[Tenchiro]

If they can't even graduate from a substandard public education system, how can people ecpect them to be able to work a voting booth!?!


13,000 Fla. Seniors Fail Achievement Test
Mon May 19,11:19 AM ET

NAPLES, Fla. - Nearly 13,000 high school seniors in Florida will not graduate as scheduled this year because they failed to pass a newly required state achievement test.

Some school boards around the state have voted to allow seniors who met all graduation requirements, aside from passing the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test, to participate in commencement ceremonies, although they won't receive a diploma.

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[Serial Midget]

Who needs diplomas when you've got South Beach?

 

[LordOpie]

on the one hand, I think it's great that the FCAT is mandatory. I went to school my entire life in S.FL. and when I went to college, one teacher was kind enough to tell me that I was an idiot. I went to the learning lab and with the help of some great people, I basically learned four years of High School English in one semester.

Hell, I read MacBeth three times in High School! WTF? I never read Hamlet or some of the other classics cuz my teachers didn't bother communicating :angry:

However, on the other hand, a high school degree is basically pointless. Heck, ya need a BA just to even think of competing or a vocational degree to specialize in something. Even the most demeaning job requires a high school or GED... why ya need it to mop a floor is beyond me. So, they're just screwing over the kids that had no plans to go for more schooling, but wanted a basic job.

 

[LoboDelFuego]

Maybe a high school diploma should be required to vote. Or is that too close to the "reading tests" they had during the Jim Crow law era?

 

[Jorvik]

We've got a similar test in Massachusetts, the MCAS. This is the first graduating class for which the test will count. It is taken sophmore year, and then retests are available 2 or 3 more times if you failed it the first time. I don't have anything wrong with a simple test on basic math, science, and english in order to graduate. This test, however, is not a good test.

The actual test contains some math which one would not encounter until Pre-Calculus, which the top 70% of the class will have taken by their JUNIOR year. Some students will take that course their senior year. As my math teacher once said, "If I have to actually think about the problems, the test is too difficult for you bastards." Good ol' Mr. G. The English section is filled with trivialities. There are more things wrong about the actual test, but I cannot recall them.

The worst thing about this standardized test is that the average scores for each town is released to the general public. This affects property values. Towns which score higher on the MCAS will see an increase in property values due to the perception of better schools. The surrounding towns property values will go down. Thus, there is pressure from the town government to get the scores higher. This means that the schools must teach to the test in order to inflate those scores. This has knocked out an entire month of the curriculum for freshmen and sophmores in my school system. Eventually, the time spent on teaching to this test will approach the majority of the school year. The school will offer less and less classes, and will lose the actual state of being a good school system, but will still be perceived as such because of the higher MCAS scores. Hurrah.

 

[NAUGHTY SHORTY]

Is George W going to spend even more to break his own record of the most expensive presidential campaign(sp) in history, and is he going to 'bend' the rules even more this time to keep himself as the President.