This is what the American public school looks like in 2012, driven by obsessive adherence to standardized testing. The fate of children, their schools, and their teachers are based on these school test scores. I wondered what kind of tests the students were taking. The California Department of Education’s STAR website has sample test questions, and I started looking through them randomly. Soon, I came across the following reading comprehension question about the proper use of a microscope, shown in the illustration below.
via www.slate.com
One to print and bring home to Andrea.
Jim Cuene 
Thanks for posting Jim. An alarming article on so many levels. Programming our kids is so short-sighted. For one, computers are better at being programmed, and they hold a lot more info. Two, force-feeding facts to pass tests is a curiosity-killing process. I’m glad my family lucked into a school that prioritizes an enquiring mind over a filled-in test sheet. Do you have a sense of where your parenting peers are on this issue. Dawning realization? Knew it all along? Doesn’t matter?