June 2008 Weddings
Casperdy
member
Dear Community,
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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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
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.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
great read: successful adult takes 10th grade stan. test
Member of the school board decided to take the 10th grade standardized tests for math and reading. Really interesting article:
Re: great read: successful adult takes 10th grade stan. test
It is an interesting read. However, I can't help but notice the test he took was not over subject material he'd been seeing and studying on the day-to-day. He was in 10th grade a long time ago, and back then I'm sure different things were taught. I think its unfair for him to say, based on his own scores and non-use of the material on the test, that the test isn't a good grading system.
Sort of like the bar exam - had I walked in there and just taken it cold, or if I were to take it 20 years from now, I'd probably fail miserably. Also, the bar exam contained a lot of material I had to learn to take the test that I no longer use on the day to day, even though I work as a lawyer. Thats just how standardized tests are. Not only do they measure ability to learn, but the ability to think critically and deduce an answer, or at least an educated guess.
That being said, I'm not IN education so I don't know how those tests are developed, or even whats ON those tests anymore. I've been out of high school for ten years.
Additionally, I've made my opinions known, both on this board and IRL, that I believe the education system is failing our young people miserably. Yes, children need to be able to learn basic reading, writing, math, history, social studies, etc. in order to expand their world view and be able to communicate effectively in the world around them. However, I see a lot of common sense things that people need to know in order to survive slipping through the cracks (for example, basic financial education, or what to do if your car stalls on the side of the road, besides call Triple A).
I don't know the way to fix this, but I find this article disturbingly slanted. I would like to hear from the people who develop and promote the usefulness of these tests.
I found this very interesting, especially the part where he mentioned that the skills tested aren't applicable in so many fields once out of school. I totally agree with Dehko about our system failing students regularly and that "common sense" stuff should be getting taught.
I think that the standardized tests our kids take (in addition to how often and how young we start them) are ridiculous for the most part and only measure a small sliver of what is taught. Not to mention most of these tests are nationally developed and distributed which means a student in Georgia who has been taught one set of standards is taking the exact same test that a student from California is taking even though s/he has learned different standards. Now, we do "benchmark" tests in my system that are (I believe) developed in-state. In case you can't tell, I HATE standardized tests with a purple passion. I do understand the need for accountability in schools, but even smart kids can be bad at test taking or have parents that won't bring them to school (which also hurts the school as far as NCLB accountability is concerned).
Maybe someone who has to administer these tests, and somewhat have their "worth" as a teacher determined by them, can chime in with some more insight.
I think his opinions basically sum up how most teachers feel about the system right now.
The thing that irritates me the most is that we waste MILLIONS on testing every year... the tests aren't measuring what they should... and we're being furloughed because there isn't enough money to pay us. UGH!
Not that it will make much difference, but this is why I've applied to be on the assessment writing committee for our district.
Life of mrsjanks