Is the President Catching On?

Last week (or was it longer ago than that?) we read in the newspapers that President Obama intended to continue the NCLB focus on testing to measure student progress.

Those of us in middle school education know that is a dubious practice. Now, we read that he appears to be advising educators against education for tests as it could become "boring." (I would choose adjectives such as "irrelevant," "meaningless," "inauthentic," "backwards," etc.)

Perhaps our leaders are getting the point that just because "we" (defined here as well-intentioned adults) know about the schools that we attended and the type of eduction we received that is no reason to conclude that those schools and that education are sufficient to prepare young people for their future.

I suppose we all need to stay tuned to see if this is a sign that our government will change direction in public policy towards eduction or of this is simply a smoke-and-mirror change.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42307683/ns/politics/