re: #234 Obdicut

Competency exams insure that teachers will teach to a bubble test rather than actually teach.

It is impossible to create a real exam in bubble format. The best that can be created is a sort of test of trivia they thought was important. I suppose it can have a limited application in terms of basic history but they are useless for, mathematics, science or literature. In fact, they essentially insure that no actual learning - as in learning actual applicable knowledge gets done.

Even with history, it is impossible. You can not ask a good history question that demonstrates some notion of cause and effect, without essays.

Knowing that Gettysburg happened in July is trivia. Knowing things that caused the Civil war is knowledge.

Being able to rule out wrong math or science answers and guess the right one out of the two left based on units of algebra tricks is a certain skill - but it is not the same thing as understanding science.

The more I look at GOP ideas about education, the more I am shocked, in that the comprehensive way they wish to destroy it could not be better evolved.