Ms. Spelling does the USofA

Secretary Vows to Improve Results of Higher Education
- CBC News

First of all, let's ignore the fact that the Secretary of Education in the USofA looks like she could be the dominatrix in some teachers-revenge S&M porn flick. I mean look at her in her big black frames and short, no nonsense haircut with her hands all folded together in some nunnish approximation. Now picture her dressed up in a black latex cat suit with 5-inch heels holding a whip in one hand and one of those nasty metal rulers in the other. Now stop picturing it, you're at work and people are staring.

And Ms. Spellings? You're shitting me right? Is that name handed down with the job? She's basically a new addition to the cast of that cartoon show C.O.P.S. She's standing alongside LongArm, BulletProof and Sgt. Mace to fight against multiple-multiples and St. Patty's Day exam dates.

I'm stymied as to how the implementation of standardized testing could improve post-secondary grades in the first place. For once, and I'm eating my hat here, I actually agree with a university administrator. At best it will support the contention that there is no correlation between the school you go to and the level of your learning (although I thought this point was already proved when Dubya gradumacated from Yale). At worst you're looking at further degrading student morale by adding another monster exam on top of SATs and deciding what to order off the extra value menu at McDonalds after the bar.