Wednesday (10/13) in a Huffington Post blog, Center for Arts Education Executive Director Richard Kessler writes, “The rhetoric swirling around K-12 education may just have reached an all-time high point in America (one can only hope). One moment it sounds like there’s a silver bullet. The next moment a new piece of research emerges turning the bullet into straw. … Much of the current focus is on standardized test scores in reading and math, and to hell with anything else. … Does anyone really believe that reaching grade level in reading and math is all there is, particularly in a world as rapidly changing as ours, where demands for a dynamic set of skills and knowledge across a wide spectrum are a requisite for success in work and life? And for those who believe that subjects like the arts must wait until students have made enough progress in standardized tests, which according to a 2008 GAO report is precisely what’s happening, we are creating a caste system that denies many of the very things that make school culture rich, rewarding, and ultimately successful across a wide range of outcomes.”
Posted October 15, 2010
