"hamei" wrote in message
...
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.

Hmm. I think you're overreaching a bit, because it is true that public
schools in other countries have been outperforming ours, and a lot of adults
are frustrated in trying to find out why.

However, you're right that their "solutions," like an excessive focus on
standards-based testing, are more an expression of that frustration than
anything else. They're grasping at straws. They should be grasping at the
parents' throats. Where parents are parenting and where they're involved,
the kids are doing quite well.

Ed Huntress