College Exit Exams
Jun. 26, 2006 at 7:49 AM
Homeschooling
A few months ago, I posted about the New "C" in No Child Left Behind and U.S. Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education. Florida State University seems to be beating the commission on the to the punch line. FSU is looking into a college exit exam for its students.
College exit exams are a foolish idea. They are just another piece in the move toward national standards and increased federal control over higher education.
In a related story, the commission is facing increased scrutiny and in an unexpected move, will release a draft of their report today. It will be interesting to see just how bad the "crisis" in higher education is and what the federal government thinks is necessary to fix it. Stay tuned.
Related Tags: higher education, NCLB, standarized testing, homeschooling, education
Florida State University took a small but significant step this month when its board of trustees agreed to look at testing students in basic skills as a graduation requirement. FSU could require such a test for all students as soon as fall 2007.Texas has experimented with similar testing of college graduates under the direction of Charles Miller. He is now the head of the Commission on the Future of Higher Education and a strong advocate for standardized testing. The commission's final report is due September. According to Miller, they are not planning to recommend standardized testing at the college level. However, he believes that when colleges see the benefit (read ties to federal funds) they will begin to adopt these tests all on their own.
College exit exams are a foolish idea. They are just another piece in the move toward national standards and increased federal control over higher education.
In a related story, the commission is facing increased scrutiny and in an unexpected move, will release a draft of their report today. It will be interesting to see just how bad the "crisis" in higher education is and what the federal government thinks is necessary to fix it. Stay tuned.
Related Tags: higher education, NCLB, standarized testing, homeschooling, education
1 Comments and Trackbacks
posted by tiredmom on Jun. 26, 2006 at 10:00 PM
If states aren't SURE their colleges are graduating students with core competencies they need to fire (unelect?) boards, presidents, professors, whatever stumbling blocks are passing students with lacking compentencies! A test isn't going to fix this.
What is the point of accreditation if an "accredited" school can graduate incompetent students?!