Monday, April 19, 2010

McGraw Hill Stockhold Shows Big Gains


At a time when money is tight, the DOE is spending a fortune on Acuity tests for the students scheduled to take the integrated algebra regents in June. The test is designed (supposedly) to point out the areas the students need more work in because teachers are not capable of figuring this out on their own. (We only test and assess our students daily but this is obviously not good enough.) Teachers have only done this by themselves since the beginning of time but the big shot politicians have to take care of their wealthy friends and these lucrative contracts must be given out. School budgets are being cut all over the place, services to children are being withdrawn, but McGraw Hill stockholders are still bringing in the big bucks. When I think of the waste involved with this testing I get physically ill. To add insult to this injury, teacher salaries, pensions and unions are still being blamed for the financial woes of the system.

Aside from the financial strain, there was the waste of time component. A full period was spent administering this exam, a period that could have better been spent on learning. Some of the topics on the exam have not even been taught yet. No computer program is needed to tell a breathing teacher that the kids will not know these topics.

It is time for the general public to wake up and realize that politicians do not care one iota about improving education. They care about making themselves look good and about increasing the spending money of their cronies. We've got to take a stand, for us, for our children and for future generations.

3 comments:

Ms. Construed said...

Pearson, the great glitzy glossy full of crap useless math textbook publisher now has a corporate division called "Pearson Solutions". It's a charter school company that has taken a foothold in Seattle, I believe. What a pile of corrupt feces Obama, Duncan, and all their henchmen are.

mathman42 said...

The morons were too lazy to change the acuity test given last fall to Regents Prep students as the exact same test ( only the code # was changed ) was given last week to the 9th graders. Since some teachers used the test as a review ( preview ? ), results of course will not be comparable across the 9th grade classes.

I think that any multiple choice question where you could input the choices to find the correct answer is a crock anyway.

Anonymous said...

Acuity follows you through high school? And I was hoping that nonsense would end in middle school.
No one takes it seriously.