It seems to me that either our nation’s leaders have lost sight of what the purpose of education is, or they have redefined the purpose of education as “laudable”, tangible outcomes—diplomas, test scores, etc. I’m often left wondering if people truly believe that raising test scores or lowering dropout rates will really improve education. Surely they must know that students who can barely read receive diplomas; test scores can be falsified and furthermore not even close to quality representations of learning; and sitting, disengaged in a classroom for 7-8 hours a day is dropping out—mentally. That’s not to say that higher test scores and lower dropout rates are bad things, but simply that when it comes to public education they are neither the optimal goals for, nor measures of, learning.  Continue reading →