How to Fix Education in America

I enjoyed the visit and information share by Colin Harrison during the Febuary 5th class. with his work on technology and its influence on learning I keep returning to the school that had little technology and high test scores and the answer of we read lots of books. last summer I attended a conference with stephanie harvery and she relayed the information that children spend about 15 minutes a day of acutal reading in a classroom. with success I have had and the test scores my students achieve with out lots of technology, I believe in the efficacy of reading books.
2) my second thought and continuous wondering of how the standardized testing works in england. one of the main reasons I am returning to graduate school is because I feel as if the education system is so broken and the people who hold the power to improve the educations system choose not to either through dilebareate mishandling of priorities or they are so far removed from what is actually happening they have no clue how to handle the situation.
each year we are given more standards and more laws are created as to what is going to make our school system more effecient.
Texas schools are in a crisis, so much money and energy has been spent on standardize testing and the highstakes results that kids are not being taught how to think. I believe several of the main problems with the standardize tests is that they are becoming indicators/benchmarks of teaching as opposed to documentation of students growth. I liked how in the UK they take a base test at age 7 that predicts their success and schooling institutions are then held to that baseline standard for each student as opposed to an across the board continum.
I also believe that since funding is tied to standardized achievement that many administrators/institutions/policymakers do not care about the students as a whole individual but rather what they look like on paper. At my school if students are in need of extra tutoring/services the first and priority reason they recieve its that they will be tested and counted on the schools state report card, if not then we will see what we can do.
Another idea that stuck is that the testing goes in two year increments and the test are made to resemble real-life litearature, what a novel concept. Kids and teachers are so standardized out that they teach solely to pass the test because if not their teaching position could be in jeporady.
and another thing, what was this business that Mr. Harrison said where independent associations could come in and do alternative testing and measurements for a mere two dollars a head. WHAT??
Texas and the united states needs help as a society, so many fail to recognize what we teach todays kids in how our future problems will be solved. so for a school system that was created in the industrial age and created to produce workers, who know rows and order we need to ask our self what type of school system should we be creating in the technolgy revolution, in the age of ideas where highlevel thinking skills are prized.
Society as a whole has to step up and create proper funding and policies that promote real life problems solvers who are capable of THINKING!!!!!!!!!