Many teachers...grading...for compliance - not for mastering course material

When metrics/scores/grades matter, they become much less useful. Grades are harder to game than the Dilbert cartoon -- learning the material is still one of the best ways to increase your score. But once grades matter to teachers and schools as well, the opportunities for gaming increase substantially.

If the cure's worse than the disease, we could bring back the curve. I don't think it's gone that far yet, though...

But on the other hand, I think part of the reason that I have such a thorough understanding of calculus is that my Calc AB teacher required us to do large quantities of homework. And I was totally fine with having to turn in weekly problem sets in my Multivariable Calc and ODE courses senior year because I needed the homework to solidify my understanding.

I probably would have done the Multivariable and ODE homework on my own because I actually struggled with those classes, but I probably would have done only a small fraction of my AB homework if it weren't required. I still would have gotten A's on most of my AB tests, but I might not have had quite as solid of a foundation. I think I'm better off because I had to do that homework. So that has made me question how I feel about mandatory homework.

Plus, that there's the issue of students who aren't disciplined enough/don't care enough to do optional homework even if they know that that will lead them to do poorly on tests.

It's possible that a system where homework is optional for people who are doing well could solve the latter problem, but it wouldn't have made me do my AB homework. Plus it might breed even more resentment against the nerds who get to skip the homework just because they know the material.

tl;dr: I've experienced many classes where mandatory homework bored me out of my mind and wasted my time, but at other times it has helped me a lot. Also, some people will do as little as they're required, so if homework is optional, they won't do it even if they just failed a test the day before.

In my experience, in the US, EMPLOYEES in marketing, sales, management, finance, and operations do much better if they have high "life/social" skills even when their level of intelligence or knowledge are lower than others. However, this pattern doesn't fit IT/software and engineering (hard sciences) where creativity and knowledge are required. Some of the best engineers have the worst social skills. You won't find that in other fields.

Then there are the entrepreneurs who tend to break rules and take shortcuts. But they also tend to prefer to hire rule followers. I used to be surprised by all the entrepreneurs without degrees who require degrees for employment. But today I think good entrepreneurs instinctively know they need rule followers to carry out their vision and provide balance.

The question we need to ask about education: What are we trying to produce?

a. Good employees b. Innovative scientists c. Entrepreneurs d. All of the above

d. All of the above. The problem is... Our unionized government run education system isn't flexible enough to allow these different types of people to consciously choose their own path. Instead, in the past, it tried to turn everyone into a rule follower. Now the approach in the article is trying to turn everyone into a scientist and/or entrepreneur. The answer is to educate and evaluate different people different ways. Social skills are critical for some professions, and others not so much. Rule following is also essential in some professions, but deadly in others.

Later that year, another of the junior valedictorians was caught cheating on a test. After some deliberation among the councilors and administrators it was decided that she would receive only an informal reprimand, because to fail her with a note on her transcript about cheating (as dictated by school policy) could hurt her chances of getting into a good school (to say nothing of how it would effect her chances of receiving a National Merit Scholarship that the school loved to boast of its students receiving).

On several occasions it was explained to me that it would be "unfair" to heavily weight test scores, because many of the "best" students, who turned in all of their assignments on time, had difficulty understanding the material and might not be able to do well.

I hate to sound bitter, but even the public university I attend now (I wasn't one of the "best" students. I got A's on tests but didn't do much homework - didn't see the point, since I knew the material) is refreshingly performance based compared to that high school. Other than a few exceptional teachers, I find it best for my blood pressure to try to forget high school entirely.