Reply #85: "honor" students who can't pass a simple multiple choice test --educational fraud

[pitohui]

why are you blaming the test? it sounds like there is widespread grade inflation, tantamount to fraud, to going on at some of these high schools

an "honor" student who has a 3.8 GPA yet can't pass a simple multiple choice test...you don't see the problem here? you're blaming the test?

i've heard of and observed "social promotion" but there's a limit, and a student who can't even pass a simple multiple choice test should NOT be receiving a high school diploma, no matter how many teacher you-know-whats he or she went down on to get the grade or no matter how charming his or her personality or no matter how influential his or her dad etc

the kid should have never been kidded along and told he/she was an "honor" student when he couldn't do the smallest, easier part of learning

the child who can't even pass such a test can't do anything advanced and is almost certainly a functional illiterate

this is why testing became so widespread in the first place, the widespread educational fraud, teachers didn't want to deal, so they gave students better and un-earned grades to save an argument, and the kid keeps passed up and up until suddenly it's graduation time and a high school degree has become worthless, not just for THAT kid, but for every kid that attended that school

how many functionally illiterate high school graduates have you had to deal with? because there's a lot of them? how many mathematically illiterates have you had to deal with? i had to tutor some, for extra money, when i was myself a college student, EVEN THOUGH I WAS A DROP-OUT/GED STUDENT MYSELF but i was motivated to learn, these kids knew...well...it was shocking...they basically knew NOTHING and it was difficult to understand how these illiterates were B students!!!

a simple multiple choice test, the kind of thing we have to all do even to get a driver's license...if you CAN'T do that, you CAN'T function as an adult in america, it's that simple and it's cruel to lie and tell that kid he's an "honor" student

i don't like the GOP getting all the $ they get from the testing industry, but it's lazy teachers and social promotions, and teachers grading on "aw, what a nice kid, i'll give him a b anyway" who have fucked it up for everybody else

there has to be some kind of test that is given to all, just as there is in other countries, because other wise there is too much corruption...too many teachers giving kids un-earned grades -- giving a failure an "honor student" record is just fraud, i don't care how sweet the kid or how soft hearted the teacher, IT'S DISHONEST, IT'S CHEATING

grades and diplomas should have some relationship to achievement, and where we can't trust that there is any such relationship, we need objective tests that are the SAME tests everybody else has to pass