[lbo-talk] Good riddance

[Wojtek S]

While we are at that, what do other on this list think of a
state-level referendum initiative to ban standardized testing
altogether i.e. by limiting testing to the factual knowledge as
prescribed by the school-board approved curriculum?  I think it would
get considerable right wing support, parents rights, religious kooks,
etc.  I understand that it would open the door for idiocies such as
cretinism or is creationism :)?  - but I do not think that those
idiocies are the main enemy of the education as we know it.  The
business/testing model is.  I mean, the idiocy of religious-based
lunacy is obvious on its face - but the business/testing model is a
Trojan horse that passes for legitimate "science."

I also think that the professoriat that cooks up these testing models
can be quite vulnerable to critique and boycotts by their peers and
students, no?

Wojtek

On Fri, Apr 8, 2011 at 11:16 AM, Seth Kulick <skulick at seas.upenn.edu> wrote:
>> From: Wojtek S <wsoko52 at gmail.com>
>> Subject: [lbo-talk] Good riddance
>>
>> http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/cathleen_p_black/index.html?inline=nyt-per
>>
>> [WS:] Another failed business executive peddling "business model" for
>> schools got a boot.
>>
>> Wojtek
>>
>
> Related, I thought this was a good piece:
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/apr/07/schools-school-funding?CMP=twt_gu
>
> Cathie Black and the privatisation of education
> The abrupt departure of the New York schools chancellor is only a
> temporary setback for the corporate 'reform' of public schools
>
> also on this topic, did anybody catch Obama's comments about testing:
>
> "So what I want to do is—one thing I never want to see happen is
> schools that are just teaching to the test. Because then you're not
> learning about the world; you're not learning about different
> cultures, you're not learning about science, you're not learning about
> math. All you're learning about is how to fill out a little bubble on
> an exam and the little tricks that you need to do in order to take a
> test. And that's not going to make education interesting to you. And
> young people do well in stuff that they're interested in. They're not
> going to do as well if it's boring."
>
> also referring to how his daughters, who go to a nice Friends
> school, don't have to stress over standardized tests.
>
> Could he possibly be any more clueless?
>
> http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2011/03/obamas_radical_critique_of_tes.html
>
> Also on this topic, I enjoyed Doug's interview with Diane Ravitch, which
> I just listened to the other day.
>
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