How do you define "genius" or "satisfactory"? Education should be taught in a way such that one is exposed to the methodologies by which one should approach pr

How do you define "genius" or "satisfactory"? Education should be taught in a way such that one is exposed to the methodologies by which one should approach problems, rather than solving the problem itself[1]. "Teaching to the test" is awful, I agree. How can one, on a national basis, ensure that every school is affording as equal an opportunity as possible? I'm not being sarcastic - what is the better alternative, the better metric by which we can gauge the performance of both our students and our teachers? I certainly don't think 8th grade math teachers should be penalized for the poor performance of their students if those 7th graders who matriculated into your class on September didn't have a functional understanding of fractions. (Conversely, I think teachers who reached 'tenure'[2] and have clocked out until they've hit that pension-year _should_ be punished). How should those teachers be evaluated? One could suggest "grade the teachers on the improvement of performance of their students compared to their prior years performance" but that brings us back to the same problem -- you have a test. I ask this without snark - how do you test as many concepts at that broad a scope of subject, at that grand a scale (let's start small - 3 districts in NY state chosen at random)? How do you even choose what concepts are important at that broad a level? [1] This gets into a whole meta-discussion about what the appropriate methodologies are, which I'll leave as an exercise to those doctoral candidates finishing up their dissertations. [2] Tenure as I understand it serves to allow researchers could undergo extensive, perhaps subversive, study to enrich the human body of knowledge while retaining job security. While educators at a grade/secondary school level perform a great service, I fail (heh) to see the purpose it serves at that level.