Think your kid is taking too many tests? The Blue Ribbon Commission on Testing and Accountability agrees with you and wants the state board of education to ditch some of them. What do you think?
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Kids taking too many tests?
Submitted by mike williams on November 19, 2007 - 5:46pm.
N&O | schools & education
Too much testing.
Submitted by Visitor (not verified) on November 19, 2007 - 8:55pm.
I hope that the above statement and reply isn't from a teacher, in fact I'm sure it isn't.
I am so relieve to see the Blue Ribbon for Excellent Schools to see what the teachers have said for a long time. We are testing the children too much this day and time, in fact more than we ever have. It is very true to say with all the testing we are not seeing an imporvement in the scores, the remediation of kids below grade level isn't decreasing , they are only increasing. I personally see that with my children that I teach each day.
As for "teaching the test"....this statement doesn't mean that we don't want to teach what is on the test. The meaning behind "teaching to the test" is as educators we are having to rethink everything in how we teach material in reference to the way things are worded and presented. Today, it has nothing to do with the skill itself, it has everything to do with the way the skill is presented and the vocabulary used when asking questions and presenting the problem....that is "teaching to the test".
Many will say..."Why are the teachers doing this?" Well let me ask anyone this, wouldn't you do things a particular way at your job the way you boss tells you to do things, even though you see a better way that will accomplish the same tast with better results. However on the flip side of that, in most businesses public and private "HOW" you are doing isn't printed across every newspaper and across ever tv screen saying what the "teachers aren't doing" and what the "school system isn't doing for the children". I was asked by someone on that committee about this same issue and I so please to see that someone actually listened to our concerns and actually wrote that in their plan and recommendations. It is a proud day to see that the teachers' concerns with testing is actually being listened to. We are in the ditches digging with a broke shovel, but we are the first to be blamed for everything and anything that has/is gone/going wrong today. It is time for the state departement to go outside of their office doors and see what the schools are struggling with, instead of hiding behind figures and not listening to the problem. The sad thing is...the "powers that be" know what the problem is , but like in many careers today, politics takes over like a bleeding cancer cell and infects all the good that we the teachers are doing for the kids today. If you disagree, I can only suggest....don't base your opinions of school from what you see in the papers or on the tv.,...you should visit and go into the schools and talk with the people that are doing the work. I am sure your view will change. I have had that experience working with parents that spend more and more time and they just really didn't know ....and that's the bad part...the general public "just really doesn't know". Thanks you!
testing
Submitted by school psych (not verified) on November 20, 2007 - 12:12am.
Yes,
Way too much testing. Too many ramifications to list.
And needs to be No family left behind vs No child...
ps: all aged children year who are unable to dress themselves and or put together a single coherent sentence-out loud are spending all time on academics they can't use.. 8 years spent learning letter sound when they still can't even pull up their own pants...no child left behind
I have only seen the work of a few teachers recently but I have made a few observations. There are some teachers that are totally worthless. I have laughed until it hurt while reading some of the notes that they had sent home to the parents. I have met some competent but very strict teachers. These teachers are effective and hard to forget. My favorites, however, are the bubbly (and usually newer) teachers. They make learning fun. Since there will always be a teacher shortage, nothing much will ever change. It was the same way when I went to school, only then I was unaware of the damage the worthless ones could do. Perhaps they could be "retrained" but if not, I would rather have overcrowding than keep them in the system. Teaching has never been an "easy" job.
What is different now, is that some teachers are afraid of testing. Some teachers don't want to take them to see how they are ranked, and apparently don't want to give them to their students either. This I do not understand. Tests not only tell you how the students are doing, but are a measure of how you, the teacher, are transferring skills. If you are using the exact same lesson plan year after year, you are not performing your job. You don't have to use all the test scores. Taking a test is a learning experience in itself. Practice makes perfect. If I remember how the "higher-ups" work, they care about attendance, behavioral incidents, standardized test scores, parental gripes. and the budget. Teachers should teach they way they are most comfortable and effective. The students are the canvas, you have the brush and the paint. It is better to aim for the stars and miss than to aim for the floor and succeed. Stretch those minds far above what you think they can handle and a few of them will surprise you. It should be your goal not to exceed your school standards, or district, or county, or state, or country, but world standards.
As for the guy with the pants, we had kids like that too. They were called "special" and they went to a "special" class with a "specialized" teacher until they could rejoin a regular class. They got the extra attention they needed and the learning of the rest of the class could proceed on schedule. Nobody cared about his or his parents "self-image" then. The health of the "herd" was far more important, and I believe it still is today.
RickyW Your observation of
Submitted by Visitor (not verified) on November 20, 2007 - 6:09pm.
