There
is a debate going on in academic and political circles about universal
testing of pre-schoolers. I agree with it. As much as people whine
about these tests being biased against some in favor of others, we
still need to take them. Why? Because the real world is biased against
some in favor of others, and if your kid is in that "some" area and not
the "others" area, you need to prepare them for that. If they are
testing, you'll at least what you have to do to prepare them for the
real world.The National Reporting system has been testing Head Start preschoolers since 2003, but educators are against it. This testing was Bush's idea and one of the only ones he's made that I agree with. No, I'm not going go on about the bigotry of low expectations, but we do need to hold our children to the highest standard possible, not just what we feel they safely reach. And if the test is poorly designed, then design a better one, but don't just chuck them because you don't like the results. Preschoolers' Test May Be Suspended - washingtonpost.com
And
what the hell with Illinois short-changing their kids? The state
relaxed a rule under the No Child Left Behind Act that requires a
school to send in reading and math tests scores so it can be graded on
effectiveness. As a result, almost 300,000 reading and math tests taken
by Illinois students at 53 schools in 2006 weren't counted because the
schools didn't want to get a failure warning. According to the Chi
Tribune, these 300K are mostly low-income and minority students.
Schools who get a failure warning can face sanctions, such as being
forced to offering students the chance to transfer to other schools. So
they sacrificed their kids intelligence to avoid being told they have
to do a better job. How sad is that? 
