The editorial writers at the Rutland Herald know nothing about how schools are run today. Zip. Zero. Zilch. They should stay out of it completely. They are incapable of an informed opinion on education.
Today's editorial is an outstanding example. It rails about multiple choice tests and how they're the reason kids can't write. And, of course, No Child Left Behind is to blame.
The problem with the editorial is that standardized tests don't just have multiple choice questions anymore. The SATs have writing samples. AP tests have writing samples. And more to the point of NCLB, the NECAPs that we use for NCLB compliance have what the test preparers describe as "extended writing samples in each genre each year." Don't believe me? Check out this link to a sample of the test.
I implore the Herald editors. On a slow news (or opinion) day, please write about something else. Things are a little different than they were when you went to school a hundred years ago.
Curt you may be correct. However, it is possible you are not. What we do know from the editorial is that the writer(s) failed to offer any documentation of the source of the base information. The piece does not identify the state or the university. It is certainly possible that there is a state, one state in the 50, that has made the changes lamented in the op-ed. Thus, the editorial writer(s) might not "...know nothing about how schools are run today. Zip. Zero. Zilch" He/She/They might just fail the documentation test.
Posted by: G. Cross | May 09, 2008 at 06:34 PM