Saturday, November 28, 2009

Citizen's Voice: Be honest about state's test scores » Knoxville News Sentinel


Citizen's Voice: Be honest about state's test scores » Knoxville News Sentinel:

"Can education exist without all the dishonesty and lying?

When did the deceit and lying begin? Answer: When the GOP attempted to reform education using standardized test scores to make educational decisions.

What was education politics like before all the lying? Before the Tennessee Education Report Card, for example?"

Tennessee is not the only state to declare students to have grade-level mastery of reading and math when they do not, but Tennessee is a target because we have chosen to set the "state's standards at a low bar," to use the words of The Associated Press.

Our Tennessee education officials are lying to our kids when they tell them they're proficient, but they're not achieving at a level that will prepare them for success once they graduate and have to compete.

Tennesseans - parents, kids, citizens - are told that our Tennessee standardized test that is used to satisfy the No Child Left Behind's "Adequate Yearly Progress" and "Achievement Value Added" says we're in "good standing." Rubbish!

Our kids and schools do fine on the tests that only Tennesseans take, but when our kids take national tests, they end up at the bottom. Why is that?

What did the conservative newspapers of Tennessee tell their readers recently when the Tennessee Department of Education released its 2009 Report Card?