Reply #9: No. Those standardized tests that students have to take every year [View All]

[1monster]

and must pass in order to graduate (in Florida, the FCATS, for example) are creating a real crises in education. If a school's students don't average a certain score, then the school must hire remedial teacher for math and reading. The money is not provided by the state to cover these mandated remedial teachers. It comes out of the regular budget.

So how do the schools pay for them? They first take away electives. Driver's Ed was one of the first to go, despite the course being a requirement for a driver's licesnse. Then the other electives.

When most of the electives are gone, the cuts in academic courses come next. I know of one school that has cut so many academic classes that their students can no longer qualify for scholarships because they don't have the college required courses. The students are being forced to take P.E. course after P.E. course because there is nothing else for them to take.

There is no openess in scoring the tests either. The teachers are not allowed to examine the tests before, during, or after they are administered. And the tests are never given back. We are just to have faith that there were no errors and that the tests were scored correctly...