Marc Tucker announced that Maine will work with NCEE. "Board Examinations" will be introduced in pilot schools in Maine as early as the 2011-2012 school year. Exactly which districts in Maine are slotted for board exams? One such exam , the International Baccalaureate (IB) Program Exam, comes with controversy.
See
http://www.truthaboutib.com/
Wow. Maine has signed up to pilot a program to set international standards and graduate 'college-ready' students as early as the end of their sophomore year in high school.
ReplyDeleteAre we short-selling our children's futures for a little bit of grant money???
Didn't I just read that RSU1's goals for this year (2010-2011) include "...assuring all students leave 3rd grade on grade level in reading and math." (Of course that should apply to all students leaving each grade on or above grade level...)
The poorest performing districts in Maine have grouped together as "cohorts" in the test implementation of the RISC model. Are they really forecasting graduating college-ready sophomores when their current student test scores plummet the moment they transition from elementary to middle school. Do we WANT to encourage high scool sophomores to miss out on a quality, broadbased classical education in high school? Would a 14 year old be ready for the college campus environment?