School Reform: Thoughts?

Richard Perez3 said:But check out these crazy ideas coming out of Paris—they think giving lower grades punishes you, when really, it just reflects how much you don't know.
God forbid anyone actually thinks a grade is just a measure of knowledge.
Oh, you don't want your ignorance graded? Please. It isn't even "grading" ignorance, for crying out loud; if they were actually grading how little people knew, these folks would have finished five years of college by now.

🤣
whatever.
maybe ignorance should be rewarded too, since who has ever actually seen someone get "punished" for anything before.😲

urbantinker8 said:I guess I should probably start by saying that I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit lately, though I’m not entirely sure if it matters much in the grand scheme of things. It seems like we often find ourselves circling back to these same old patterns, almost as if we’re stuck in some kind of loop that we can't quite break out of, even when we know better. Maybe it’s just the way things work, or perhaps it's just us being human, which is its own kind of complication, I suppose. Anyway, looking at what urbantinker8 was saying, it really does make you wonder about the underlying reasons for why we react the way we do when faced with these kinds of shifts in our daily lives. It’s a bit subtle, isn't it? Not something you notice right away, but once it hits you, it lingers. I don't know, maybe I'm overthinking it, but there's definitely something there worth pondering if one has the patience for it.

Are you honestly convinced that the curriculum and all those training programs haven't shifted one bit in the twenty years since you finished that famous technical institute of yours? I mean, I guess it’s possible, though it seems unlikely, given how much everything tends to drift over such a long stretch of time.
I suppose you’re under the impression that if someone didn't learn it directly from PIG, then nobody else—neither before nor after your tenure—ever bothered to learn it at all, right?
I was just wondering where you actually pulled that 10% figure from regarding students in business schools and similar vocational programs? I guess I might have missed the specific study or report you're looking at, maybe, since I haven't come across those exact numbers in my own reading lately.

I’m interested in all of it, really. Please, feel free to share whatever is on your mind.☕

I guess I should probably start by saying that I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit lately, though I’m not entirely sure if anyone else has even noticed the shift in how things are moving. It feels like we’re constantly being told one thing, only to have the reality on the ground turn out to be something else entirely, which I suppose is just how life works most of the time, isn't it? I was reading through some old discussions—you know, the kind where people used to actually sit down and weigh the pros and cons without rushing to a conclusion—and it struck me how much the tone has changed. Maybe it’s just me, or maybe it’s the general atmosphere of the country right now, but there seems to be this constant pressure to have an immediate, loud opinion on everything. I tend to prefer a more measured approach, I guess, where you let the dust settle before deciding if something is actually a disaster or just a minor hiccup in the grand scheme of things. It’s easy to get swept up in the noise, but I find myself drifting toward those quieter, more contemplative corners of the internet where people still value nuance. Or perhaps I'm just getting older and more cynical, which is always a possibility, but I think there's a certain dignity in waiting to see how the pieces fall into place before making a definitive statement. It’s a slow process, I know, and it might not be particularly exciting for everyone, but it feels like the only way to stay somewhat grounded when everything else feels so incredibly frantic.

I suppose I’ve been sitting here wondering, somewhat aimlessly, about the whole dynamic between teachers and parents lately, specifically regarding whether there's any actual willingness on the part of educators to essentially pay parents to step in and do their jobs. It sounds like a bit of a wild concept when you first say it out loud, doesn't it? But I guess if you look at the current state of the American education system—where everyone seems a little burnt out and stretched thin—you start to wonder where the lines are drawn. I mean, is there really a scenario where a teacher might feel compelled to compensate a parent just to handle some of the administrative or instructional heavy lifting that they simply don't have the bandwidth for anymore? Maybe it's more about a subtle exchange of value than literal cash, though I suppose that's a bit of a stretch. It feels like we're entering this strange territory where the traditional roles are getting all blurred, and I can't quite decide if it's a practical solution to a systemic problem or just a sign that things are becoming increasingly disorganized. I guess it depends on how you view the responsibility of the school versus the home, which is a conversation that never really seems to end.

