>From: Chuck Kuecker <ckuecker@mcs.net>
>Reply-To: extropians@extropy.com
>To: extropians@extropy.com
>Subject: Re: Reforming Education
>Date: Tue, 05 Oct 1999 18:40:33 -0500
>
>At 03:28 PM 10/5/1999 MDT, you wrote:
> >
> >How about an agency that creates tests covering all materials and
> >difficulty to test students understanding of several areas. Each >school
>submits all subjects being taught (not material) and then >the students
>will be tested on those subjects ranging all >difficulties of the subjects.
> The results would then be compiled >and compared with other schools. The
>schools would credit the >student (thus verifying the students abilities to
>employers and the >rest of society) and the agency would rate the schools.
>Here in Illinois, the public schools have tests like these now. The state
>mandates the tests and the schools are rated according to test scores. Poor
>schools have been put on 'hit lists' until they bring up their grades.
>The only problem is that if the state does this, it's just another
>bureaucracy to get out of control. Private testing on the order of what UL
>Labs does for electrical appliances, perhaps? A school could earn a 'Better
>Housekeeping Seal of Approval'...
When I said agency I didn't necessarily mean a government agency. I would like to see a non-profit organization test the schools.
Also, school should be optional. If schools were optional we as a people would be more free from government control (as a first step to not allowing government to tell us what we can and cannot do), and education would become a desire driven enterprise. Desire driven education is more successful than obligated education.