Feb. 26, 2007 - 21:23 MST

OBFUSCATION ?

Theater of the absurd perhaps ? Editorial in today's The Rocky Mountain News

BETTER GRADES, SAME OLD ACHIEVEMENT

"A standard measure of educational progress shows that American high-school students are taking more challenging courses and receiving high grades but getting weaker test scores."

"The obvious explanation seems the most likely one: grade inflation and courses whose titles only sound tough."

"The National Assessment of Educational Progress, a respected test given periodically to 12th-graders, found that only 35 percent of seniors tested proficient or better in reading, the lowest since 1992, and that only 23 percent were proficient in math."

"However, over the last 15 years, the average high-school senior's grade point average rose from 2.68 to 2.98 on a scale of 4.0. and the percentage of students taking a standard curriculum of college-prep courses rose from 31 percent to 58 percent."

"These findings, if borne out, show that despite repeated reforms, our secondary-education system may actually be sliding ever so slightly backward. It suggests that school systems may be improving their student's grades by simply giving them better grades and increasing enrollment in college-prep classes by dumbing down the contents."

"The sad part of this is that the students are being cheated, especially by the advanced or college-prep courses that promise them -- but too often fail to deliver -- rigor."

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As other countries in our world have increased their requirements for education it would appear that we are subjecting the students to "snap" courses labeled as advanced ones for college-prep.

And this editorial is not the first thing I have read about this and, as well, have a son and his mate who were both teachers which gave me an inside look on how screwed up school systems are.

So it starts early on. Daughter-in-law once told us that by the time she did for her class all the things that needed to be done at by their parents, and coped with behavior that should not have been allowed at home -- she had little time to teach much of anything. Our son had more to say about the teens as well.

Looks like the educators are in a Catch 22 type of bind. They feel perhaps that they have to come up with things the little darlings can pass even though they don't have the basics to really understand the curricula. Or do I have that all wrong ? ? ? ? ?

Is it the school boards pressure on the schools forcing the educators to come up with something, anything, just to pacify the rabid, mouth-foaming, perfectionist school boards, who expect miracles from underpaid staffs ?

It seems to me that the educators and school boards are looking through cataracted eyes and can't really read the street signs, could it be called OBFUSCATION ? . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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