Of course not, goodness gracious.🙂
It’s more of a philosophical question than anything else, I suppose, but it really gets at the heart of things—how much would you actually be willing to pay, and to what extent, just to have me handle the responsibilities of a surgeon for you?🙂
I suppose if I weren't actually getting paid to do my job, most people wouldn't even let me draw a single sheep for them, let alone trust me to watch over their livestock or try teaching their kids anything at all.☕
I guess there’s a small, somewhat stubborn part of me that actually finds itself craving homeschooling, if I’m being honest. It’s just this nagging feeling that if everyone were forced to step outside the traditional system, they might finally open their eyes and realize how much time they’ve spent tearing things down for absolutely no reason at all. Maybe people would stop all that senseless finger-pointing once they actually had to face the reality of it themselves.
I suppose people could just go back to focusing on their actual jobs, leaving education—and honestly, a pretty significant chunk of upbringing too—to the professionals who actually specialize in that field and know how to handle it properly.🥳

Everything written here follows its own little logic. The curriculum hasn't changed in twenty years, yet suddenly everything’s become a revolution just because I finally graduated? Give me a break.

Back when I was in high school, maybe 10% of the students opted for business school.

Susan James said:@JohnDoe-25, I remember learning about interest rates back when I was in seventh grade in middle school (I think that was about 🤣 years ago).
And I’m pretty sure kids are still being taught the exact same thing, along with percentages, in seventh grade today.
Middle school is mandatory,
and seventh grade is part of that core curriculum,
so everyone gets the chance to learn it.

So, what are you actually suggesting regarding interest calculations?
Should we increase math hours in seventh grade so kids get more practice?
Or maybe tighten up the grading criteria for units that cover interest?
Or should bankers come in and teach it instead of math teachers?
What’s your take? If I’m understanding you correctly, you’re an instructor yourself, so go ahead—how would you pass this info on to kids and teens?

Again, the material is already in the school system. How would you organize the process so these kids truly grasp it, see how it works in the real world, and actually remember it by the time they're applying for credit?
(Word problems, reading comprehension, basic addition and subtraction are all covered in the earlier elementary grades. Playing "store" or "grocery shop" is something they start in preschool, though you'll often see older kids playing it during after-school programs right around the time they master their basic arithmetic...)

I learned this stuff back in seventh grade. The problem? We aren't taught nearly enough. This isn't just some academic exercise; it’s a life-or-death matter. Not understanding how interest rates work—or even basic percentages—can absolutely ruin your life. You know what isn't going to ruin your life? Knowing the geometry of a triangle or how to calculate square roots. The curriculum needs to pivot toward practical math. Real-world application. Like, if a product costs $X, how much is it actually going to cost me after a merchant applies a Y% discount? That's what people need to know.

Michael Nguyen2 said:But seriously, how are parents supposed to track their kid's progress without actual grades? If a student pulls a 4.0 GPA, everyone knows exactly where they stand, right? 🤣?
If we switched to just descriptive feedback, most parents wouldn't bother reading it anyway, and then they'd be right back to demanding numbers. 👏
Interesting read, though. You always have to know what the opposition is cooking up.😁

Grades are the only thing that matters in our school system. Everything revolves around them. They dictate a student's entire future, while actual knowledge or comprehension? Nobody cares about that. It’s exactly what I always say: cram it today, recite it tomorrow, forget it by the day after. In three days, nobody will even ask you about it. They'll just move on to some other topic, and you'll be stuck repeating the same mindless cycle.

nimblelynx7 I suppose I should mention that...
It all seems to be written based on their own personal whims, I suppose. The curriculum and the whole general roadmap haven't really seen a single meaningful change in twenty years, yet suddenly everything is being treated like some sort of radical revolution just because I finally graduated—give me a break.

And you're supposed to be the yardstick... for what, exactly...? I guess it’s hard to say, really. Maybe there's a point to it, or maybe we're all just spinning our wheels here, though I suppose that’s more of an observation than a question. It feels like we're grasping at shadows sometimes, doesn't it? I mean, if you're acting as the standard, one has to wonder what the metric actually is, but then again, I might just be overthinking the whole thing.🤷

I guess if I look back at my own high school days, maybe around ten percent of the students ended up heading off to specialized business academies or vocational schools focused on economics.

