77% of answers wrong

["Jim Wallis" <wallis@moscow.com>]

The title of the quoted article is meant to stir folks up, but 
like much of what passes for news today the content is weak.

The article refers to a new, apparently unproved test, and 
infers that it is meant to test subject matter that is not 
guaranteed to have been part of the curriculum of the history 
classes. Presumably the County wants to determine how well 
material the State requires is actually being taught, so they 
can improve materials, train teachers, etc. to meet the state 
standards. For a test constructed from far afield, 25% for a D 
grade doesn't seem so bad. We can't know how hard the actual 
test is, how much time teachers have been given to prepare 
their students, or very much else about what's going on. And 
the grading scale is optional-presumably the teachers can 
raise (or lower) it, using their judgment about how much of 
the tested material they've actually covered. 

Schools will always be balancing between total autonomy for 
teachers vs. control from some other authority-the parents, a 
principal, a district, a state, or the federal government. The 
article on its face is much ado about nothing, just a headline 
writer who seized on a number to kick up a little dust.

Jim Wallis