I can't comment on the program because I did not see it, but standardized testing does have a place in public schools at least in some subjects. Math and history are subjects that instantly jump to mind. In these subjects, either you know the material or you don't. Either the material has been taught so that the student understands it or it has not. 2+2 is the same in Iowa as it is in Washington D.C. Parents and teachers do need to be held accountable and we should expect our children to perfom above average as ICK said earlier.
I also agree with the young lady who questioned the essay portion on a standardized exam. If the essay is being graded for basic sentence structure, spelling and if the thesis is backed up by facts, then I can see where an essay would be useful. If on the other hand, the essay is being graded on some subjective criteria it should not be used at all.
I also do not think we should allow students to get away with the excuse that they stayed up all night and watched TV. People in general and young people in particular will almost always rise to someone expectations. Basically, if you expect your students or children to excel; they will. This fact has been proven in many studies. A good one is where they told a teacher of gifted talented students that the class was full of underachievers; you can guess what happened that class's test scores fell. In contrast, they told another teacher the class of historically low performers was the gifted talented class what happened they excelled.
In both cases, the students performed to the teachers expectations both positively and negatively.
Now, all this to say that yes standardized testing does have a place because we as parents and a community have a right to know how our school system stacks up against other school systems. If our school does not do well, we need to be finding out why immediately as in yesterday, because if we do not the only people being hurt are our children.
[This message has been edited by 7BA94 (edited August 28, 2000).]
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