1.21.2005
From Rick Perlstein, The Eve of Destruction via Slacktivist
You've heard of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, the one that produces those anguished news reports every four years about all the countries American schoolchildren lag behind in basic skills. But according to the TIMSS, if Minnesota were a country, it would have the second-best science scores and the seventh best in math. By No Child Left Behind's statutorily required benchmarks of "Adequate Yearly Progress," however, only 42 percent of Minnesota fourth-graders were proficient in math. And NCLB's test targets increase every year. So by one estimate, in 2014, some 80 percent of the schools in Minnesota's world-class education system will be rated "failures."Slacktivist
The benchmarks are insane, you see. ...
[NCLB has] provided students with a valuable lesson about the meaning of education in America. It's not about mastering the three Rs, and it's certainly not about something loftier like becoming more fully human or the ideal of paideia or other such nonsense. It's about figuring out how the Powers That Be keep score and learning to do what you must to keep them happy.I don't know how people can read the news and reports about our government and not go insane with frustration.