CB>  fear, etc.. I think that the quality of education a student
CB>  receives would not increase at all
 SK> I don't know...perhaps the quality of education the student received
 SK> _might_ improve as a result of such a test. If the test were set at
 SK> an appropriate level of difficulty, which required a higher standard
 SK> than was currently demanded in the classroom, the teacher(s) might
 SK> respond, in an effort to help their students pass 
 SK> the test, by improving
 SK> what they do in the classroom. Hence, improved quality in the
 SK> education the student is receiving.
Then the test is driving the curriculum--management by objective and/or 
results.  While this may provide some quality improvement, more would be seen 
where the whole system works together to improve the process of education.  
The teacher might respond if, 1) support from admin was there,2) money was 
there to support additional training, lower class loads, more materials, 
etc., 3) support was there from the community, parents, businesses, etc..
4) support was there from fellow teachers
 SK> quantities. You can't produce a quality graduate from a non-quality ed
 SK> program (actually, some kids who are independently 
 SK> motivated may go off and
 SK> learn things on their own. I've seen this happen before. But it is
 SK> certainly an anommally and not something that you 
 SK> would see happening much.)
 SK> Whereas, even with a quality education program in place, you can still
 SK> produce low quality graduates, since the student 
 SK> has his/her own free will
 SK> to decide whether or not they want to expend any effort to learn the
 SK> material.
Hmm, but if you have a quality educational system, driven by demand from 
customers, (parents, community, and students) how could the precentage of 
quality graduates be lower than a system where a test is given to determine 
graduation.  I don't think a system could be a high quality system and 
produce low quality graduates otherwise something is wrong.
 SK> prepare the students for the exam. Well, some 
 SK> teachers just teach to the
 SK> test, and this isn't real helpful for the students, and the quality of
 SK> such courses isn't that high. However, I believe 
 SK> this is because the teacher
 SK> doesn't have a real thorough foundation in the subject matter they are
 SK> teaching, and believes this is the best way to teach the students the
 SK> material (or the best that teacher can do, at any 
 SK> rate). For such a situation,
 SK> the students are not receiving a lesser quality course as a result of
 SK> the exam waiting for them at the end of the year.
Isn't there more to math than a final test? 
Actually, the kids in this class did suffer as the teacher was unable or 
unwilling to enrich the curriculum, this is where our students lose out.
--- Maximus 2.02
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