Monday May 28, 2012

JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

New national math, English standards drafted in U.S.

World Mar. 11, 2010 - 05:45AM JST ( 9 )

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

Order by Time Order by Popularity

9 Comments

0

pawatanMar. 11, 2010 - 11:51AM JST

The federal government recently opened bidding for $350 million to work on new national tests that would be given to students in states that adopt the national standards.

$350 million to design tests, not to build schools, pay teachers, etc. No wonder education in the US is in the toilet. Doesn't sound like it will get any better, either.
0

GurukunMar. 11, 2010 - 01:27PM JST

The federal government recently opened bidding for $350 million to work on new national tests that would be given to students in states that adopt the national standards.

And if no state adopts the standard? Then what was the $350 million for?
0

MolenirMar. 11, 2010 - 01:56PM JST

Honestly, I have no problem with higher and more rigorous standards, but there are very few things that can or should be imposed on the states by the Federal Government. Educational requirements is not one of them. In fact by most readings of the constitution, its unconstitutional. But then we're long past the point where that really matters to anyone but legal scholars.
0

USNinJapan2Mar. 11, 2010 - 03:05PM JST

Gurukun

And if no state adopts the standard? Then what was the $350 million for?

48 states already have agreed to adopt the new national standards. Only Texas and Alaska are balking.
0

motogaijinMar. 11, 2010 - 04:01PM JST

“Texas has chosen to preserve its sovereign authority to determine what is appropriate for Texas children to learn in its public schools,”

Awesome! Continue being backwater holes of ignorance.--Sincerely, the other 48 States.
0

TriumvereMar. 11, 2010 - 05:56PM JST

It's a no-win situation really. Impose standards (and standardized tests) and you end up "teaching to the test" rather than educating. Impose no standards and there is no real way to tell if anyone is learning anything, let alone assure a certain level of achivement. Damned if you do...
0

SuperLibMar. 11, 2010 - 08:07PM JST

Why not have national standards on education? It's just common sense.
0

graftonMar. 11, 2010 - 09:01PM JST

This is without doubt of interest to the Americans in Japan who plan on moving back to the US taking their children with them. But are the rest of the readers of this site going to have any interest is this? Rather than simply delete my post as being off topic perhaps JT could actually answer why it feels that US news of such limited interest is so frequently a part of what it calls world news? The world is bigger than the US and the JT community is not solely American, well not yet, but it will go that way.
0

MolenirMar. 12, 2010 - 04:39AM JST

Why not have national standards on education? It's just common sense.

Is this a real question? Do you know much about the US constitution, or more specifically some of the ideas behind its founding?

Assuming its real, I'll go ahead and give you one of the several reasons why its a good idea not having national standards. First, each state is different. Each state has its own history, and to a greater or lesser extent, its own culture, and its own economy but each state is part of a greater whole. If each state has its own standards for education, as they do now. We can then compare the states by what they have in common. IE subjects like Math, Science, etc. We can then look and see, whats the state of Utah doing that makes that states education so effective with such limited funding, and whats the state of Alabama doing that makes it so poor. 50 states, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, each with people committed to finding the best way to educate their children, is a much better laboratory for finding ideal teaching solutions, then having a 1 standard, set by some arbitrary entity.