OK. Obama/Duncan/Gates School "Reform" Model: The results Are IN !!! Today's NYT: P. A1

[sabrina 1]

56. There is no worse system of education than 'teaching to the test'.

The only function testing should have is AFTER the process of education takes place. How on earth do you teach anyone by testing them, let alone children...



What are you testing if the process of education, which should never be confused with 'testing', has not even begun?

One thing all this testing has done, aside from failing as far as students are concerned, is to make millions of dollars for the Education Publishing companies, most of them Friends of Bush.

This sytem, NCLB, was invented by BUSINESSMEN in Texas and never had anything at all to do with education. It was not intended to educate, it was intended to privatize the PS system, take the funds and place them in private hands, make a lot of money for Bush's friends in the Education Publishing Busines, and it succeeded in all of that, but there were no EDUCATORS involved in the 'program'.

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It kills creativity, of both the student and the teacher, it puts so much pressure on them and it changes the focus from learning to just 'passing a test'. Not to mention when everyone is under pressure to pass or lose funding, all anyone, teachers and students, can think of is passing the test. They are not thinking of learning.

The fear of losing funding, makes it very likely that there will be cheating. This situation was totally predictable, and in fact was warned about from the minute NCLB was presented as an educational system, which it was not and is not. Our educational system was hi-jacked by the Bush administration and turned into a business where students are nothing more than a commodity. It is shameful and someone should be held accountable for it.