In article <[log in to unmask]>,
Wirt Atmar  <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>It's important to recognize that a good test isn't designed so that everyone
>will get a perfect score. Indeed, it should be designed to actually develop
>an understanding of how of much knowledge the students have absorbed and
>retained, and when it's done well, the grades should be relatively well
>distributed.
>
>It's only recently that tests have been made much easier, but that has been
>due as much to the demands of parents as anyone. Protecting a child's
>self-esteem became an important consideration a few years ago, but it does
>engage the "soft bigotry of low expectations," and that I agree with George
>Bush is an even greater concern. Of late however, the tide has been turning
>back towards rigid curicula and demonstrated progress before promotion is
>possible.

As the tests became easier, the curve moved down, "requiring" easier
tests. This is the triumph of lowered expectations.

Some anecdotal data points:

I have friends who recently moved back to Spain. Their children were
originally schooled in Spanish schools and then in American schools.
Now that they are back in Spanish schools, they are way behind. The
children who grow up in Spain, growing up under a government that is
more socialist than our own, are schooled under higher expectations and
are meeting the challenge.

The trend in public schools has spread to private schools as well. My
daughter goes to a Catholic school, and their course work seems to be
about a year behind what I was taught when I went to a Catholic school.
(My school was in the Los Angeles archdiocese and my daughter goes to
school in in the Denver archdiocese.)

The same appears to be true of my brother's children's schools in
Seattle. These seem to support trends I've read about but I haven't made
(or read about) a formal study of the matter. I only have a general
sense of trends from what I've read in the papers, hear on the radio,
and observing our new hires. The receptionists and shipping/receiving
clerks coming into the work force seem to have the spelling and
grammatical skills of engineers from 30 years ago ;^)

>Not everyone who took those tests in Kansas in 1895 passed them, and many
>perhaps did develop their antisocial ways because of their failures in
>school. One such person may have been William "Bill" M. Doolin. About him,
>this is written. This is the other side of Kansas in 1895:
>
>"The train robbery occurred about half a mile west of Cimarron, Kansas, about
>half way between Dodge City and Garden City on the major east-west line of
>the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. On May 26, 1893, one of his gang
>flagged down the westbound California Express. Before the train could come to
>a complete stop, Doolin and another outlaw had swung onto the locomotive from
>opposite sides and covered the engineer and fire fighter with revolvers.

Not everyone who fails in school becomes "antisocial", and not everyone
who succeeds in school becomes a model citizen. For every Bill Doolin,
there's a Ted Kaczynski.
--
It is impossible to experience one's death objectively and still carry
a tune.
                -- Woody Allen

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