[TomCollins]

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To me, this alone makes the argument that those tests are likely a good idea.


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who's arguing they're not a good idea?

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I would assume the people protesting them in the linked story? Perhaps?

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nah, they just want to walk in their graduation ceremony w/ failing TAKS scores.

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But it's not just a walk/not walk issue. It's that they're not being allowed to graduate because they couldn't pass some standarized "did you actually [censored] learn anything" test. So if they're just saying "let my kid walk", they're basically protesting the test.

I realize the danger in these tests is that you don't want people teaching students just to past the tests, but I'd feel like you can design something that allows some way to determine quality of education across different levels.

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I don't know about the TAKS, but on the Pennsylvania state assessments I took, I basically screwed around and put no effort into the exam and placed in the top 5% in the state in every category. Now maybe I'm better at that sort of thing than most kids, but no one I knew FAILED it. If it's at all similar in Texas, if someone is failing this kind of test and has a 3.5, then it's not that the test is bad, it's that they should not have a 3.5

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I don't know if kids are dumber here, or the number of people that don't speak English are the reason why, but I think something like 15% failed this year. Since you get a ton of chances, I have no sympathy for these people.