Obama booed by some NEA teachers

[MarkWarner08]

http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2008/07/mostly-cheers-b.html?csp=34

Obama advocates merit pay and is then booed by NEA members.  First he angered the liberal bloggers and the Feingold wing of the party, and now he's antagonized teachers. Wonderful.

[MarkWarner08]

His plan also incentives the practice of fudging students' test results. Making pay contingent on higher test scores  reeks of the failed NCLB law.

[MarkWarner08]

His plan also incentives the practice of fudging students' test results. Making pay contingent on higher test scores  reeks of the failed NCLB law.

Yes, we must continue paying teachers the same; we must insure that the vast bulk of them continue to be the C students from third tier colleges. It is America's future that is at stake.

How does inflating their grade better prepare them for college? If it were up to me, we'd start accelerate the pace of math and science in public schools, following the Asian model. Unfortunately, for a plethora  of reasons, most Americans youths aren't as focused on their studies as the majority of their Asian counterparts.

[MarkWarner08]

The SAT tests reading comprehension and verbal skills, and that is what it is all about. If you don't have that, you have nothing.

The new SAT is a bit better because they teach writing skills, but honestly it is easy as hell to ace the verbal part. I got a 710 and I suck at verbal communication. I just learned how to game the system, only possible because my parents had the extra 500 bucks to spend. The math part is not so bad and you do need actual knowledge there. See I took the test 3 times, each time I did a little bit better. I got a 700 on math each time I took it but was able to improve my verbal score each time. I accomplished that by learning how to take multiple choice tests, a luxury many cannot afford.

Ya, working at test taking helps a bit. I self tested myself a zillion years ago, and did some other work, and was able to push my verbal SAT score to abut 780 from 730 or so. But it still is a good test in general, even if, if those who apply themselves can push the envelop a bit. Heck, I learned the word lagniappe from the exercise.

Nice. The most impressive SAT word I ever encountered was "persiflage."