Pennsylvania lawmakers took a decisive step toward making sure a Pennsylvania public High School diploma only means “I Showed Up” when they compromised on mandatory final exams for graduating High School students.
Instead, up to $15 million of your tax dollars will be spent developing optional tests that likely won’t be used by school districts who do not want their ability to educate quantified.
Standardized tests are not only tests of students. They are tests of school systems. They test whether the school system, funded by your tax dollars, is adequately preparing your children for college and careers. It is in the interest of the education lobby and the administrators to have as little documentation of their success or failure as possible. It is in the interest of the taxpayers, the parents and ultimately the students to have a concrete way to evaluate whether the public’s investment in education is going down a black hole.
Here’s the money quote:
“It seems to me that the goal … is to make sure we don’t deny too many people a diploma, so we substantially harm their future,” said Stinson Stroup, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators.
This is exactly the problem with the public education system, and it’s hardly a surprise that it comes directly from the top of the school administrator lobby. The goal in education is not a piece of paper. The goal of public education is to educate the students enough to earn that piece of paper.
Their future is harmed when you fail to provide them with the knowledge and skill they need to succeed in the world. The piece of paper is supposed to be an indication that they have attained that level of skill and knowledge.
Giving them a diploma that they do not deserve and have not earned only passes the responsibility that is supposed to be shouldered by the public school system on to the private sector or the college level.
Shirking your responsibility so that you can feel good about handing out a certain number of pieces of paper is not education.
This from the state that just passed mandatory testing and licensing for rubdowns.
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