The quality
of education is slipping in this country. Everyone knows it. Hardly a month
goes by where someone from Washington doesn’t make a statement about the
decline of US education, but it always seems to be a matter of left hand not
knowing what the right hand is doing.
Politicians
and administrators call for sweeping reforms to improve education, instituting
programs that they think (but seldom do) work to correct the problem
On the
other hand, at every level, there is a push to make sure more and more students
are retained in the system and progress through it.
We’re at
cross-purposes. Either you can make sure that students receive a quality
education, that students progress forward only after demonstrating they have
learned something, or make sure that they all make it through the program with
the grades and numbers that make the schools, administrators, and politicians
look good.
It’s time
to stop looking good. We need to be
good. If we hold to a higher standard, eventually we will get the numbers to go
along with it, but the reverse cannot be said.