Job skills and educational assessment
A survey of leaders in the business world paints a dire picture for the future of the American workforce.
Nearly three-quarters of survey participants (70 percent) cite deficiencies among incoming high school graduates in "applied" skills, such as professionalism and work ethic, defined as "demonstrating personal accountability, effective work habits, e.g. punctuality, working productively with others, time and workload management."

More than 40 percent of surveyed employers say incoming high school graduates hired are deficiently prepared for the entry-level jobs they fill. The report finds that recent high school graduates lack the basic skills in reading comprehension, writing and math, which many respondents say were needed for successful job performance. The Conference Board
This sounds great for homeschoolers. Not to capitalize on the failures of public institutions or anything, but how many of us cite character related issues as a motivation for homeschooling? Not surprisingly, of the basic skills cited, writing was singled out as a skill in need of improvement. Good writing skills are critical for communication. Communication is critical to any business trying to compete in the information age. Competition is important in the global economy.

And the global economy is an oft-cited concern in defense of No Child Left Behind whose accountability standards have led to a proliferation of standardized tests. So much so that the testing industry cannot handle the volume of papers to grade, which has already resulted in serious mistakes.

Which brings us to Maryland. Who, with 100% agreement from the local superintendents is doing away with all short and long answer items on the high school exit exam and going completely to a multiple choice format.
The move to a pure multiple-choice format addresses complaints from school systems about how long the tests take to be processed. Written-response questions take much longer to grade than multiple-choice questions because they have to be evaluated by humans, not computers...The Washington Post
It makes perfect sense. Who needs writing?

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