[quote name='docvinh']Yeah, thats what I was trying to get at, although elprincipe brings up a valid point about a better system. Wouldn't using tests that are specific to to teachers be a little subjective? I mean, a great teacher may have a great test, but a crappy teacher may not have a good test.[/QUOTE]
I was referring to deciding what to do with kids. Any mass testing system does not take into account the individual differences. Mass testing is fine to gather data, and maybe even to help in the decision making (ie. the person does poorly, has little interest, and tests indicate he/she probably doesn't have much ability in this area to begin with), but not suitable for dealing with individuals. Another issue with mass tests is they often depend on what the kid has been taught. Essentially they do poorly partly because they weren't taught enough, not entirely due to drive or ability. It would reflect more on the school, or classes they take (for example, my math classes didn't cover some of the sat material the more advanced ones did so I had an extra disadvantage on that part), instead of the individual.
I think decisions on where to place individual students should come down to what they and their teachers decide.
I also think that parents should somehow have to be involved more in their students education legally. I know they are responsible as far as attendance policies, but they should also be responsible for "motivating" their children. What do you guys think about that?
Half agree. You can't legally force someone to be involved (and it would be difficult to decide who didn't and who did but without results, you also don't want to go overboard and make them put too much pressure on the kid) and in many situations it would be impossible. For example, a single mother who works odd hours, long hours or multiple jobs really couldn't do that, no matter how concerned or how good of a mother she was. The situation itself prevents it. If you were to say the schools themselves should legally have to make active attempts to get parents involved and not just provide opportunities, like many currently do, then I'd agree.
Personally that wouldn't have benefited me though. The more I was pushed, prodded and hovered over the worse I did in school. Later in high school they backed off (my parents stopped bothering me entirely about school) and I went from missing large amounts of assignments and having grades all over the place (mainly due to not making up tests or not passing in assignments) to getting mostly A's with a few B's (minus french) and actually doing my work. Before that my grades were good, but nothing was done. I had a 26 average once in english, but my grade for the work I actually did was a B. But, for the overwhelming majority that would be very advantageous.