Archive for the ‘ Standardized Testing ’ Category

SATs and Chilling Out, For Eff’s Sake

When I took the Rite of Passage for American High School Students (standardized tests written by pain-in-the-ass adults whose heads are shoved so far up their exit ramps that they can no longer navigate reality), I must say I had a rather cavalier attitude about the whole thing. Almost twelve years of public school had made me quite the badass standardized test taker; I was unconcerned[ READ MORE ]

Pennsylvania Schools Cheated Also

And I’m super duper excited to read American History a few decades from now when someone theorizes that President Bush and his No Child Left Behind Act pushed American educators to cheat on standardized tests. [ READ MORE ]

Atlanta Cheats, Too

Remember the jackass educators in Washington D.C. who erased students’ incorrect answer bubbles and filled in the correct ones? So classy, so honest, such role models for the impressionable young minds they’re wearing down to nubs with high-pressure standardized tests. Adults suck. [ READ MORE ]

Homework-Free Society

Born too late for the homework-free society Race to Nowhere is bringing on? Sucks to be you. And me, I might add. Where in the hell was filmmaker Vicki Abeles when I was a wee slip of a thing, playing outside in the sunshine on my pink banana-seat BMX bike and feeling guilty about the 13 years of homework I never failed to put off until the morning it was due? [ READ MORE ]

Civics 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress

Here’s the latest press release from the National Assessment Governing Board. I’m not a fan of standardized testing, but I’m sure there are others who feel differently and would like to know how well American school kids did on their civics exams. The full press release is below[ READ MORE ]

Too Many Erasures on D.C. Standardized Tests

Have I not stated the utter worthlessness of standardized tests? They’re the faster, stronger, better version of pure evil; the quickest way to inadequately measure how the infinitesimally funded teachers of the American public school system educate their K-12 pupils. Filling in bubbles on a one-size-fits-all metric of knowledge absorption is not only the most [ READ MORE ]

Massive Guilt Expected From High School Drop-Outs

Thinking of being a high school drop-out when you grow up? Please won’t you first consider the role you’ll be playing in taking society down to its knees[ READ MORE ]

Tightly Wound Parental Units

The parents who will be driving their offspring to insanity as soon as the kids can spell S-A-T start in on the psychotic haranguing early[ READ MORE ]

Equality In the Public School System (Or the Lack Thereof)

Two great reads from the Oxford University Press (if you’re an education nerd like me): Five Miles Away, A World Apart[link and italics] by James E. Ryan, and In Brown’s Wake[link, italics] by Martha Minow. [ READ MORE ]

Colbert’s Wickedly True Take on the SATs

This is what I’ve been saying! Although, Mr. Colbert does it ever so much better. [ READ MORE ]