Well, I guess you were the one who said it first—that it all happened a long time ago. It’s been twenty years, I suppose. Just sitting here thinking about how much time has actually slipped through my fingers since everything started. It feels like a lifetime ago, yet somehow also like it was only yesterday, if that makes any sense. Twenty years is a long stretch, really quite a significant chunk of a person's life, and looking back at where things stood then compared to now... well, it's a lot to process. I guess we just drift along, don't we? One day you're marking one milestone, and the next, two decades have vanished into thin air. Maybe it doesn't even matter how you count it..☕

I’ve always felt that grades are probably the most significant thing in our entire education system, and honestly, everything seems to revolve around them; they dictate a student's whole future, while nobody really seems to care about actual knowledge or deep understanding. It's kind of like what I always say—you just cram everything into your head today, recite it back perfectly tomorrow, and then by the day after, you've completely forgotten it all, and I guess in three days, no one is ever going to ask you about it again. They'll just move on to some other topic, and you'll find yourself just repeating the exact same cycle over and over.

And you’re still basing everything on your own experiences from twenty years ago...? I guess that’s one way to look at it, though maybe it’s a bit outdated, isn't it?🕺

I suppose you wouldn't want to spend too much time collaborating with people who might not exactly possess the sharpest analytical tools, right? It seems like a bit of a stretch to take experiences from working with those types of individuals and then try to spin them into universal truths that don't really hold any water. I mean, maybe it happens, but it feels like a flawed way to look at things, if you ask me.
I suppose, if I’m being honest, grades tend to become this massive, looming priority for parents—which, by extension, puts an incredible amount of pressure on the kids themselves, too. It feels like everything just centers around that GPA or whether a student is hitting certain benchmarks, almost as if those numbers are the only thing that truly matters in the grand scheme of things. Maybe it’s just how we’ve been conditioned to view success here in the States, but it seems like parents often get caught up in the metrics, perhaps unintentionally creating this heavy atmosphere where a child's worth is tied directly to their report card.
I suppose, if you look at it from the perspective of the teachers, those grades are really just nothing more than a single numerical value used to quantify knowledge, purely for the sake of providing some kind of feedback to the parents.
I suppose it’s worth mentioning that the grading rubrics in every single school, regardless of the subject matter, are worked out down to the smallest possible detail; it's all laid out so clearly that you can see exactly what you need to master—and just how much of it you actually need to know—to land a specific grade.
If you take a moment to do a little digging online, I guess you’ll eventually find that there isn't really any mention of specific definitions or rote memorization being required, especially when it comes to those top-tier grades that go beyond just meeting the basic requirements.☕

nimblelynx7 said:Everything written here follows its own little logic. The curriculum hasn't changed in twenty years, yet suddenly everything’s become a revolution just because I finally graduated? Give me a break.

Back when I was in high school, maybe 10% of the students opted for business school.

I learned this stuff back in seventh grade. The problem? We aren't taught nearly enough. This isn't just some academic exercise; it’s a life-or-death matter. Not understanding how interest rates work—or even basic percentages—can absolutely ruin your life. You know what isn't going to ruin your life? Knowing the geometry of a triangle or how to calculate square roots. The curriculum needs to pivot toward practical math. Real-world application. Like, if a product costs $X, how much is it actually going to cost me after a merchant applies a Y% discount? That's what people need to know.

Grades are the only thing that matters in our school system. Everything revolves around them. They dictate a student's entire future, while actual knowledge or comprehension? Nobody cares about that. It’s exactly what I always say: cram it today, recite it tomorrow, forget it by the day after. In three days, nobody will even ask you about it. They'll just move on to some other topic, and you'll be stuck repeating the same mindless cycle.

Schools try to cram everything under the sun into kids' heads, but honestly, most of it just evaporates. It's because they don't care, or maybe they just can't wrap their brains around it. Do you seriously believe that teaching "more intense" lessons on compound interest is going to stop people from living way beyond their means, taking on bad debt, making reckless financial choices, or somehow bringing peace to the world? 😁

The fundamental flaw in our education system and the country at large isn't actually that low-performers fail to learn interest rates. It's that the whole system coddles them; we're afraid to call things what they are. The entire structure is built with the bottom tier as the priority, leaving all those high-achieving kids and driven individuals with no choice but to leave the country if they want a top-tier education or a career where you actually move up based on merit.

