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Education expert says Texas must reform to stay competitive
In a talk Thursday that emphasized education as a critical factor in economic success, a Washington D.C. policy analyst delivered a broad view of the benefits of education and a host of unflattering statistics about education in Texas to attendees of the Lone Star Legislative Summit at SFA.
Comments
By Clark Bynum
February 22, 2008 2:32 PM | Link to this
If we are going to listen to someone from Michigan tell us how to fix our system: Why don’t we pattern our system after their’s? We have an overabundance of testing in Texas, strictly to tell the world something down in Texas is broken. We test at 4 grade levels for promotion or retention purposes. Then we test at 6 grade levels for NO REASON what-so-ever; Except, to put a few billion dollars in someone’s pocket, and to tell the world that Texas has a broken system. If we would throw out all this test-to-the-death trash and get back to having school, we might be able to improve. Making things tougher for kids (not to mention teachers) is not going to force kids to rise to the occassion. IF WE WOULD HOLD PARENTS AND STUDENTS ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR EDUCATION—-INSTEAD OF THE SCHOOLS, we might see some improvement.
Also, STOP COMPARING 100% of our student body to 10% of the world. Every other country we keep comparing ourselves to, has a change in their system that we refuse to adopt. Most of them decide at around 10-12 years of age if a student is going to go on to, what we call, high school; or, if they will go to a trade school.
When you folks start throwing information around, trying to cause another emergency: At least get your information complete and straight..
By Native Texan
February 22, 2008 3:53 PM | Link to this
This is another example of someone from the Beltway spouting numbers about something of which he has no knowledge or experience. Take your half-baked doom and gloom back to Washington D.C.
By Southern Belle
March 30, 2008 9:24 AM | Link to this
I have to agree with Clark above on the testing and it’s excessiveness in the Texas School System.