"Remediation Demands Stretching Resources of Community Colleges"

My biggest beef with this article is the notion that everyone MUST attend college to be successful in life.  Not only must they attend college, but the focus is on a traditional college setting, to obtain a traditional degree.  Now I know from experience that the majority of "traditional" degrees mean very little to the real world, having a Bachelors in Vocal Performance myself.  In fact, of the family members and in-laws of mine with undergraduate degrees, none of them are using them in their current profession.  Personally I think the focus needs to shift from getting high school graduates into a cookie cutter system that most obviously have problems succeding at (60% of incoming community college students need remedial classes!) and start steering high school seniors to looking at professions they wish to enter, and directing them to the appropriate vocational schools as needed.  Don't start screaming at me yet - I know part of the American Dream is to have the college experience, and there is such a huge push now to getting everyone to obtain some sort of degree so they can earn more money and be happier people that I think we're missing the point.  True, we want members of society to be "well educated" (whatever that means, a debate for another day) and enrich their lives with the love of learning and pursuit of knowledge - but we also want medical techs, and office workers, and electricians, and plumbers, and so forth.  So why push students who may not realize all the options that are out there into borrowing thousands of dollars to agonize their way through a traditional college system and then end up working at a pet store cleaning up puppy poops for minimum wage?  That's exactly what happened to me, by the way.  A month after graduating with my $120,000 degree the only place that would hire me was a pet store.  To clean up crap.  So let's start thinking realisitcally and stop worrying so much about pushing students through a build-a-bear collegiate system that they've been brainwashed into believing is the only way to reach their dream of a house and car and stability.

"US Tests Awaiting Big Shifts"

I found this article quite interesting, with all the current hubbub surrounding standardized testing and measuring teacher and student achievement based on scores.  Though it sounds like a marvelous idea, to create new tests that show student development over the course of a year, the practice will be interesting to watch unfold.  The article indicates that these new tests will be released in the 2014-15 school year, which doesn't seem like much time to me to completely revamp the current testing system for several subjects.  I applaud the dream however, and hopefully it will nudge the paradigm shift that is slowly occurring a bit further along, into a more student-centered, "learning to learn" system.  I like that they plan on utilizing technology as well, integrating computers into the testing experience.  I strongly feel that this is going in the right direction, as the majority of the adult world is computer focused, and will much  better prepare students for going into the work force.  Unfortunately the reality of the situation is with as large as the two groups who received grants for this project are, I have a sneaking suspicion that things will be watered down and the end result will be less innovation and more band-aids for the current system.  Hopefully they'll prove me wrong.