• A rising number of young Americans are disconnected from work, school, and a sense of purpose.
  • Disconnection rates have been increasing since the 1990s, affecting young people’s futures.
  • Poor mental health and a lack of a financial safety net contribute to rising disconnection.
  • Bartsbigbugbag
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    8 months ago

    Almost 2 months every year for my brothers are dedicated to fucking standardized tests, they’re way longer and worse than when I was a kid and it was like 3 days a year. What can you even learn when every couple months you have to spend a whole month learning nothing and taking tests?

    • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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      8 months ago

      Yep and as a professional now, none of those standardized tests I took in high-school are relevant to me.

        • Bartsbigbugbag
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          8 months ago

          No they don’t, standardized tests determine funding for the schools, punishing poorly performing schools and giving additional resources to schools already doing well.

          • tearsintherain@leminal.space
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            8 months ago

            Over emphasis on testing is an early introduction to the zero-sum game of capitalism. Rather than reasonable and helpful testing, to help students and teachers gauge where they are. It’s about performance, students as numbers/beans, and as you said, about funding. Conservatives especially love this approach, school and students as a business, merely as future workers.

          • umbrella
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            8 months ago

            which is still barely relevant to your job, despite colleges using it for admission

        • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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          8 months ago

          Calling me a moron doesn’t bolster your point, fyi.

          I also went through the Canadian education system, where SAT scores, AP etc aren’t required. I wrote an essay on my club, volunteer and educational experience to qualify for my university.

          To me, standardized tests sound like hoops schools force kids to jump through and yet another middleman you have to pay to be able to access college. Those things are also completely skippable if you have rich enough parents.

          Back to the main point, I’m saying that the AP tests I did have no relevance to much of what I did in college or in my job now, so kids spending much of their time grinding for these tests seems like a waste to me.