kitchen table math, the sequel: Comments sought by Obama Administration

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Comments sought by Obama Administration

If you go over here you will be at an electronic form that allows you to submit suggestions for President-Elect Obama's education agenda.

Catherine Johnson has come up with three very succinct and cogent goals for education which she has submitted to her local school board (Irvington). You may wish to submit these as a suggestion--modifying as you see fit, of course. (Catherine has given permission to use these as a template for anyone in communicating with various authorities.)

I have changed Catherine's goals slightly, by substituting "U.S." for "Irvington". I also added a parenthetical about NAEP, which you may wish not to include. It is my particular beef. If you do include it, note that I use the word "test" rather than "assess". I urge you to do the same.


Here are the goals:

Goal number 1: Increase steadily the number of U.S. students whose academic achievement is on par with that of their peers in Europe and Asia.

Goal number 2: Increase steadily the number of U.S. students prepared to succeed in college work, with "Evidence of Attainment" being a steady increase in SAT scores. (NAEP scores should be disregarded until such time as the NAEP is revised to actually test age-appropriate content that students should be expected to master.)

Goal number 3: Reduce systematically the need for parents to reteach content and hire tutors.


Much thanks and appreciation to Catherine for coming up with these.

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