What is the dumbest trend in society right now?

For me the education system is fucked up because of the testing. When I started in high school, we had midterms and finals every year. That's fine. Sophomore year we had the OGT (Ohio graduation test), that's fine. And then of course seniors and juniors could take the ACT, SAT, etc. But those were optional (well, not if you wanna go to college). AP tests as well. Normal stuff.

Now I am graduating from high school. Incoming freshmen have to take finals, midterms (still no problem here), pre and post SLOs annually, PARCC exams annually, and end of course exams annually. And then of course the optional ACT, SAT, and AP exams. The testing got so overwhelming, my school actually got rid of midterms to give the teachers and students a break. As a high school student, that amount of testing is ridiculous. However, I think the people this is hurting the most is the teachers.

Let's start with the SLOs. The teachers must first make the SLOs and get them approved by the state. Okay so that's a little extra work. Should be no big deal. Then they need to administer the pre-SLO to their students, grade the terrible scores, and then predict without even knowing the students what their scores will be on the post test. and their accuracy plays a role in their payment. These teachers are required to guess on students they don't even know how well they will do on this test in 6 months. What. The. Fuck. How can the state expect teachers to be able to do that? They don't even know these kids! And if they get it wrong? Sucks. They don't get paid as well.

Second, we can talk about the PARCC. This test is administered as a requirement for graduation. No big deal. Except that the tests are at such a level that I know honors students that didn't pass. Honors students! If they're not passing, how many regular kids are not being allowed to graduate because they're average??

End of course exams, don't even get me started. These are state administered tests that are different than finals. Passing is required to get credit for the class, as well as passing the PARCC for that class and the final administered by the school.

Now if this isn't too much testing, I don't know what is.

What they need on the board of education is actual educators. I'm willing to bet that there are maybe 1 or 2 actual educators on the board of education. These old white men don't understand that this amount of testing is unhealthy for the wellbeing of teachers and students alike, and is simply just screwing everyone over.

That is my issue with the US schooling system.

/r/AskReddit Thread Parent