Dang I'm political lately. Read this.
Now, I suspect a lot of people will read the first couple paragraphs and think "The kids can't meet the standards, so we lower them?! What a load of crap!" And I'm not really in favor of lowering standards either, but the two things I think are really important in this debate are the following. One, our "proficient" standard in California is above average. Now, I like "Prarie Home Companion as much as the next guy (which means I don't actively hate it), but it's a little unlikely that all our children could be above average, which is what the goal is. Yep, ALL children (100%!) proficient by 2016. That'll rule. We'll totally kick Japan's ass technologically then!
Second is the point that's buried way down in this article. "States that set the bar low academically have a distinct advantage over California, whose high proficiency standard is a laudable but unrealistic mandate to apply universally to more than 6 million students of varying backgrounds, Hancock contends." We face serious sanctions because we have higher standards.
Let's look at it this way. The world's record for long jumping is 29ft, 4.5inches. Let's say the average for you or me is 10 feet. A state like, oh, say Texas, sets their standard at 10 feet, and then absolutely everyone meets the standard! California set its standard at 15, and only 40 percent are making the standard. So we face sanctions including school closures. Yeah. That's about how it is.
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