Am I the only one who believes the educational prison is teaching to the tests?

[southpaw14164511]

Are our schools teaching to the standard tests that the states have us take? I mean instead of learning of the past wars and treaties signed in history class, we have to take math tests... Anyone else see the problem developing? In Chicago, there was a school that took away all of their extra curriculars , so there students could focus on the basics: math, science, and english. Are we creating robots? Test take away the most important things that we need in real life: creativity, imagination, and the ability to communicate..filling in circles? what does that prove? input please.

[Ella727]

My son goes to a Chicago Public school, One of the top rated in Chicago Magazine mind you and they TOTALLY teach to the test. I mentioned to his teach and last weeks parent teacher conference that I would like my son to read more fluently when reading out loud and he kind of shrugged his shoulders and said they really can't work on that because fluency is not tested. WTF??!! He does however have extracurricular activities and learns lots outside of school because we as parents make an effort to round it out, so to speak. But what about all those kids who's parents work 2-3 jobs just to make ends meet? or the kids who are poor or whose parents just aren't involved? The whole No Child Left Behind act has scared the crap out of most schools because it's all based on how test scores improve if they don't improve they don't get funding. so it's all about testing. In chicago, school funding is based on property taxes so the kids that kive in better neighborhoods get better schools. so some child gets totally screwed on an education just because of the neighborhood he lives in , no education , no job, stay poor more kids living in crappy neighborhood. total vicious cycle. grrrr....