And that’s honestly one of the reasons why the USA remains a superpower. Over there, they don't hand out participation trophies to everyone, and frankly, nobody cares if some person doesn't know how interest works or lacks health insurance—instead, they focus on importing the absolute best talent from every other corner of the globe.

Grades are the absolute North Star of our school system; everything revolves around them, and they basically dictate a student's entire future. Nobody actually gives a damn about true knowledge or deep comprehension. Like I always say, cram it all in today, recite it tomorrow, forget it by the day after, and in three days, nobody will ever ask you about it again. They'll just move on to the next topic, and you'll just have to repeat the same cycle.

You could also look at it from a different angle:
- some kids/people are only capable of rote memorization, while others are capable of actual understanding. That leaves us with four main groups: the ones who are clueless and don't study at all, the ones who are clueless but can memorize things, the smart ones who don't bother studying (but understand enough to get an A), and finally, the smart ones who actually study (meaning they both understand the concepts and retain the necessary data).
You're clearly an idealist, so I guess you believe everyone has the capacity to truly understand, but personally, I think that's pretty far from reality. Because of that, you and I are probably never going to see eye-to-eye on how to fix the school system. 😁

Besides, I don't see anything wrong with learning something and then forgetting it shortly after. The brain just needs to have encountered that information once; that way, if you ever need it again down the road, you'll at least have a fighting chance to find it and figure it out.

Karen Richardson3 said:Schools try to cram everything under the sun into kids' heads, but honestly, most of it just evaporates. It's because they don't care, or maybe they just can't wrap their brains around it. Do you seriously believe that teaching "more intense" lessons on compound interest is going to stop people from living way beyond their means, taking on bad debt, making reckless financial choices, or somehow bringing peace to the world? 😁

The fundamental flaw in our education system and the country at large isn't actually that low-performers fail to learn interest rates. It's that the whole system coddles them; we're afraid to call things what they are. The entire structure is built with the bottom tier as the priority, leaving all those high-achieving kids and driven individuals with no choice but to leave the country if they want a top-tier education or a career where you actually move up based on merit.

And that’s honestly one of the reasons why the USA remains a superpower. Over there, they don't hand out participation trophies to everyone, and frankly, nobody cares if some person doesn't know how interest works or lacks health insurance—instead, they focus on importing the absolute best talent from every other corner of the globe.

Grades are the absolute North Star of our school system; everything revolves around them, and they basically dictate a student's entire future. Nobody actually gives a damn about true knowledge or deep comprehension. Like I always say, cram it all in today, recite it tomorrow, forget it by the day after, and in three days, nobody will ever ask you about it again. They'll just move on to the next topic, and you'll just have to repeat the same cycle.

You could also look at it from a different angle:
- some kids/people are only capable of rote memorization, while others are capable of actual understanding. That leaves us with four main groups: the ones who are clueless and don't study at all, the ones who are clueless but can memorize things, the smart ones who don't bother studying (but understand enough to get an A), and finally, the smart ones who actually study (meaning they both understand the concepts and retain the necessary data).
You're clearly an idealist, so I guess you believe everyone has the capacity to truly understand, but personally, I think that's pretty far from reality. Because of that, you and I are probably never going to see eye-to-eye on how to fix the school system. 😁

Besides, I don't see anything wrong with learning something and then forgetting it shortly after. The brain just needs to have encountered that information once; that way, if you ever need it again down the road, you'll at least have a fighting chance to find it and figure it out.

you hit the nail on the head🙏

Karen Richardson3 said:Schools try to cram everything under the sun into kids' heads, but honestly, most of it just evaporates. It's because they don't care, or maybe they just can't wrap their brains around it. Do you seriously believe that teaching "more intense" lessons on compound interest is going to stop people from living way beyond their means, taking on bad debt, making reckless financial choices, or somehow bringing peace to the world? 😁

The fundamental flaw in our education system and the country at large isn't actually that low-performers fail to learn interest rates. It's that the whole system coddles them; we're afraid to call things what they are. The entire structure is built with the bottom tier as the priority, leaving all those high-achieving kids and driven individuals with no choice but to leave the country if they want a top-tier education or a career where you actually move up based on merit.

And that’s honestly one of the reasons why the USA remains a superpower. Over there, they don't hand out participation trophies to everyone, and frankly, nobody cares if some person doesn't know how interest works or lacks health insurance—instead, they focus on importing the absolute best talent from every other corner of the globe.

Grades are the absolute North Star of our school system; everything revolves around them, and they basically dictate a student's entire future. Nobody actually gives a damn about true knowledge or deep comprehension. Like I always say, cram it all in today, recite it tomorrow, forget it by the day after, and in three days, nobody will ever ask you about it again. They'll just move on to the next topic, and you'll just have to repeat the same cycle.

You could also look at it from a different angle:
- some kids/people are only capable of rote memorization, while others are capable of actual understanding. That leaves us with four main groups: the ones who are clueless and don't study at all, the ones who are clueless but can memorize things, the smart ones who don't bother studying (but understand enough to get an A), and finally, the smart ones who actually study (meaning they both understand the concepts and retain the necessary data).
You're clearly an idealist, so I guess you believe everyone has the capacity to truly understand, but personally, I think that's pretty far from reality. Because of that, you and I are probably never going to see eye-to-eye on how to fix the school system. 😁

Besides, I don't see anything wrong with learning something and then forgetting it shortly after. The brain just needs to have encountered that information once; that way, if you ever need it again down the road, you'll at least have a fighting chance to find it and figure it out.

The reality is most people struggle even with that today because they can't even figure out how to use Wikipedia properly

urbantinker8 said:

nimblelynx7 I suppose I should mention that...
It all seems to be written based on their own personal whims, I suppose. The curriculum and the whole general roadmap haven't really seen a single meaningful change in twenty years, yet suddenly everything is being treated like some sort of radical revolution just because I finally graduated—give me a break.

And you're supposed to be the yardstick... for what, exactly...? I guess it’s hard to say, really. Maybe there's a point to it, or maybe we're all just spinning our wheels here, though I suppose that’s more of an observation than a question. It feels like we're grasping at shadows sometimes, doesn't it? I mean, if you're acting as the standard, one has to wonder what the metric actually is, but then again, I might just be overthinking the whole thing.🤷

I guess if I look back at my own high school days, maybe around ten percent of the students ended up heading off to specialized business academies or vocational schools focused on economics.

Well, I guess you were the one who said it first—that it all happened a long time ago. It’s been twenty years, I suppose. Just sitting here thinking about how much time has actually slipped through my fingers since everything started. It feels like a lifetime ago, yet somehow also like it was only yesterday, if that makes any sense. Twenty years is a long stretch, really quite a significant chunk of a person's life, and looking back at where things stood then compared to now... well, it's a lot to process. I guess we just drift along, don't we? One day you're marking one milestone, and the next, two decades have vanished into thin air. Maybe it doesn't even matter how you count it..☕

I’ve always felt that grades are probably the most significant thing in our entire education system, and honestly, everything seems to revolve around them; they dictate a student's whole future, while nobody really seems to care about actual knowledge or deep understanding. It's kind of like what I always say—you just cram everything into your head today, recite it back perfectly tomorrow, and then by the day after, you've completely forgotten it all, and I guess in three days, no one is ever going to ask you about it again. They'll just move on to some other topic, and you'll find yourself just repeating the exact same cycle over and over.

