No, this was from a TED talk (which I haven't been able to find). What they did was to analyze the errors that hundreds of thousands of people made when responding to the question.

By the type of error, they were able to isolate which part of the material was misunderstood and give you a brief tutoring based on not only what you missed but how you missed it.

yes. in biometrics. They do state of the art security super biometrics to protect private citizens.

I agree. My husband hired five people this week--none with a college degree, just people skilled at what they do.

That's a great idea! How's it working out? Any success stories?

My oldest is 16 - college applications will start next year. [scary face]

I think there are still some reasonably priced educational institutions, but none of them that are involved in major college sports.

The big problem with pushing everyone into college is that there are a lot of perfectly acceptable jobs in the trades that are necessary, but for which college education is a complete waste of time. And I'm not just limiting it to plumbers, carpenters, etc. I'd add IT in there as well, as by the time you're studying it in school it's already outdated. The other problem is that in pushing everyone into college, you also end up with these really stupid degrees like "gender studies" which have zero application or value in real life, so the students acquire massive student loan debt and still end up back at the local fast food joint!

By "smart testing" do you mean adaptive testing - where the questions get progressively harder as you go until you can't answer them any more?

I think you could supplement the job stuff with some classes on basic accounting, economics, finance, marketing, and operational management just like you'd find in a BBA (Bachelor's of Business Administration). You'd have the practical application of the skills right there. I'd even argue that completion of those plus successfully running the shop should qualify for some kind of official recognition like a BBA. In the business world, it's less about credentials and more about the time you've spent doing - until you start getting into management.

We have a client who heads up a Bachelors of Innovation for U of Colorado. Basically engineering program running concurrently with business plan models. The goal is to have a startup in college or along the way upon graduation

I've recently downloaded an app called Coursera. Have you heard of it?

In what grade level is the smart testing being administered?

These types of practices are already being put into place in some places. In my city, for example, I attended the first high year that offered career training concurrent with traditional classes. Back then, I chose my "major" to be entrepreneurship, so I received grades based on how well I could run a student-run coffee shop in school. We worked on inventory, marketing and promotions, pricing, specials, etcetera. This is where I first learned about accounting. Other students at school studied law, medicine, hospitality, and technology. Our senior year was spent in the field working internships to gain real-world experience.

Nevertheless, the state-mandated exams were administered, and most people on my campus did not do very well on them. Yet--the majority of us had jobs. I don't see the exams going away; there's so much money backing them. In a public school setting, I'm not sure how to circumvent that.

I've seen some nice research on leveraging the internet to provide the "best of" experience to millions of people world wide. There is the potential to develop what is literally the best exposition of a subject and then everyone can have access to it.

I've also seen some smart testing that not only notes what was wrong but knows of all the people who made the same mistake, what part of the source material is responsible and provides additional training on the gap.

This learning through IT and MOOCs is coming. There's no stopping it.

I don't mind the standardized exams though, esp if they're not designed by the gov't. There's this push to get people to go to higher education, but it seems like our efforts would be better spent in grade school. I think grade schools should subscribe to specific widely-recognized (preferably not gov't-designed) curricula and exams, so hiring managers could see the degree and immediately know this person has good written English, algebra, or whatever. We desperately need for a high school transcript to prove someone has specific skills and knowledge.

Very cool. Thanks for sharing. I think this is an exciting time. My oldest is 10 and I'm pretty sure the college model I enjoyed will be in rapid transition when he's ready. It's simply too expensive now.