Latest NEA Outrage-"Dumbest Report"

I was directed to NETSCAPE for a "report" on the Smartest and Dumbest states.

First thing that struck me was that most of the first third of the states were "Blue" or mainly Liberal-Democratic voting states.

This smelled fishy. Actually, there was a whiff of horse apples.

So I searched and searched, burning out my poor eyeballs to find out what the criteria were for stacking the deck so purely and with such oleagenous joy.

Sure enough, S A T scores were NOT a factor in the deciding of the "smart" and "dumb" students in these states.

Here's an wxact quote from the criteria: " States were graded on a variety of factors based on how they compare to the national average. These included such positive attributes as per-pupil expenditures, public high school graduation rates, average class size, and pupil-teacher ratios. States received negative points for high drop-out rates and physical violence.

Also, there were no private schools included. applied.

The criteria included "class-size-to-teacher-ratio", of course!

Another was "per pupil annual expenditure in dollars"--which is always inflated in those schools which employ three administrators for every instructor--all public "government" schools, of course. Salaries, too, were considered as a corrolary.

This is all teacher union (NEA) stuff.

Students do not receive salaries....

But the actual performance of the students? How much weight was given this? Who knows? Does anyone care? Do you care?

How about the increase in performance and IQ revealed in the testing required by the "No Child Left Behind" funding?

Nope, that was not a consideration.

Massachuesetts was listed at the top of all the states. Iowa, which has ALWAYS been on top in legitimate information-retention schools, was relegated to second tier.

I wish there were some other way to say it.

But this "smart-dumb" survey stinks. It smacks of conspiracy and trashes fair evaluation of student achievement, at best. At worst, it favors deceit.

Given that these "criteria" are obviously and impossibly unquantifiable I judge the report to be ill-intentioned..maybe criminal in nature.

Our chuldren and grandchildren and great grandchildren apparently are prisoners of a pack of slavering, selfserving mindkillers.