And you’re still basing everything on your own experiences from twenty years ago...? I guess that’s one way to look at it, though maybe it’s a bit outdated, isn't it?🕺

I suppose you wouldn't want to spend too much time collaborating with people who might not exactly possess the sharpest analytical tools, right? It seems like a bit of a stretch to take experiences from working with those types of individuals and then try to spin them into universal truths that don't really hold any water. I mean, maybe it happens, but it feels like a flawed way to look at things, if you ask me.
I suppose, if I’m being honest, grades tend to become this massive, looming priority for parents—which, by extension, puts an incredible amount of pressure on the kids themselves, too. It feels like everything just centers around that GPA or whether a student is hitting certain benchmarks, almost as if those numbers are the only thing that truly matters in the grand scheme of things. Maybe it’s just how we’ve been conditioned to view success here in the States, but it seems like parents often get caught up in the metrics, perhaps unintentionally creating this heavy atmosphere where a child's worth is tied directly to their report card.
I suppose, if you look at it from the perspective of the teachers, those grades are really just nothing more than a single numerical value used to quantify knowledge, purely for the sake of providing some kind of feedback to the parents.
I suppose it’s worth mentioning that the grading rubrics in every single school, regardless of the subject matter, are worked out down to the smallest possible detail; it's all laid out so clearly that you can see exactly what you need to master—and just how much of it you actually need to know—to land a specific grade.
If you take a moment to do a little digging online, I guess you’ll eventually find that there isn't really any mention of specific definitions or rote memorization being required, especially when it comes to those top-tier grades that go beyond just meeting the basic requirements.☕

Why on earth is that the case?

nimblelynx7 said:Why on earth is that the case?

Just go ahead and ask them.

My theory is they only care about grades because they’re the gatekeepers for getting into the next level of schooling. Nobody actually gives a damn about whether there's any real knowledge behind those numbers.

Is this just another way parents try to screw over teachers?

nimblelynx7 said:My theory is they only care about grades because they’re the gatekeepers for getting into the next level of schooling. Nobody actually gives a damn about whether there's any real knowledge behind those numbers.

Is this just another way parents try to screw over teachers?

Parents would start asking some very tough questions about what their kids actually know if we implemented standardized testing or continuous external evaluations throughout all eight years of elementary school. The real question is, who stands to lose the most from that kind of transparency?

William Cooper11 said:Parents would start asking some very tough questions about what their kids actually know if we implemented standardized testing or continuous external evaluations throughout all eight years of elementary school. The real question is, who stands to lose the most from that kind of transparency?

Honestly, after seeing how this current state-mandated graduation exam turned out, I think we should just pray to God we never have to deal with any more "standardized testing" like this again.🤦

So parents voted to let grades alone decide high school placement? Was there some sort of referendum where they decided to scrap entrance exams entirely? I’m genuinely curious—what exactly would happen every July if we actually held these hypothetical entrance tests?

Parents just accepted whatever metrics the system—and its most incompetent bureaucrats—decided to shove down their throats. If they announced entrance exams were starting tomorrow, you wouldn't hear a peep of complaint from them.

Let me guess: when the SAT scores tank, it’s all the students' fault?

By any chance, does this have absolutely nothing to do with a broken educational system, failing teachers, outdated textbooks, and the rest of those "blessings"?

urbantinker8 said:Honestly, after seeing how this current state-mandated graduation exam turned out, I think we should just pray to God we never have to deal with any more "standardized testing" like this again.🤦

What’s actually wrong with the SATs? Aside from students getting decent scores? Or the fact that those scores barely impact college admissions nowadays? (And neither of those points is really a failure of the testing system itself.)

The national standardized tests are easily the most honest, transparent, and professional thing this messy government manages to pull off.

Can you seriously not tell from the quote provided that Judith's ring was red? Did you miss the part in Hemingway's passage where it asks if the woman died from a high fever? Honestly, someone needs to check your work—you clearly didn't earn that A in English class.

wanderingbadger44 said:What’s actually wrong with the SATs? Aside from students getting decent scores? Or the fact that those scores barely impact college admissions nowadays? (And neither of those points is really a failure of the testing system itself.)

The national standardized tests are easily the most honest, transparent, and professional thing this messy government manages to pull off.

Can you seriously not tell from the quote provided that Judith's ring was red? Did you miss the part in Hemingway's passage where it asks if the woman died from a high fever? Honestly, someone needs to check your work—you clearly didn't earn that A in English class.

And you actually think it's normal for SAT English scores to be better than the scores on the literature exams?!

