num_pages: 291
description: The primary issues raised in Educating for the New World Order are:A large number of standardized tests, administered annually to millions ofschool children throughout the United States and Canada, have been found tocontain a substantial number of "affective" questions which have nothing to dowith evaluating those students' academic accomplishment or potential.The "correct" answers to these questions, according to the testdevelopers, have a common theme running through them . . . that of subordination of self to group. This is clearly contrary to the principles we are trying to convey to our children -- such as in anti-drug programs -- that they shouldn't feel they must do something just because their friends do.In some areas, such as Pennsylvania, schools which administered such testshave later received "supplementary" instructional materials to be used in short-term programs. Although Pennsylvania Department of Education officialsmaintained that the tests did not contain affective questions, the "supplementary" materials made no pretense of the fact that their purpose was to "remediate student attitudes." Pennsylvania mother-become-activist Anita Hoge discovered references which tied the version of these supplementary materials to the way students in a school or district responded to the affective questions on those tests. Moreover, because these supplementary materials were delivered to schools through the Intermediate Education Districts, they were not necessarily put through any review at the local level as to their appropriateness.Recently, tests began requiring students to supply their social securitynumber, in direct contravention to the federal Pupil Privacy Act (whichPresident Clinton is rumored to be considering eliminating). Why should theSSN be necessary? The tests are primarily intended to assess the academicprogress of groups of students, not individuals. The results of thosetests, however, are often stored in non-secure computerized databases.Even if no abuse of those data is intended, the potential exists forJohnny's daddy to run for public office and be faced with questions aboutpersonal or family beliefs based on how a 10-year-old answered vague questionson a test 15 years before!When challenged, state education officials deny that affective questionsappear on the tests, but when claims are proven, tests have been withdrawn. Similar tests reappear months or years later under a new name.Finally, it should also be noted that, for the most part, local educatorsare just as ignorant of the issue as parents. Standardized tests are preparedat the behest of state or even federal educational agencies. The actualcontracted authors of those tests are often restricted to a small group ofindividuals or organizations which specialize in that task. Tests are sent toschools, which are instructed not to read the tests, and often not to evenopenthe box until test day. Completed tests are to be immediately sealed andreturned for grading. These steps are quite reasonable, as they minimize thepotential for cheating or "teaching for the test." But they also assure thatlocal teachers and administrators -- unaware of the contents of the tests --are often in the unenviable position of defending such tests merely on theassurance of others that the tests are completely benign.Nobody seriously doubts that values are implicitly transmitted duringnormaleveryday instruction in school. But there is a huge moral gulf between thatand explicitly teaching values or attitudes. There is heated debateover how to teach relatively straightforward subjects such as reading andmathematics; do authors and promoters of these tests realistically expectthereto be genuine consensus about whose beliefs are to be taught inpreference to others? Unlikely, at best.The continued abuse of the standardized testing process documented inEducating for the New World Order and its sequel, Microchipped,threatens the reliance and faith placed in those tests to help assess theeffectiveness of our school systems. And as long as politicians andeducational bureaucrats continue to try to "reform" or redefine education as aseries of fuzzy, amorphous "Outcomes" that defy any reasonable effort toquantify, our schools are in danger of losing an already tenuous focus ontheirpurpose.The fundamental question surrounding the issue must be: In whose vision ofthe future is a new world order to be structured? In that of the governmentand the myriad special interests that wield influence there? We hope not.
language: English
title: Educating for the New World Order
titlecomplete: Educating for the New World Order
ratings_count: 10
publisher: Halcyon House