Propaganda Alert: New York Times calls for "Fair Tests?!"

11/26/07

Today, the New York Times, known alternately as the Duranty Papers or Pinch’s Pustules, as you please, has called for ‘fair’ and accurate tests for school children. Now, they cannot do this, in full, because it will expose the incompetence of some of their best union supporters.

We read:

This problem is highlighted in a recent study by Policy Analysis for California Education, a research center run by Stanford University and the University of California,  that analyzed the testing practices of a dozen states between 1992 and 2006. States that performed swimmingly on their own weak math and reading tests tended to score dismally on the more rigorous federal National Assessment of Educational Progress, often referred to as NAEP. [1]

 Well now. Didn’t we get some flak from the far left when the Bell Curve[2] was published, which looked at public test scores and ranked the students according to race?? That was simple enough. Many of the outraged and psychotic far left seem to believe that if the Bell Curve had never been written the scores might have been better[3]. Exposing deficiencies in cognitive skills is a crime against humanity according to the left .Such are the pathetic political antics of the sordid left. The test scores continue to show that minorities such as Asians score higher than whites [about 100 for whites   with Asians at 101-102] with Hispanics and Afro-Americans scoring very much lower, by an average of 15 IQ points [at 85 or so]. This effect has been known for a century. [4] The left will waffle and moan and find ways to ‘explain’ the differences, which always regurgitate into a noisy clarion call for more tax hikes.[5] They can do little but glubber.

It the Duranty Papers are sincere about education, apart from the political vectors inherent in public spending and political controls here, that  they have probably gone crazy or have something special in mind.

Across the land, 3000 miles wide and 1500 miles high with about 14,000 school districts the result is the same:

[1] Half the students score below the average. This is sad, and unfair, but true.

[2] Some minorities always score below whites and Asians on average.

To lance the boil, we might suggest strictly controlled standardized tests for teacher and students as well and that these test scores be reported by some reference number to conceal identities but still  identified by race. The entire nation then could be tested at the fourth grade level sorted by race and we could see the results. That will just about crack this phony left-liberal ‘education’ money machine in the chops. It will never happen.

If certain minimum standards were set for teachers and tests given and, say, 5% of them failed then what do we do?? Why, we simply and gladly spend even more money for restitution and reeducation and bring these union teachers back to level!!

Sure.

In nearly all of the states studied, students did noticeably worse on federal tests than on state tests. In Oklahoma, the gap in scores was a shocking 60 percentage points in math and 51 percentage points in reading. In Texas, that gap was 52 percentage points in math and 56 points in reading. The state that came closest to the federal standard was Massachusetts, where there was a modest 1 percent gap in math and 10 percent gap in reading.[6]

Surprise surprise!! Let the locals define their own standards and presto they will meet the challenge! If you want to spend more money on welfare just raise the bar on the definition of poverty and dump more billions into the welfare pot. They will come running for the loot.

Advocates of the mediocre status quo will oppose any requirement for a national test.[7]

Be careful what you wish for—it may happen. No liberal can stand the truth or face the facts in education, war and several other matters. National standardized tests will show us who cannot compete, and why, and where the lousy schools and teachers are.

To suggest that the New York Times would support dismantling poorly-performing schools and fire incompetent teachers is a pipe dream out of the 60s.

That will never happen. They NYT does not mean what they say in the literal transliteration here. They have something else in mind Watch your pocket book.

rycK

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[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/26/opinion/26mon3.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin. New York was not included in this study apparently. One has to wonder why.

[2] The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (ISBN: 0029146739)

by Herrnstein, Richard J. and  Murray, Charles  Free Press of Glencoe , Inc, Old Tappan, New Jersey, U.S.A., 1994.

[3] http://rycksrationalizations.townhall.com/g/7cb6b581-7e8d-4557-bb9d-97c14b7ecdd9.  But, ‘education’ is one of their remaining strongholds. Here, they choose to ignore the results from standardized tests for their victims that clearly show they have failed even their own constituency. They cannot handle the common bell curve that mandates that half of the people who take IQ tests must fall in the lower half. Many so-called ‘educators’ in California, wish to eliminate testing as it causes sorrow and despair among their ranks. Ebonics may become the official language of Oakland, CA sometime in the future. We would now require Ebonics translators in every city, courthouse, post office and business in the nation to ‘be fair.’

[4] The Measurement Of Intelligence by Lewis M Terman. Published by   George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd, 1905.

[5] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/02/education/02scores.html. “"Look at the nation and you will see across the nation that there was no dramatic changes in proficiency," Mr. Klein said. "That's why these data have to be read comparatively." New York City's gains among black and Hispanic students were also accompanied by drops in scores among white students that both national experts and local school officials were at a loss to explain.”

[6] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/26/opinion/26mon3.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin.

[7] Ibid.