DIAPRAX AND EDUCATION by Steve Rea

DIAPRAX AND EDUCATION

Excerpts from The Diaprax and Education.
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In 1998 I won a landmark education case, State ex rel. Stephen Rea v. Ohio Department of Education (Case No. 96-1997, in Mandamus). Relying on the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and the State of Ohio Availability of Public Records Law, I requested copies of assessment testing materials used on my daughter at West Branch High School, Beloit, Ohio. I specifically wanted copies of my daughters OPT--Ohio Proficiency Test--which is a "high stakes" test based on the outrageous outcomes of OBE. I also wanted her OVCA, which is a test based on the Work Keys assessments and is used to measure a student's vocational skills--again another test. (Pg. 1)

Most parents today have no problem with using standardized educational or psychological testing instruments. But, as we've seen firsthand in Ohio with the introduction of the OPT (Ohio Proficiency Tests), the assessments themselves--as well as the testing process--are fraught with perils, errors, and inconsistencies. (Pg. 6)

When the databanking of student test scores from these psychological attitudinal tests is mixed with psychological methods of manipulation, using rewards and penalties, it is popularly called "high stakes" testing. In other words, "high stakes" means psychology plus databanking. (Pg. 8)

What I find most amazing is that there has been virtually no opposition to "high stakes" testing from the Christian community or secular conservatives. Instead, it appears that dialectics is operating in full swing. (Pg. 10)

Some education reform documents spell out how they will monitor and rope in the homeschoolers, using rewards and penalties to enforce compliance. (Pg. 12)

The test is the only reliable indicator of how well a student's values are being transformed from the old to the new. Databanking gives the federal, state, and local governments great power to control the public. (Pg. 12)

Education reform is not simply about education. We must never forget that. Education reform is systemic reform from the top down. It will alter every aspect of your life, and every aspect of American society and culture. (Pg. 15)