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Friday, December 8th, 2023

‘A bizarre coalition’: Red and blue states weigh big changes to testing requirements

Author:     KATELYN CORDERO and JUAN PEREZ JR.
Source:     Politico
Publication Date:     12/06/2023 | 05:00 AM EST
 Link: ‘A bizarre coalition’: Red and blue states weigh big changes to testing requirements
Stephan:  

Public education in the United States, elementary through high school, is amongst the worst in the developed world. It is shamefully bad, and now, as this report describes, Republican controlled states particularly are trying to make easier or eliminate altogether testing, particularly at the high school graduation level. As it is stands 48 million American Adults are basically illiterate, and 33 million are so computer illiterate they can’t do a google to find a recipe. A populace with literacy and math skills is essential to maintaining a democracy. I am beginning to think the 236 year old American democracy experiment is coming to an end and we are becoming one of the authoritarian anocracies of the world, an American Hungary.

An illustration of one hand filling out a standardized test while another hand makes changes in red to the testFueled by worries over the pandemic, equity and learning loss, Republicans and Democrats are rewriting decades’ worth of strict standardized testing and graduation requirements.

Florida lawmakers are angling to drop mandates for the state’s high school students. Georgia officials, led by a Republican superintendent, have allowed schools to reduce the impact of state test scores on final student grades. And in Louisiana, legislators and education officials are at odds over a plan to let seniors graduate if they cannot meet minimum state test scores.

The latest state poised to rebuild its high school testing system is New York, where education officials have created a blueprint to overhaul graduation requirements and learning standards needed to earn a high school diploma.

“When school systems have the kinds of results that are showing up as they are, it gives the opportunity to take stock and rethink,” New York Education Commissioner Betty Rosa said in an interview. “We wanted to make sure that success was defined in a much broader sense than just paper and pencil, or getting a 90.”

Standardized […]

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