Who'da Thunk It?

So cheating is suddenly common? I should think this was to be expected the second the ink dried on signing high-stakes into law. And to think that the Atlanta superintendent was named 2009 Supt. of the Year! Thank you, Atlanta, for proving once again that standardized testing is irrelevant to today's economy and the preparation of students to employed citizens.

I feel I've said this ad nauseum but tying test scores of students with whom teachers get about 1 hour/day to the teacher's economic livelihood is a recipe for disaster. Teachers can not overcome the years of parental failure with just 180 or so hours a year while competing with 29 other students; that roughly means a teacher can average 2 min of one-on-one instruction with each student daily. Image that parents only involved themselves directly only 10 minutes a week (and some do!). No wonder prisons are getting more funding than public education.

Which reminds me of a game my education friends and I like to play: School or Prison?