Educational woes in the public schools

This article was posted on Newsweek Online recently.

I plan on studying education formally at the University of Virginia soon, and as I have talked to a few teachers and read new articles, it appears that there are more than a few problems with the school systems.

My wife and I visited a couple of friends in Virginia a couple of weeks ago. At some time, both of them had been teachers, and Tom, a friend from my undergraduate career, was finishing up his school year, and once the school year was over, he decided to leave teaching and go into sales. He spoke about a meeting where the teachers were all called into an office and given an update on their "Standards of Learning." From Tom's perspective, teachers felt locked into certain curriculum, and were unable to be creative in the classroom. If they didn't meet the standards, the end of the world might come soon. My friend's take was, I am going to keep teaching how I think is best, and I think the kids will pass the standards tests. Other teachers did not feel that freedom. There is some kind of disequilibrium here.

I have to inquire more, but another friend who has been teaching elementary school in the Bronx, has a Master's Degree from Teacher's College. She is more than qualified to teach almost anywhere in the US. Her vocabulary is ridiculously thorough (she scored in the high 700's on the GRE), and she is flat out amazing. My wife received an email recently where our friend said she was rethinking teaching in the public schools, because she was tired of testing. There are many other reasons she could get out: kids biting her, overbearing parents, underfunded buildings... but her reason is testing.

This seems to be a bigger problem nationally. This article vaguely points out the problems, but big questions come out of articles like this. Why can't these kids learn the MINIMUM standards? Is it teacher quality or is it student distraction or both? Are there any unbiased numbers that show the effectiveness of standardized testing? Has education been reduced to a mere means, and in doing so has sucked the life out of the art of teaching (I think the answer to this one is yes)?

As I start to move toward graduate school, more and more will be written on education. If you are a teacher, what are your experiences with standards of learning? If you are a student, are your teachers passionate? If you are a parent, what do you see and hear from the students and teachers regarding these issues?