Suffer the Kids

 

The U.S. Department of Education, which released its findings Wednesday, concluded that California, like 34 other U.S. states, allows fourth-graders who would be classified as "below basic" in federal reading assessments to pass the state's standardized reading test with a "basic" designation. The study examined 2009 testing data.

California is not compromising necessarily; it's setting goals that are considered reasonable and reachable for the state," said Jessica Valdez, the California Department of Education's coordinator for the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

"See, we choose to be sub-standard, so, like, it's not a diss of us . . ."

I wonder if anyone in the California Department of Education thought to look at those teacher whose kids were testing at or above the federal standards to determine why that was so.  Maybe even look beyond the public schools and see what the private schools are doing.  Instead, they seem to choose the path of self-realization:  if Johnny can read "the quick fast brown fox dog jumped over the lazy dog cat," he's a "basic" 8th grader.