Testing
Here is a little piece that I wrote for a local newspaper--the Blue Stone Press (May 15, 2015)--in response to an article on parents opting out of testing for their children. It was published as a Guest Analyst Opinion. It�s sad that so many parents are opting out of the current testing, as Jillian Nadiak noted in BSP (May 1, 2015). It�s also a big mistake. The Mistakes Perhaps the major mistake is to assume that parents�simply by virtue of the fact that they are parents�are the best equipped to make educational decisions for children, even their own. In fact, the very reason we have schools and teachers and teacher education programs is because parents cannot effectively educate their children. Parents don�t assume they can diagnose and cure childhood illness and so we expect them to seek competent medical treatment from doctors and nurses. And there are laws that will penalize parents for not seeking competent medical care. But, with education everyone seems to see themselves as expe...