There may have been 1, 2 or at most a handful of questions that fit what you described. They are not present in all tests in all 50 states. I read many tests in Texas while working with my daughter over the last 10 years from elementary thru high school, I don't recall any that are bias. You can not throw out the whole system of testing because of these isolated flaws. You fix them.
I'm all for fixing them. Also we may not recognize the biases in tests just from looking. I also didn't mean to insinuate that all questions had a bias just that there are some, and there are plenty of students who miss being proficient by 1 or 2 questions. And there are schools that miss meeting their requirements because of 1 or 2 students. I'm in favor of fixing the problems.
In Texas, to meet the standard, you only have to get barely over 50% answers correct. If 1 or 2 biased questions make you fail then I am sorry, you (the students and schools) have to work a little harder. It does not help those students to keep moving up thru the grades with those scores, it will just get harder later.
Really? Just over 50%? That's crazy. I agree just moving students up who don't meet the standards doesn't help anyone.
speaking of, did anyone catch the investigation into a washington dc school accused of cheating on test scores. the former chancellor had been in the national news for her improvement of washington d.c. and she was subsequently fired for other reasons. kind of long, but you don't have to register
Pgabriel, if you have time, there's supposed to be a great book out on this subject released a couple of years ago titled "The birth and death of the American public school system." I think it's something like that. I always intended on reading it, but then realized I don't read.
Great link btw. I'm not surprised. I'm aware of a school in NYC that raised their SAT average and got more funding by essentially discouraging most of their students from taking the SATs. I need to find the research on that. The sad obvious truth is ghetto schools suck and growing up in the ghetto sucks. Poor black, white, latino whatever...no matter how much money anyone throws at the school, the single best indicator of success will be your parents' financial status. Some rich kids will grow up stupid and some poor kids who are brilliant will become uber successful, but those are the exceptions. I have no idea what the best fix is, but I do strongly believe that most involved cares mostly about themselves, which means they care about money first, and gaming the system to get ahead, not truly educating poor kids. And I'm not sleeping on the fact that many of these kids have horrible parents that don't teach responsibility. I'm just stating the way it is.
Exactly. Standardized testing in public schools are tests of minimum skills necessary for grade level. You don't want a teacher to r****d the progress of her class by drilling/teaching only the very basics. You want teachers to inspire even the brightest students, to go beyond the bare minimums demanded by the state. In short, to teach.
Perhaps we should try testing using professional certification techniques. There should be several variations -- of equal degree of difficulty -- of the test, and teachers and administrators should not be allowed to see them at any time before the test is administered. The scoring should be graduated so that students with minimal passing scores move forward but are flagged for remedial assistance in weak areas. Students with superior scores earn "college points" on a graduated scale. When and if these kids go to college, the state gives them discounts or cash on their tuition based on the number of points they have accumulated during their K-12 years. Children who are not notable achievers could be channeled to trade or craft schools. There is nothing disrespectable about becoming a plumber, mechanic, truck driver, etc. Many trade/craft people make more than school teachers, which is a commentary in and of itself.
How about this . . . move the Standardize test to the summers. Why waste school TEACHING time with them?? Rocket River
