July 2009 Weddings
DLpanda08
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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interesting article re: education and testing
My professor assigned this article on Monday and I felt it was really interesting considering the local craziness regarding standardized tests after the cheating scandal in Atlanta Public Schools came out.
Since we have so many teachers on the board, I thought I would share. Non-teachers would probably find it interesting too. It discusses Cambell's Law and the effects of high stakes testing.
http://www.aft.org/pdfs/americaneducator/summer2010/Perlstein.pdf
Re: interesting article re: education and testing
I'll admit, I didn't read the full article (it was long!!). However, I'm going to give my opinion anyway.
I don't like standardized testing (who really does?), but I do believe they are a necessary evil. The only way that teachers can be held accountable for doing their job is by measuring what their students have learned.I know there is always the argument of the honors teacher will always outperform the teacher of the low-level teacher. Well, yeah, duh. Those things along with other factors should be taken into account. Basically, you are looking to see if students learning from their teacher. I also want to add that I DO NOT agree with merit pay for teachers based on test scores.
All that being said, I do not like "High Stakes" testing. The pressure that is put on students to do well is a bit ridiculous. I think the tests should just be a basic assessment of the students knowledge and skills. Some may argue that if the students are not held accountable then they will not put their full effort forward, but in my experience those students are few and far between.
I also want to add that I hate that testing takes away from teaching days in most schools. Although, I'm not really sure how to get around that.
What we have discussed in class is the concept of Campbell's Law and high stakes testing (like graduation tests and etc.) skewing results to the point that they are essentially worthless.
The general idea being proposed is to implement lower stakes testing as an alternative. It would provide an opportunity for teachers to assess students without compromising the results. For example, instead of a huge midterm and cumulative final exam which determine a large portion (if not all) of a student's grade, give students several quizzes throughout the year which carry a low weight in the final grade. This way the assessments truly display student learning and the focus in the classroom is on the material rather than the test.
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There is always a big debate here about standardized tests. We have provincial exams at grades 3, 6, 9 and 12. That are written on the same day and time by every student across the province. In Grade 12, they count for 50% of a students final grade in core courses.
What I find the scariest are comments like this:
?What gets taught is what gets tested.? The rest?even if it is part of the state standards?gets left behind.
The things that are getting left behind are the things that are engaging and fun and interesting to students. We are taking away their desire to learn for innate purpose of seeking knowledge about something that peaks their interest.
When there are high stakes tests, teachers teach to the test. I am guilty of this as well in my Grade 12 Biology classes. I know what is likely to be tested and focus the most on those topics. That leaves very little time for students to ask questions about related topics that interest them or for relatively open research assignments and other things that would definitely make the class more interesting. It saddens me as a teacher.
High test scores are not necessarily markers of how "smart" students are. More-so markers of how good a teacher is at "teaching to the test". In which case, I fear, very little real learning takes place. Emphasis is on rote memorization as opposed to application of knowledge or even better synthesis of new ideas.
That being said. I think there is a need for some standardized testings. A way to make sure that kids are being taught what they are supposed to. Particular here because we do not have an equivalent to the SAT, we need to have an unbiased way to rank students for things like universities and colleges, and a standardized provincial wide exam allows for that. However, in no way do I think it should count as 50% of a students overall grade.
So in response to high stakes testing, I believe a change HAS to start at the college level. The reason being is if college professors are still assessing their students most heavily on the midterm/final and papers... we NEED students to be able to know how to pass tests... that's the problem with my students. So many of them are assessed throughout school by "getting by" with classwork, participation, homework, etc... and even though they rarely pass tests, they're still passing the classes. So are they able to really PROVE that they have mastered the content if they are failing tests? Now, I know there are special cases with students who have limited testing abilities and our students are given accomodations for those (i.e. sped/rsp/ELL) but I'm mostly speaking to the general population here...
Thoughts?
Good point Crystal. But the question is, what percentage of your students are even going to college/university?
Here a lot of students do diploma programs or technical or trade school where assessment is not your typical midterm and final exam that you would see for a degree program.
We are continuously told that we shouldn't use the "we need to prepare them for university" excuse because *most* of our students don't even go to University. (I am that person though, I think we grossly under-prepare our students for post-secondary)
this.
sure, standardized testing has a place and time (though I truly believe in funding our schools so that other forms of assessment as possible), but high stakes testing - it needs to f'ing go. the "if you don't pass, x will happen" doesn't work - for anyone!