Questions for #oklaed chat 5.10.15

The theme for tonight’s #oklaed chat on Twitter is, Why? Many of the chat questions come directly from the class discussions and writings of the grad students I’ve had at (shameless plug) Southern Nazarene University. Others may be just things that make me scratch my head. This won’t be a purely political chat, but we will wander down that path too. I hate to disappoint you.

For each question, the current state that exists may be the result of state/federal policy, tradition and school culture, or other outside factors. I’m not asking the questions to be difficult or to assign blame. That’s your job!

Seriously, for each of these questions, I look forward to a healthy, intellectual discussion on all sides.

Q1: Why do we require three years of math for all high school students?

Q2: Why do push most of our high school students towards college (or why don’t we do a better job of promoting CareerTech)?

Q3: Why do we use a half reading/half language arts test to evaluate third grade reading ability?

Q4: Why do we even need standards?

Q5: Why do we insist on using expensive, unreliable standardized tests to have students demonstrate proficiency in core subjects?

Q6: Why do we more or less forget about middle grades (4-8) when we focus on student remediation?

Q7: Why do some school districts have such a hard time generating parental involvement?

Q8: Why don’t we use more project-based learning (PBL) in teaching?

Q9: Why don’t we just let the students tell us what they need?