I’m getting pretty frustrated with our public school system these days.  Last year, the Washington Post ran a bunch of articles about the public schools in the District.  This past week, there was an article about how our math education system isn’t working.

What’s up with all this?

These days, it seems like more and more parents in the District are having to resort to Washington DC in-home tutors in order for their kids to get a quality education — something that, if I might remind you, our kids are supposed to all get for free.  Unfortunately, it just doesn’t happen that way, does it?  Public schools generally don’t receive enough funding to provide the education they’re supposed to — and, I suspect, when they do get the funding it gets misused.

Reading skills in particular are really struggling.  Kids today just don’t want to read.  They have things like TV and video games, which are infinitely more attractive to them.  With less time spent reading and less enjoyment of the pastime, a lot of kids in the District need Washington DC reading tutors just to keep up with where they should be.

According to standardized testing, of course.  And maybe this should have been the first topic my little rant addressed, but standardized testing just doesn’t seem to be working.  All it really does is punish schools by taking away funding, when really the schools that have poorer scores are suffering from a lack of funding already.  I’m not talking about SAT and ACT tests — needing extra help for Washington DC SAT test prep is generally expected, since it is preparation for college, after all — but the tests that public school kids take every year to determine not only their progress, but the school’s.

Unfortunately, I think that something in our public education system in general (and not just our math education) is broken.  Testing isn’t going to help fix the problem, but just keep reminding us that it’s there.

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