Bush's Schools Program a Lie

You may have noticed this year that Santa’s bag of gifts contained lots of electronic toys, and more specifically mp3 players and iPods. Many people are now toting these electronic marvels that allow one to store an unbelievable amount of music. The question facing many of the new users is, “Where can I get a bunch of MP3 files?”

It is a valid question and many have found the answer to be the Internet. There are established music download sites on the web, such as Napster, iTunes, Yahoo, MSN, Wal-Mart and many more places. Most of these sites charge per song downloaded.

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It should come as no surprise that schools have been playing hookey when it comes to honestly reporting their own students' test scores.

As a teacher, I see it all the time. The more affluent white schools cheat by slanting their curriculum toward the style of questions asked (it is not only what the question says but how it is stated). These schools score very high, and yet don't technically cheat because the kids can anticipate what kind of questions they will be getting on the STAR tests, etc.

Now the minority kids. Seems that states have been hiding minority students' test results in a variety of ways. It's not hard to do. The testing process seeks to be honest, but is so labyrinthian (just visit any school on a testing day in May) and so open to corruption, from the teachers themselves to nefarious parents and even more eager administrators.

So, is President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" law hurt or helped? It has hurt, big time. Schools have to lie about their results. They have to wall off their failures with minority kids. Minority kids know they don't really have to try and they don't. They just pencil in, at random, answers on the "bubble sheets" and rush through, or even completely skip, the essay and/or writing segments.

That is why the California basic test for teachers (CBEST) has been a bitch for teachers to pass. Few can write anything and haven't had to write anything (or very little) through their grade school, high school and collegiate careers. They bullshit their way through, pull crap off the Internet to fool their professors and attend fluff "education" classes full of softball quizzes and arts-fartsy "exercises" and "thinking" sessions.

No writing.

That is why many college counselors and complaining that up to 80 percent of all college freshman need remedial writing just to stay enrolled (much less attend or pass college-level courses).

Just realize this: Under the present system, minorities' scores -- if they are released unfiltered -- will shock even the most hard-bitten educator. They aren't learning anything, because they often refuse to work, and teachers just give up on them and try and find dubious ways to "pass these students through" the system.

Otherwise, we would have high schools stuffed with 25-year-old seniors.

Project Seek: Onassis, Kennedy and the Gemstone Thesis

There’s More Where This Came From

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