As always, there is a plan to reform the educational system in the US…there always a plan….and as of yet there has been limited success…..it all looks good on paper but the students are the ones the suffer later in life…..I know, how can that be?

If Obama and the so called experts are right then education is the key to a better life for Americans….and is the answer to stopping the slide of our industrial base…..that is if they are correct….but how will they guarantee a better educational system?

President Barack Obama pledged early on to make improving America’s schools a priority, and changes he is proposing this week signal a much-needed overhaul of the nearly decade-old No Child Left Behind Act. Rather than doling out federal education aid based on the poverty level in a school district, as has been the practice for years, the Obama administration intends to distribute aid based on school systems’ willingness to reform.

Nick Anderson of the WaPo writes;

As legions of schools nationwide fall short of academic targets, the Obama administration proposed Monday to toss out the pass-fail measure that for 15 years has been the bedrock of the school accountability system and replace it with an index that would reward educators who prepare students for college and careers.

The shift, if approved by Congress, would force a wholesale rethinking of school testing standards eight years after enactment of the No Child Left Behind law put a spotlight on disparities in achievement among groups of students.

The changes would reach far into the classroom, potentially affecting how teachers prepare for annual state tests, which students get extra help and what subjects are taught.

Mr. Obama wants to preserve the overall goals of the Bush-era No Child Left Behind law, especially the idea that all students, regardless of their race or background or where they go to school, should be expected to succeed. But he also recognizes that the way some elements of the law have been implemented – such as the requirement to make “adequate yearly progress” – has diverted education policy toward a numbers game that is overly reliant on test scores, which may or may not provide an accurate measure of how well students are learning.

Under the current system, bad schools can escape with few sanctions, while those that are forced to reconstitute themselves often get very little support to do so. And the lack of nuance in the testing system can make a chronically failing school appear nearly indistinguishable from a high-achieving school that simply is having a bad year.

Okay with all that said I want to voice a concern of mine…….for years of lecturing and talking with students I have seen an amazing thing happening…..what, Professor?……students as a whole are dumber than a rotten turnip……recently students did not know who the first prez of the US was….or just where Afghanistan was located on a map…….or the Law of Diminishing returns…..or even how the US budget process was approached….my point is something is sadly missing in the education of American kids….

The problem as I see it….the kids retain info longer enough to take a test and then it is forgotten……we have a comprehension problem….students do not comprehend the subjects they are taught….they retain it to take tests and make the grade so school can get its pat on the back and its Fed funds…..sorry that is NOT teaching kids….that is programming them!

As always, they will blame the teachers for any problems that reforms face……it is always the teachers fault…..that is because there are so many “bad” teachers  (this is sarcasm)……..it is more like another attempt to break the hold of teacher’s unions….the kids suffer from really poor education just to break a union……

The whole test score thing is just bullsh*t……a way to educate kids needs to be found….they have had enough programming……absurdity has long been the reaction to education……all plans as they are now have been a failure at educating the kids….but they keep using the same failed process over and over…it is like they do not want the kids to have adequate knowledge