did he attend private school in the states? I don't remember having an excessive amount of multiple choice questions but that kind of stuff varies from teacher to teacher.
The more we lump everyone into the same boat with a "At least we can all agree we need to know X at the bare minimum" we will be expecting a lot from those that have difficulties, and expecting next to nothing from those that would have otherwise excelled. It's a problem in public (and private, though I'd guess to a lesser extent) schooling in general, and will only be exacerbated by the recent cuts to education in places like Texas, where there will now be a higher student / instructor ratio, among other problems. I'm all for some accountability, but the structure of classrooms and our resources to further enrich those students that can handle it are strained more than ever before.
The problem in Arkansas is that schools spend too much time preparing for just the test so they do not get a robust education. I believe too much emphasis is put on the tests when really people can just get lucky and score high when they know very little about the subjects they went over.
From personal experience with the TAKS, it's usually 50-60 questions multiple choice and two write-it-in questions. English TAKS is different.
All testing should be standardized, as should all curricula and lesson plans. None of this teacher free lancing stuff. Lessons should be self taught and modular (no moving on if you can't grasp a concept). Teacher help should be a last resort if the student is stuck, but it's critical for cognitive development and self esteem that they teach themselves. Our public school system sucks. Summer vacation was originally for harvesting crops, yet we still have it, why? Studies have shown this long break is extremely debilitating for skill retention. We have software and computers and internet that allow for individual instruction and moneyball like tracking of progress, yet we still use an antequated A-F system that tells us nothing. We still have teachers giving lectures to large groups of students, making it hard to ask questions or "rewind" or get instant feedback. Why? I could put a student in a room doing free Khan Academy lessons on a computer and they would be better educated than in almost any public school classroom. In public school if the student doesn't understand a concept, they just move on and hope to do better on the next test. Why? This is especially harmful with cumulative subjects like math where concepts build on each other. My mom teaches high school physics. Doesn't matter how good a teacher she is, if the students don't know basic algebra, they have no chance, and there is no time for remedial instruction. Half her kids can't isolate a variable, yet they somehow got through algebra. Pathetic. Of course, vouchers would provide funding for schools that want to implement ideas like this and try different things. This top down command-and-control BS from DC is what's killing education. Too much testing makes education boring? What a moron. Life is one big test. Get used to it.
Most public schools in the US are a joke (particularly in math and sciences) compared to what I've seen in India, the UK, and Scandinavia. But, good public schools like Bellaire and Stratford in Houston can provide a near private school education at a fraction of the cost. I did the IB program along with AP, and the class room experience - compared to the standard classes - was entirely different, from the curricula to the people enrolled in them.
I understood what you meant, and every excuse you gave is BS. Show me questions in the test that talk about riding a bike through a park. (which is a stupid excuse anyways but I will play along). The questions on math, deal with math. They talk about numbers, lines, triangles graphs. The questions on science talk about test tubes. Show me the questions you have an issue with. Most people fail in math, math is a universal language. There is also a spanish TAKS. Why are you making excuses for substandard teachers and students?
I don't have a copy of the test with me, and I sign an affidavit not to show that question, but if you can get a hold of a California CST for third grade you'll find it. There is also a test put out by Open Court for third grade about flying kites on their imagination unit test that is the same concept. There is another question that asks third graders about a passage they just read, and ask which fairy tale it relates to. A new comer to the US from the Philippines or maybe even Mexico isn't going to be familiar with the fairy tales mentioned, but the test assumes that every taker has a background knowledge of those stories. There's also questions about where people would be more likely to find city wildlife on Open Court third grade City Wildlife test that talks about lawns and things that students who are second language learners growing up in apartments and projects have no concept of. The questions on math do deal with math but most are presented in word form. Math questions should assess their ability to perform and apply math skills, but if they don't understand the vocabulary involved in the question they aren't being fairly assessed on the math skill. You don't have to believe any of this exists if you don't want to, but I teach 3rd grade in a title I school. I teach a test prep class after school sometimes because students need this kind of background knowledge, and their scores go up when they have it. That's my experience, if you'd like to believe it never happens that's up to you.
Standardized testing (or rather, the way it has become such an overbearing, suffocating part of the school year) seems like it's done a lot of harm to the lower grade levels of public school. It's a test to bring everyone to the lowest common denominator, it overshadows everything else in the entire school year, it becomes the primary way that schools are 'judged' (and therefore all they really care about improving), it takes away any real chances for teachers to be creative and despite it, our kids seem just a poorly (or even less prepared) for the real world when they get out into it. My wife is an elementary school teacher and it's amazing to me how much TAKS is this iron fist that hovers over a school district. Sad.
