my sixteen year old sister took a portion of the standardized michigan merit exam last week. the exam consists of the act, some evaluations called work keys, and a set of state-created evaluations of math, science, and social studies. she was taking the third part, which sounds similar to the late meap evaluation, and when they reached the social studies part, the proctor told the students that it would not be scored. surely, i said to her, it was not possible that the segment was not scored; in my typical fashion, i began to come up with any number of ways the exam was being used and decided that it must be a means of judging the school's progress or attendance or something. as the argument progressed, my mother grew irritated with my insistence that it was impossible for there not to be a reason for this stupid social studies test and reminded me that i do not know everything, contrary to what i might believe.
in other news: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/education/14child.html?hp !
yesterday obama introduced a plan to overhaul no child left behind and lots of people are already quite worked up about it. he's right - when it comes down to it, every student needs to leave high school with a means of doing something useful with his or her life, regardless of whether college is part of the plan.
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