what happens when a test company gets it wrong

[Garth Wilson]

(10-12-2014 04:35 AM)Don Shepherd Wrote:  Private school teachers do not have to be licensed by the state, and these teachers are free to choose whatever curriculum they want (with approval of the school headmaster or principal, of course).

My wife, a credentialed teacher, teaches in a private elementary school which is doubly accredited, by both WASC and ACSI. The public elementary schools in the area have no accreditation at all. The curricula at this private school is chosen by committees of the school staff members. She has been on such committees.

The city we're closest to (where she teaches) had a population of about 100,000 years ago when a school-voucher proposition was on the state ballot. I added up the student enrolments of all the private schools I could find in the city at the time, and it came to over 6,000. The highest achievers I know of though are homeschooled. Homeschooling programs have to meet various state requirements too, and parents use homeschool organizations to help them meet those. My sister-in-law is a supervising teacher for homeschoolers. Our daughter-in-law and her siblings were homeschooled through high school, and when they got to college, they found it easier, as they were way ahead of the public high-school graduates.