tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4983334520933101277.post6851042158256448786..comments2024-02-16T06:29:33.587-08:00Comments on Welcome to " The Math UnderGround " -- Seattle & Washington State: Arne Duncan and the great Standards Hoaxdan dempseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15536720661510933983noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4983334520933101277.post-46070020267084906682009-06-03T19:27:50.980-07:002009-06-03T19:27:50.980-07:00Your idea makes far better sense -and its not new,...Your idea makes far better sense -and its not new, so why do we use standardized tests? Because it costs more and best of all nobody benefits except for the test publishers and their consultants. NCLB and Achieve Standards are a fraud and a massive wasteful process. <br /><br />Their arguments are no better than a natural slaver's. According to their way of thinking - Americans are enslaved by their own culture. What kind of sense-making can we draw from that comment? <br /><br />Aside from their Marxist content -artificial feudalism in the classroom - Sage on the Stage - it is the reform-mongers' essential arrogance and inability to analyze itself that casts doubt upon their social way of thinking. Revisionism is out of the question for them and so therefore is honesty and ethics. The heartless lost soul of a Calhoun.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4983334520933101277.post-29364955063464993692009-06-02T19:38:55.682-07:002009-06-02T19:38:55.682-07:00What we need it something like the "O" l...What we need it something like the "O" level exams from England and Singapore. If you are a real student you go for it and if not you still graduate.<br /><br />How about a National "You know something sticker" for your diploma and transcript for passing the national test.<br /><br />Contrast that with the current WASL nonsense.dan dempseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15536720661510933983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4983334520933101277.post-9134459261043069162009-06-02T19:34:41.760-07:002009-06-02T19:34:41.760-07:00I look at what happens on the state level and proj...I look at what happens on the state level and project even worse results for national efforts.<br /><br />Consider Core-24 and these efforts to require everyone to pass certain classes to graduate.<br /><br />This high school diploma = college ready is flat out insane.<br /><br />The law of unintended consequences kicks right in. Unprepared kids show up in Geometry class and the quality or the class goes south big time.<br /><br />If running a 4x4 block schedule with 32 possible credits the CORE-24 is no big deal. Vashon's 5 period day on trimesters gives 30 credits. A seven period day gives 28 credits. Many schools run a straight 6 periods like Seattle, which means a kid needs to pass every class to graduate on time.<br /><br />The decision makers have only a faint idea of how their proclamations effect the populace.<br />----------<br />National Standards won't mean Singapore quality... it will be more like day time TV quality when the big politically connected publishing houses get involved.dan dempseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15536720661510933983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4983334520933101277.post-12388815598119508382009-06-02T14:21:37.605-07:002009-06-02T14:21:37.605-07:00Get your facts straight. Duncan's Cretan standard ...Get your facts straight. Duncan's Cretan standard (the ne'er do well son of achieve) applies only to high school dropouts. <br /><br />This is not the same high academic standard being used in those other Democracies where some students are actually prepared for college. <br /><br />Let's revisit textbooks and see what can be done to improve them. Why not do honest, accurate research; instead of propagandizing colleagues' own textbooks.<br /><br />Reform-educrats want a blueprint for fascism, where citizens are held prisoner while being preached over by corporate, theosophers. World geography will be replaced by Law and Order; Science with Intelligent Design; English with Phonics; and Math with Discrete Counting (e.g. primal hooting). <br /><br />Continual change without purpose will lead to the ultimate destruction of public education and democracy.<br /><br />Simplicio should stop spouting off his pitiful truth.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4983334520933101277.post-13341034867898837692009-06-02T08:37:45.514-07:002009-06-02T08:37:45.514-07:00I strongly disagree here. National standards are u...I strongly disagree here. National standards are used by almost every western democracy execpt for ours, including excellent systems in Canada, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Finland, etc. No matter what state one lives in, in the 21st century, one requires a nationally, and internationally competitive education. A high school diploma in Mississippi HAS to mean the same thing as one from New York, simply because we live in a very mobile society. It is unacceptable, and unfair to hold students from Baton Rouge to a lower standard than those from Boston. They both need the same strong, rigorous standards, and those can only be imposed at a national level, not by some conglomorate of barely informed non-educators that in many districts passes for a "school board".<br /><br />The entire archaic system of "school boards" was designed for a time when people were born, lived, and died in the same community...a time long since passed.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com