I hate that they’re systematically destroying higher education in a state that so desperately needs it. Sadly enough, though, the problems get worse the further down the food chain you go. The profs at UK are getting screwed, the ones at the smaller regional schools (Ale 8 One, I’m guessing you’re at Eastern, right?) are getting screwed harder.
The primary and secondary teachers at the public schools, though, are taking it right up the ass, and being made to provide their own lube. KERA does indeed suck the big one, as my mother, aunt, and mil will attest. My mother’s school has been the highest-scoring elementary school in the county since way before KERA, and it’s maintained that lead. (Right now, about the only students they have who aren’t doing really, really well are the ones who are mentally retarded, and most of them are doing the best they can.) However, they’re a shade away from being declared a “school in crisis” because they aren’t bringing their test scores up enough. Being declared in crisis means punishments, and lots of them. It’s some fucked up shit when people who have consistently done well are being punished for it.
The punishments, of course, are designed to “increase accountability” but are all targeted at the teachers, with no consequences at all for the people who actually write the portfolios. The kids don’t give a shit about the portfolios and tests, as long as they pass to the next grade. And why should they? It’s not their jobs on the line if the scores aren’t high enough. There’s really not a lot of rhyme or reason to how they’re evaluated, either. My senior portfolio got rated either Apprentice or Proficient, I don’t recall which. My cousin, who reads poorly enough to screw up passing out presents at Christmas, was ranked Distinguished the same year. Like I said, KERA is some fucked up shit.
Brian, it’s not even a matter of trying to get extra funding. If you don’t meet the improvement guidelines, you run the risk of getting your funding cut. Then they send in people to teach you how to teach, and if you’re still not getting increasing by the percentage they’ve pre-set for you, you run the risk of being fired. Yes, schools that exceed the guidelines get bonuses, but as schools keep improving, the bonuses become nearly impossible to achieve.
Oh, and Epimethus, writing a couple of shortish papers a semester doesn’t sound out of line to me. It’s essentially a take-home test where you have to show and actively explain your answers. If you truly understand what you’re doing, explaining it’s no problem. We used to have short-answer problems on calculus tests all the time in college.