Whether or not they suck, responsible parents who want their kids to excel can't sleep on the importance of standardized testing. I'm not just referring to the TAKS, but the SAT isn't going anywhere, and neither are the GRE, LSAT, MCAT, GMAT, TOEFL... I think a bigger issue is institutionalized cheating and data manipulation with all this emphasis on testing=funding.
Standardized tests might not be perfect, but there has to be a baseline to measure performance. In most jobs, an employee is measured by how many widgets they completed, what was the quality of their work, did they meet their project goals, were they within budget, what % of their time was booked to a client/project, how was the feedback from the client, etc. These are the types of metrics that provide management input on evaluating their staff. Nobody likes to be rated, but that's just part of the working life. Teachers should be evaluated based on how well their students perform on standardized tests. Arguing against it because of how the questions are framed and the student might not understand is similar to how some teachers pushed to teach their students with ebonics. How else will these dumb kids learn English?
TAKS is fine. Nearly everyone passes. I do have a problem with the SAT. I bet there is a high correlation between how much parents emphasize education and how well students do on the SAT. Some parents spend a lot of dinero just so their children can do well in the SAT. (Testmasters is an example) I don't blame them because they have the option to do that. But to me, thats when standardize testing stops becoming effective. How is it fair that some students get to take these Test Prep classes while others don't? What if parents can't afford to spend that much? Like someone mentioned earlier (Thadeus?), children born into wealthy family are better off, especially in education. Then again, it's been like that for hundreds of years in many places. I don't know the solution, but I definitely agree with Obama that there should be an education reform, starting with less stress on standardize testing.
You don't understand ebonics either. Nobody pushed to teach their students with ebonics. That was never part of the program. The idea was to understand ebonics in order to help teach standards the same academic English required by state standards. Ebonics was never supposed to supplement academic English. Sadly that's the way it was portrayed. I don't mind teachers, schools, and students being rated. They have to be in order for their to be accountability. However, standardized testing shouldn't be the ultimate in those evaluations but they should be a part of it. In addition standardized testing should be as fair as possible to everyone taking it, and not just upper middle class suburban kids. The tests should assess the skills that they are supposed to assess. You calling kids learning English dumb, shows where you are coming from. I hope that there aren't too many like you out there.
Coming to a new country is hard for a student. It is unreasonable to expect they can come here and be as good as other students. That DOESN'T mean we lower our standards right? I have checked out the math test from 2009. The vast majority was pure math. The word problems had incredibly simple vocab. Probably 3rd to 6th grade vocab. check out this one. Gee how will inter city kids understand the context? In the third grade you may have a point. The immigrants will need a few years to possibly catch up. But handing out diplomas to people who did not receive enough education to pass this test is poor. There is no excuse. The people who make the test aren't dumb. also exactly how is teaching a kid to understand the above problem hurtful to their education? it is basic math.
People can complain all they want but I prefer standardized testing since its standardized mean you will end up with a Gaussian distribution. You can argue about many things but not against Gauss.
"Nisha can solve a set of 5 math problems in 12 minutes. At this rate, how long will it take her to solve 20 sets of 7 math problems?" Ok, I feel reall dumb right now. I can't understand what is meant by 20 sets of 7 math problems. Are they trying to say 20 sets of 7 math problems EACH? My guess would be: If 5 problems = 12 minutes, then (20 sets x 7) problems = x?
Yeah, that one scared me too. I'm thinking 5 problems/12 minutess = 140 problems / x -> the "problems" part cancel out so it'd be 5x = (140*12 minutes) -> x = 336 minutes I hope I remember algebra correctly.
I never suggested lowering the standards and would never suggest that they be lowered. We agree. However if a problem is trying to assess a student's ability to see cause and effect relationships, we do want questions that won't rule them out from showing what they know about cause and effect because it deals with subjects upper middle class students have a background knowledge of but new comers growing up in the projects don't have a background knowledge of. Test both groups of students for knowing cause and effect, and hold both groups of students to the exact same standard of what passes and what doesn't. However, use a question that doesn't show a bias to the living experiences of one student over the other and is able to actually assess the skill intended rather than some other background knowledge. All math vocabulary is fair game in a math question. I don't have a problem with that. I'm not in favor of promoting kids who can't do the work. It's bad for the students, their future classmates, teachers, everyone involved. I believe all students need to be held accountable to the standards they are being taught. Teaching the child to understand that problem or other tests problems isn't hurtful, but teaching them reasoning skills, logic, may be a better use of their educational time than teaching them specific vocabulary they need to know for standardized tests and don't have much application outside of that test. I'm in no way suggesting dumbing down questions or standards for any student. I only want questions that are able to best assess the particular skill and standard they were designed to assess. Or use other methods to help evaluate the student's learning so our education can improve.
