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The only problem is that we are already testing these kids to death. In my state 8th graders must take 960 minutes of state testing the Spring alone. That does not include the 180 minutes of the Explore test (precursor to ACT), 300 minutes of MAP testing to evaluate them, the 240 minutes of district learning checks, 300 minutes for the IBST (Iowa Basic Skills) and all the regular classroom testing. That is over 33 hours of mandated testing. Oh and let us not forget all the test prepping that goes into all of those tests. Don't forget that on the long testing time days the kids are so frazzled afterwards that no new learning is going to take place. Basically they are missing 3 weeks, at minimum, of learning days that you and I used to have.
One other thing. It does no good to make it high stakes for just one party. For it to change things it needs to be high stakes for the schools, the teachers, and the students. If I could think of a way to make it so, if you really want to see changes make it high stakes for the parents too.
OK, I stand corrected. That's getting assinine. It's interesting to hear that the IBST tests are still given, I remember them from 40 years ago when I took them. If they are given to all students, that should be a fine criteria to judge students from different schools.
I agree with putting some degree of accountability on the parents. IMO the schools need a lot more options to hold kids back that have not demonstrated that they are ready to move th the next grade, and to expel those that won't work and mearly want to disrupt others. Lets let the teachers focus on the kids (and parents) that want to improve themselves.
We need to do away with the ridiculous idea of grades (1st, 3rd, etc. But doing away with A, B and C would probably be ok as well) and instead focus on level and ability.
Not every 8 year old is at the same level and not every 3rd grader is equal in different subjects.
Scrap the whole system and start over.
Year round school, allow students to move up in each subject as they are fit, tailor education to individuals.
Wow...you are describing how homeschooling works. And I can do it for a lot less money than the Government can .
I agree with putting some degree of accountability on the parents. IMO the schools need a lot more options to hold kids back that have not demonstrated that they are ready to move th the next grade, and to expel those that won't work and mearly want to disrupt others. Lets let the teachers focus on the kids (and parents) that want to improve themselves.
I definitely am in agreement that NCLB puts a lot on the educators & really if the kids family & community environment is anti-intellectual, there is only so much educators can do.
And unfortunately its these types of kids that the public educational system caters to.
You really do have to look at private schools if you want your kid to get a decent education.
It's so bad that we're testing to see if the testing is testing enough.....come on. The scores are bad. Now fix your curriculum instead of inventing a "new test" to test before the real test is given. You still get the same bad scores.
And I've seen these tests. And I went and looked up the NYS Regents test I took in 9th grade decades ago to compare.
And back then there was NO multiple choice. You had to give the work and show the answer and the teachers themselves graded the test and submitted the marks. Today...all but 3 are multiple choice. Life is NOT multiple choice.
And the test prep....how to eliminate the "bad choices" and then pick from the rest.
No wonder people today cannot think and need to be told what to do. This is the result of at least a decade of hand holding, multiple choice and removal of memorization and rote skills. Math classes have turned into arts and crafts classes now with all the "manipulatives" required.
And I've seen these tests. And I went and looked up the NYS Regents test I took in 9th grade decades ago to compare.
And back then there was NO multiple choice. You had to give the work and show the answer and the teachers themselves graded the test and submitted the marks. Today...all but 3 are multiple choice. Life is NOT multiple choice.
No wonder people today cannot think and need to be told what to do. This is the result of at least a decade of hand holding, multiple choice and removal of memorization and rote skills. Math classes have turned into arts and crafts classes now with all the "manipulatives" required.
I already stated this in another thread, but I wonder if we took student scores in the 3 Rs from the past decade ('01-'11) & compare them with scores from previous decades, I wonder how would contemporary students stack up?
A college professor looks at the forgotten victims of our mediocre educational system--the potentially high achievers whose SAT scores have fallen, and who read less, understand less of what they read, and know less than the top students of a generation ago."
Besides, yearly testing (the only NCLB requirement) and making those test results publicly available exactly what horrible things has NCLB made educators do?
Besides, yearly testing (the only NCLB requirement) and making those test results publicly available exactly what horrible things has NCLB made educators do?
Lower the bar so that they meet AYP (also part of NCLB). We have a nation of scantron experts who are taught to eliminate the wrong answers in multiple choice tests.
Given a class give them 2 tests. One is a fill in the blank and the other multiple choice.
Then compare the grades. You'd think that two different classes of kids took those 2 tests.
I saw it done last year in middle school math. It was unbelievable how many more passed the multiple choice test vs the fill in the blank test.
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