[Vision2020] Idaho Graduates Don’t Need to Pass Science Test

[Tom Hansen]

Oh, yeah.  This should certainly improve things.

Jeesh!

Courtesy of today's (August 13, 2010) Spokesman-Review.

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Idaho graduates don’t need to pass science test
Jessie L. Bonner
Associated Press

BOISE – Idaho is scrapping a rule that would have required high school
students to pass standardized tests in science before they graduate,
starting with the class of 2013.

Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna said science classes
vary from district to district and students are only tested twice – in the
fifth and seventh grades – before they are tested by the state in the 10th
grade.

“When you only test them in fifth and seventh grade, that’s not enough,”
Luna said Thursday. “We have no way of identifying who needs remediation
along the way.”

State education officials believe the lack of testing may explain why
fewer students were proficient in science than in math and reading on the
Idaho Standardized Achievement Tests this year. Public school students are
tested more frequently in those subjects.

The current system is not an accurate measure of how students are
performing in science, Luna said, “not to the point that we would make it
a graduation requirement.”

The state Board of Education agreed, voting this week to dump the rule
requiring students to test proficient in science before they graduate – at
least for now.

The board instructed Luna’s department to develop end-of-course
assessments in science that students will have to pass in order to
graduate, according to documents provided by the board. Those assessments
would take effect for the class of 2017.

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Please, Idaho.  Do yourself a favor and get rid of Superintendent Tom
"Looney" Luna.

Seeya at Farmers Market, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown