AND THE HORSE YOU RODE IN ON
A couple of South Dakota legislators (one from each of the big parties) want to force homeschoolers to take the same tests under the same conditions as inmates in the state prison system students in the g-schools.
Sen. Clarence Kooistra, R-Garretson, and co-sponsor Rep.-elect Elaine Roberts, D-Sioux Falls, say it’s an issue of quality control.
Under their proposed law, the state would furnish tests for home-school students, and local districts would monitor the tests and communicate with parents about the results.
“I don’t think you can consider valid the scores reported by home school people, since there’s no state monitoring,” Kooistra said. “There’s no accountability.”
Well, since home educators aren’t taking tax dollars, there really shouldn’t need to be any, should there?
2 Responses to “AND THE HORSE YOU RODE IN ON”
 Comment by Chris December 27th, 2004 at 1:39 pm |
The question is not “under what circumstances should we be tested.” The question is why are subject to state mandated testing in the first place. The SD Hs’ers need to reframe the debate. |
 Comment by CED December 28th, 2004 at 10:13 am |
I think “passing a standardized test” seems to appeal to the public for the same reason that “putting God back in government does,” it’s abstract and presented without any details so everyone imagines their own version of things being put into place rather than imagining someone else’s version. I have yet to see a standardized test that reflects my idea of what the ideal education is about. Rather than teaching my son how to summarize, I would have to spend an incredible amount of time training him how to write a formulaic three paragraph essays just to please the testers. Like everything the government is called on to impose, the “ideal” always sounds great to people people with “good intentions” but are clueless to the reality of implementation and the gory details. |