Homestar Runner Wiki Forum

First there was the controversial Colorado Student Assessment Program, which has caused schools to lose funding and ultimately close. Then came Columbine in 1999, the football-recruiting & Ward Churchill scandals at the University of Colorado a couple years ago, and the Jay Bennish incident at my high school, Overland, this past March. The recent shooting at Platte Canyon High School in Bailey is the latest school-related Big News Story to come out of here.

I am sincerely disappointed with the way things have been in the past years. I haven't been held back or gone to summer school (thanks to the wonderful Cherry Creek School District), so I should be thankful that my state's schools are doing their job for at least one person. Yet when I see stuff like people protesting against the CSAPs, a teacher at my own school being suspended, and a 53-year-old man (with the same last name as me) holding up a school and then killing one girl, it makes me hang my head in shame. What is wrong with Colorado's schools?!?

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i honestly didn't even know that all of that had happened. I'm on the other side of the country and for whatever reason, that type of news never seems to make it on the front page (stuff like schools closing, etc. not the shooting-related incidents).

i wish i knew what was wrong with them. I suppose it has to do with a lot of things, but my UNEDUCATED guess would have to be a general mentality that puts education in the backseat.

I don't think education's in the backseat here; why else would they make all 3rd through 10 graders take a standardized test every year to determine how much money their schools get?

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I would say its because you guys live in the middle of the country, so you get all sorts of people coming through, and like in weather, if a Cold front meets a warm front, you get trouble.

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No, when a cold front catches up with a warm front, you get an occluded front..

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If you can't fix it with a hammer, you have an electrical problem.

Oh yes, COLA. Weather and population go together like milk and cookies.

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i was using it as an example, not a litteral explanation.

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I think some of you guys dogpile on COLA a little too much. Seriously, a few of you pick apart almost everything he says. He was just trying to make a point.

Mike

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Logical fallacies ahoy! I'd also like to say: graaaaagh!

Sigged for truth.

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I edited the post slightly, so you might want to resig to make sure the wording is an exact match.

Mike

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Logical fallacies ahoy! I'd also like to say: graaaaagh!

NOTE THE IN MY ABOVE POST

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If you can't fix it with a hammer, you have an electrical problem.

It was a general remark, not aimed at anyone specifically. I stand by it, however...I've seen it happen on many threads.

Mike

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Logical fallacies ahoy! I'd also like to say: graaaaagh!

OK guys, we're getting way too dangerously close to off the topic. Stay the course people, stay the course.

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its kind of a fundamental difference of opinion, Ian, but i see standardized testing as putting education last. it leaves behind true teaching and it causes teachers to waste years of schooling "teaching to a test" just so that a school can get enough money to function. I think that that is a disservice to children with disabilities, as well as anyone with a learning style that is not compatible with standardized tests.

The point of standardized tests is that they provide a watermark to fairly measure all schools against. Whether or not that works is a different argument. I, too, see "teaching the test" as a waste, but that could easily be fixed if the tests were re-worked to match the curriculum that is supposed to be taught.

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If you can't fix it with a hammer, you have an electrical problem.

thanks, strongrad. you always seem to help me clarify my statements. i don't hate the idea of standardized tests at all. and i personally did just fine on all of mine through high school (and jr high, etc.) but i was frustrated by being taught things that i now know are flat-out wrong. probably the worst villan of all is "writing" sections of standardized tests, because the writing that is taught for those and praised in those is absolutely garbage. again, just griping.

if standardized tests could be modified to include a full curriculum(sp?), i would love it. but that would need to include history, philosophy (depending on age, okay?) sciences, mathematics, art, literature, etc. essentially, everything you are required to take in high school. so i guess if the reiteration of a core set of classes is really necessary through a test, then i would want it to be that way.

[quote="putitinyourshoe" probably the worst villan of all is "writing" sections of standardized tests, because the writing that is taught for those and praised in those is absolutely garbage. again, just griping.[/quote]
My experience would say you're correct there. When I was in Middle School, we learned to write one way. It's painful to read the stuff I wrote back then.
Then, in High School, we spent 3 year un-learning the stuff we learned in Middle School. The writings I did in High School aren't too bad. They're still a bit verbose to me, and they've got a lot of big, complicated words used where simple words would do.
Next came college, and a completely different style again. The writings from College are actually readable. There, we learned to scrap all of the elaborate, over-done stuff and get to the point. I like that idea, but it wouldn't score well on a standardized test (see my low writing score on the GRE).

The reason the writing sections are there are is to force students to think about concepts and how things are related. It's harder to do that with multiple choice questions.

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If you can't fix it with a hammer, you have an electrical problem.