Here's Hoping the Logic Gives You a Headache Instead of the Blogger

A reader (frequent?, occasional?, almost never?) of this blog informed me today (and I paraphrase):

"I read your blog sometimes, but you get so deep it gives me a headache".

I doubt this quote will appear on the dust jacket of my upcoming best-selling compilation of blogposts entitled Wading Through A Morass of Pointless Words. Look for that on Amazon....uh never.

I may be a jerk, but I really am not interested in giving people headaches. So let me simplify today's AYP/NCLB follies from New Jersey, and then just link to a migraine inducing morass of a pdf from the state where half the previous political officeholders are on their way to jail.

After a big hullabaloo about "raising academic standards", New Jersey made their NCLB standardized test harder in 2008. Then they just revised downward the percentage of proficiency required for schools to "meet AYP".

The end. Period. No more headache-inducing depth. They "raised standards" while "lowering standards". What's that hip acronym for this sort of thing...FTW?

And speaking of hip, hips and weight. Let's simply look at this another simple way. New Jersey basically said they really needed to lose weight. So they set an admirable goal of losing 15 lbs. And then they set the weight scale to -10 lbs. before weighing themselves. Or maybe -20 lbs. You can't really tell. But you can trust New Jersey...they really are losing weight! Honest! (just like the politicians)

They also changed the "safe harbor" provision rules because they realized no schools were going to be able to achieve "safe harbor" on a harder test. But explaining that would take us straight to the deep end of the pool, and we ain't going there tonight.

I do feel bad about the headaches. If there's anything I can do...get you an ibuprofen or something, just let me know.