~ARTICLE INFO~ U.S. News & World Report. The artice was again made to "bring up student issues" in a negative fashion. They make us look loke we need dire help. Nobody ever looks at the good side of today's Students anymore. This article outlines how high standards were set and now many students failed (as much as 50%) these tests. It tells us that: "The number of states with standards in place has shot up from 14 to 45". But with all the failures, some states are pusing to weaken the standards already in place. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund sued to block a high school graduation exam in Texas because it was to difficut and students were not graduating because of the test. As more and more standards are being places, people are redeciding the strength and structure of these standards.
I think they worry to much about all these standards. I'm in 11th grade and I can succesfuly tear apart this man's article and understand it. Schools are getting hammered too hard. Just because one school is doing better doesn't mean the other should. Everybody and everyplace develops at different paces. People are just the same, some excell, some are slower. Look at columbine for a moment. There are 6 billion people on this earth. Two of them went on a killing rampage in school. That's a 1:3,000,000 ratio of killers to non-killers. We don't even have 3 billion people in our country but we still make a huge deal about it. Sure you can publish it in the news but it should not effect everybodies vision of how they run their school. The news media whines and complains and exposes everything. They stock us, they almost control us. If the news came on and told us the whole city of Pittsburgh was under water, we would believe them. So everything they say about schools, bad or good, we trust is good. I think I am doing great as a student, they should put these makers of standards in our shoes and then let them decide on what we should know. I think they would change their mind alot.
November 1st, 1999
Page: 104
The Case for Quality
Author: David Gergen