Ohio 3rd graders who fail state test not promoted. But they CAN be promoted by not taking test.

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43. If I go to an oncologist and he/she...

told me that I have cancer. I'd ask how he/she knew I had cancer without having performed any tests; I don't care what they offer as an explanation.

If the majority of people would take the treatment advice of an oncologist who didn't perform a single test, then the majority of people deserve the dehumanizing chemo therapy that they'd get. I wouldn't be the least bit convinced by an oncologist who tried to tell me: 'those tests are unreliable, I know what I'm doing'.

Personally, I wouldn't listen to another word he/she (the oncologist) had to say. The disagreement here is in the method of diagnosis, but the real issue is that once I've determined that my doctor is a hack; firing him/her is no problem.

Unfortunately, a parent can't just fire professional educator after professional educator because they insist that tests are a bad idea. Eventually what's going to happen is these professional educators will be replaced by people who understand that we send kids to school so that they will learn. If kids are learning, there shouldn't be any problem with demonstrating somehow objectively (which means not the teachers opinion) that the child has learned.

The reason professional educators aren't put on a pedestal for their teaching experience is that we all teach and we all learn. I remember what it was like to learn difficult subjects like differential equations and engineering physics. When our experience is not consistent with what you are saying... Well lets just say you don't get a credibility bump. It isn't like structural analysis - something I know how to do, but you don't; it's something that we both know how to do (teach) and you are just trying to convince me that I don't know how. I teach all the time, I learn all the time and I test the people I am teaching frequently and expect to be tested when I am being taught - it just isn't that big a deal.

We took the professional educator's word in this country for how well our children were learning for a long time only to find that we were falling behind other developed countries in math, science and the proper use of semicolons.

If the statistics supported your assertion that 'we know what we are doing,' then I'd agree with you. In fact, I'd be glad to review any statistics that show improved learning by the methods that you are proposing, but when it comes to american student academic performance compared to other countries, it seems like we are just getting worse.