EDin08

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Comment by Sarah McPherson on February 18, 2008 at 9:31pm

I also found this source http://www.all4ed.org/about_the_crisis/schools/map. It looks like a reliable data source.

Comment by Sarah McPherson on February 18, 2008 at 9:22pm

Bill,
This really isn't my video - I just found it on the AASA website link I followed from eSchool News. One source of the data is cited - UNESCO. The whole thing is funded by Broad and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations as a non-partisan attempt to raise awareness as to the dismal state of education today. I read a similar report by PISA about 2 weeks ago. The following is the info "This short video makes it clear that Americans need new leadership on public education. In 2002, UNICEF compared public education in 24 nations around the world. The U.S. ranked 18 out of the 24 nations. Join ED in '08 to demand that every presidential candidate has a plan to improve America's schools.

http://www.edin08.com
Certainly I agree that standardized tests are not quality measures of the a child's education. So why have we allowed the politicians, legistrators, policy makers and decision makers in this country to have reduced education to 'all about the test'? And presidential candidates are not even talking about education!

Comment by Bill Bauer on February 18, 2008 at 8:54pm

I'm always a little bit skeptical of anything that spouts statistics (like this video does), without documenting their source. As we all know, comparing the U. S. education system to other countries is not an "apples to apples" comparison. There are many factors that may contribute to a difference in test scores, and beyond that, standardized test scores don't tell the whole story regarding the quality of a child's "education."

Bill