Larry Walker24 said:And you actually think it's normal for SAT English scores to be better than the scores on the literature exams?!

I don't really see why anyone would find that unusual; it feels like asking why someone might be better at math than history.

I honestly think we should implement a standardized set of uniform exams at the end of every grade level for all students. We could use those scores as the primary metric for high school admissions. Plus, let's be real—we should publish the results by school and even by teacher. It’s about time we actually see who is truly pulling their weight and delivering quality education versus who isn't. If we made these results public for a few years, I’m convinced it would finally spark a much-needed conversation about merit-based evaluation instead of just focusing on seniority and tenure.

Take the recent data from Lincoln High, for example. Out of four different fourth-grade classes, five students from one single class hit the top 10% bracket, while the other two classes only had one student each make the cut, and one class didn't have anyone in the top tier at all. It's the exact same school with the exact same demographic of parents... so how is it possible that the kids in that one specific classroom are thinking so critically and solving problems so effectively while everyone else is lagging so far behind?

Larry Walker24 said:And you actually think it's normal for SAT English scores to be better than the scores on the literature exams?!

The thing is—and this is kind of depressing—grades end up looking pretty much the same across all subjects because they use a bell curve distribution. They just decide what percentage of correct answers qualifies for an A or a B, and that's it. It feels a little hollow if you ask me.

Another issue—and I hear this from teachers all the time—is that these standardized state exams basically train kids to only care about what’s on the test. My colleagues tell me that whenever they try to branch out with a cool topic or dive deeper into something actually relevant to a student's life, the first thing they get asked is, "Is this going to be on the exam?" If the answer is no, they just check out. They're physically there, but mentally, they've already left the room.

Thirdly, who’s actually against having smaller entrance exams for high school? Usually, it’s the psychologists and educators—they call them "high-stakes testing" and claim it’s "too much stress for the kids" and all that.
But look, we had external evaluations started about ten years ago before they were scrapped. Supposedly, it was because those tests clearly showed the massive gap in results based on how much money a family had or how much a specific school district invested in its facilities. Nobody really wanted that kind of inequality being dragged into the light, I guess...

Michelle Nelson4 said:I honestly think we should implement a standardized set of uniform exams at the end of every grade level for all students. We could use those scores as the primary metric for high school admissions. Plus, let's be real—we should publish the results by school and even by teacher. It’s about time we actually see who is truly pulling their weight and delivering quality education versus who isn't. If we made these results public for a few years, I’m convinced it would finally spark a much-needed conversation about merit-based evaluation instead of just focusing on seniority and tenure.

Take the recent data from Lincoln High, for example. Out of four different fourth-grade classes, five students from one single class hit the top 10% bracket, while the other two classes only had one student each make the cut, and one class didn't have anyone in the top tier at all. It's the exact same school with the exact same demographic of parents... so how is it possible that the kids in that one specific classroom are thinking so critically and solving problems so effectively while everyone else is lagging so far behind?

Now, this is another one of those tricky, sensitive topics...
For instance, imagine you have a colleague working in a tiny rural town in the Midwest, maybe in a district where the entire two or three classes consist entirely of immigrant kids. They show up for first grade at nine or ten years old without basic hygiene habits, they don't speak any English, and they don't even have pencils or notebooks. The fact that everyone in her class manages to finish all four elementary grades and can actually read, write, and do math by the end of it is nothing short of a miracle. But if you used external standardized testing? Her results would look catastrophic, and she’d probably end up at the very bottom of the list, labeled as one of the most incompetent teachers in the whole country.
And it gets even messier once you get into specialized subjects. Like, say I step in to teach English after a colleague who spent the entire school year playing FarmVille on her computer while the kids were just staring at their phones. The students haven't learned anything, so I spend my time teaching them material from two grades back just to patch the holes in their knowledge—and then, at the end of the year, an external evaluation comes out and claims *I'm* the incompetent one?
I just can't get behind measuring final outcomes if we didn't take the time to measure where the students actually started.

If you decide to run tests right at the start of the school year and again once everything wraps up at the end of each grade, you basically end up with a complete set of both baseline and final data points for every single academic year.

And honestly, it’s the only way it makes any sense at all.