18th Sep '17 6:50:28 PM by Zendervai
Not Three Laws compliant.
A procrastination in of itself
The entire concept of removing a school's funding if it is doing badly makes no sense to me.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/editors/3/eveningclassessupportforeigners/
Evening classes are supporting foreigners trying to work or study in Japan.
Formerly G.G.
I once a thread bout formal training along time ago. I have a question concerning formal education and the time it takes to study for the occupation that you want to participate in them. I know they are certain occupations such as doctors, lawyers, police that take years to of training to learn but why does it take that long? And do you need to do it while you are still young?
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Doctors, lawyers and police officers have lives depending on how well they do their jobs (or at the very least, life quality). And those jobs require lots of training, which takes time. As for doing it young: learning is easier then, and you have more time to apply your learning and training if you get them earlier.
Oh, bother.
Death at a Penn State Fraternity
This concerns the death by hazing of Tim Piazza that occurred on February 3rd. It goes into depth how the toxic aspects of fraternity culture culminated in a young man with a bright future ahead of him having that future cut short by the people he thought would be his "brothers". It's a good read, but not for the faint of heart.
Personally, it made me glad I never joined a fraternity.
Disgusted, but not surprised
Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?
- Atlanta schools change recess rules
- Are leggings ‘distracting’? Atlanta fifth-graders want dress code changes
Atlanta schools change recess rules
The Atlanta Board of Education on Monday unanimously approved updates to a pair of policies that provide guidance on recess. Among the biggest changes is the district’s decision to forbid teachers from disciplining students by withholding recess.
The final version of the approved policy also allows unstructured breaks for students in kindergarten through eighth grade and gives the principal the authority to determine the timing, duration, and location of recess at each school. The old policy did not permit breaks for students in grades six through eight.
“I am happy you have thought about this because I have been waiting for two years for this moment. Thank you for making this happen because we need it,” said Pierce Mower, a fourth grader at Burgess-Peterson Academy, who was among the students and parents to ask the board for recess changes in 2016.
Are leggings ‘distracting’? Atlanta fifth-graders want dress code changes
The board is reviewing revisions that emphasize the dress code must be fairly enforced. Some Atlanta Public Schools students have complained the current rules target girls and want the new policy to drop the word “distracting.”
“This is a label applied to girls’ clothing. I do not believe that clothing is a distraction. It is just the reaction that matters,” said Falyn Handley, a 10-year-old student at Springdale Park Elementary School, who spoke along with fellow leggings wearer and classmate Ruby Segerman. “I should not be punished for other people’s behavior. I am not a distraction.”
The dress code rewrite is scheduled to go before the board’s policy review committee later this month and then return to the full board Dec. 4. The board likely will consider final approval in January, said board member Eshe’ Collins, who leads the policy committee.
United Earth
I'll give you tight and distracting:
Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?
Debt relief for defrauded students halted under Trump, says report
A new report by the independent auditor says affected borrowers face mounting interest and other financial burdens.
Before leaving office, President Barack Obama passed new laws speeding up debt cancellations for defrauded students.
But under President Donald Trump and his Education Secretary, Betsy De Vos, cancellations have ground to a halt.
Ms De Vos has delayed the implementation of Mr Obama's reforms, saying they would create costs for taxpayers.
According to the Inspector General's report, the Education Department under Ms De Vos has received 25,991 debt cancellation claims, denying two and approving none.
During Mr Obama's final months in office, from 1 July 2016 to Mr Trump's inauguration in January 2017, the Education Department received 46,274 claims, approving 27,986 and denying none.
In 2015, a huge for-profit school network, Corinthian Colleges, collapsed after investigations into fraud and malpractice in the company led the government to cut off federal funds.
Nearly 80,000 students were left facing debts to the Education Department, despite the department having authority to cancel debts when schools have violated students' rights or broken the law.
Senator Patty Murray, the senior Democrat on the Education Committee, said: "Hundreds of thousands of students were defrauded and cheated by predatory colleges that broke the law, but today's report confirms Secretary De Vos tried to shirk her responsibility to these students and shut down the borrower-defense program, leaving them with nowhere to turn."
A. Wayne Johnson, chief operating officer of the federal student aid programme, said that the Education Department would soon approve 11,000 claims for Corinthian students and had "authorised an interest credit" for long-term outstanding claims.
United Earth
People hurt by Trump University should stay hurt?
It's not like they make him pay them back, it's government money mopping up his bullshit, why does he care? Why do something so pointlessly stupid and evil?
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Visiting from the Hoag Galaxy
In news that isn't in the slightest bit new or surprising, Betsy De Vos is awful. Literally all she cares about is her stupid voucher school idea.
edited 12th Dec '17 8:33:51 AM by Zendervai
Not Three Laws compliant.
Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?
I couldn't tell you. And I really don't like being in the position of asking "why won't he just leave us alone..." Yep. The tax bill is just more icing on the cake.
Meanwhile, across the pond: Macron to ban phones in French schools
It's a video, but essentially, the French are banning phones in public schools. The ban should affect pupils aged 6-15 and takes effect in September of 2018. No, the video didn't mention how they were going to enforce that or any of the logistics.
Also, every French school is required to set up a choir by January 2019.
edited 12th Dec '17 4:00:36 PM by CenturyEye
Look with century eyes... With our backs to the arch And the wreck of our kind We will stare straight ahead For the rest of our lives
Or practical consequences for that matter...
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
South Africa outlaws single-religion schools
Public schools may no longer promote themselves as subscribing to a single particular religion at the exclusion of others, the court ruled.
The Organisasie vir Godsdienste-Onderrig en Demokrasie (Organisation for Religious Education and Democracy), or OGOD, which fights against religious indoctrination through public schools in South Africa, welcomed the judgement.
He said the judgement meant public schools may not promote one specific religion and exclude others.
o.O Wow. That's a lot of schools suddenly not allowed to be evangelical. It's going to take years for that to impact the teaching culture, though. I foresee a lot of coming down hard on those who try being what they've been for decades by backdoors. <_<
edited 20th Dec '17 6:29:03 AM by Euodiachloris
Formerly G.G.
What do you guys think of school master plans?
A procrastination in of itself
You’re going to have to explain what you mean by that for people to be able to give an answer.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
A lot of times a school board will come up with this 'master plan' on renovating or transforming the school campus in some way over a long period of time. But in my experience, it never works out.
My high school had this master plan of building a sports stadium, and replacing the old sports field with a parking lot. A few years later, part of the new parking lot collapsed into a sink hole.
Now my college has this master plan. Parts include a new stadium (obviously), a new library (nothing about what to do with the old one), and eventually a new building for the nursing school. But I don't really feel like its going to work out. Was the stadium really necessary? Couldn't school funds be used for more pressing matters?
Some people in the US have way too much interest in school/college sports.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Formerly G.G.
A school recently contacted me to sign up for online courses but I feel like I need to signup and weigh my options before I do anything.
"Eratoeir is a Gangsta."
Passing along this short University of Macau video about students in Macau who learn Portuguese:
Figure of Hourai
@Pushover: See, I think you're assuming I don't know what homeschooling is—it's not that I don't know, it's that even when it's working well, I'm not in favour of it, even for specialised education.
And the wealth inequality thing is only one part of the problem.
Avatar Source
The big problem with standardized testing has a lot to do with it being privatized.
Disgusted, but not surprised