Ed Huntress wrote:

These things are the result of the infusion of ROM (Results-Oriented
Management) that came from '80s business models and that were transferred to
state school boards and to other government agencies and bureaus. It's a
crock of baloney. It started at the same time as the movement for uniform
standards-testing and the general worship of business management theory by
right-wing politicians and bureaucrats.


Exactly. I think that to a great extent it was a reaction to the
"New Math" that none of the right-wingers could understand. Rather
than teaching the rote memorization that was plenty good enough for
grampa, some groups of teachers were trying to introduce more advanced
concepts earlier. Reactionary parents and school boards freaked. Alas,
the stupid school boards and parents have *far* too much power in the
US. Look at the entire "Creation Science" scandal :-(


Now they're bitching about the results of what they themselves created.