RickyW
Your observation of the "few" and I'm sure the "VERY FEW" teachers that you speak of is the problem. You as an general citizen "thinks" you know what is going on and you "think" you know what "should" happen.
It is so easy to say that a child who is "special" to be in a "special" class. YUP!! it's just that easy, almost like fitting in the last piece of a puzzle.
IT IS NO WAY that easy to do things and not to even mention to red tape involved with the process to place a child that is "special".
As for the "pants" issue...that is what we are screaming for help about. Your are testing a child to make a full years progressin Kindergarten. This very child comes from a home with no parental support, no language development, no behavior managment, no written expression. And you expect that this child can make the same gains in one year that the other kids in the room that have supportive parents, exceptional outside expriences of vacations, playgroups, and parents that just talk with their child....the child with the wet pants that can't pull them up, WILL MAKE PROGRESS....but only at the progress they are ready for. There isn't a cookie cutter solution to make a child succeed. If there was....we wouldn't be talking about the issue, because this problem with pretty much be extinct as the dinosaurs.
We are craming and trying to get the very children like "special" on you described up to a certain level..when they haven't been read to, they haven't picked up a book, they don't even know what print is...AND YES there are thousands of children that enter our doors each year . This happens year after year after year...and it will continue until the parents are held accountable for something. EVERYTHING falls onto my shoulders.
Here's my analogy:
You take a child that has never rode the bike without the training wheels....and you take the bike and have another child try to ride it as well. Both children about the same size and height. One grasps the concept quick and only needs a few days before he/she is riding without the training wheels. The other child tries, but falters, falls off constantly, and has to have you hold the back of the seat as he/she tries.
The first child has been exposed to a bike, has teh coordination, fine and gorss motor skills developed, hand eye coordination well developed, parents read and spend time exposing him/her to a variety of meaning experiences that he/she is able to make connections with.
The second child comes from ahome, no parental support, sits in front of a tv. or runs around and argues sibblings and friends. This child has never been on a bike, because it is either torn up, stolen or never had one. The child has never been shown what "petals" are. What they are for, how they work...and you use your foot and leg muscles to push and make them turn which causes the wheels to turn and make the bike go....forget taking the training wheels of....they don't know what this THING called a bike is and how it is used and how his/her body will work with the components to make it work.
This is where the test and the undrealistic expectations that are not developmentally appropriate even for the average child.
YOu can not expect the child to read a word like "sand", "float" "sail" "ocean" "goggles" "sand castle" bucket" if for one:
1. they have never been read too
2. they have never been talk to and explained the text and teh names of the simple nouns in a book.
3. They have never been to the beach or a lake ( believe me, there are MANY that haven't) and played with those objects.
If a child has those 3 things...no matter if they can read...they can activate their PRIOR KNOWLEDGE...and connect the bigging sound with the structure /meaning of the sentence and finally connect it with name of an object in the story's illustration....if they can put 1, 2,3 together...they are going to be able to read and makse some sense of it.
But that "special child" that can't pull his/her pants up...doesn't come from a home with literate parents, that value education and certainly hasn't provided this child with the first 3 important components of any early reading programs.
What kind of testing?
Submitted by rtowson on November 20, 2007 - 7:53pm.
Unverified Visitor, I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that you are in fact a teacher. I am hoping against all hope at this point that you are not an English teacher. I, as a general citizen, think I know what is going on and I think I know what should happen – no quotation marks required. I know this by way of my experience with having a child currently in our school system, as well as one who is no longer in the system. Please don’t suggest that, because I am not an education insider, I have no idea what is going on. When my child can pass clean through his classes with A’s and B’s and yet still not actually know much of anything, well, we have a bit of a problem. How can this be? As his sole goal in class is to be able to regurgitate in exact form whatever multiple-choice answers will be appearing on the test, he is in no way required to truly think about anything. Any teacher who attempts to deviate from the “No Child Left, Behind” Federal money acquisition program is quickly slapped down. Where my own school experience was one of being trained how to think, my child’s experience is that of being trained not to. The question is not “Is there too much testing?” – there isn’t. However, there is too much of the wrong kind of testing – testing on rote recitation rather than conceptual knowledge. In addition to not helping my child prepare for life, our current situation isn’t doing any favors for the teachers who really want to teach. The good ones are no doubt opposed to the current level of testing, as all of this testing is focused on the wrong thing. If the good ones try to teach concepts and guide toward understanding, they will be branded as failures when their students fail to regurgitate properly. The bad teachers, of course, don’t like all the testing either as it increase the odds that someone will find out just how poor a teacher they are.
Ok...as usual, you didn't
Submitted by Visitor (not verified) on November 21, 2007 - 2:51pm.
Ok...as usual, you didn't touch on may parts of what I said. This typical of the general public. Granted that was a smart thing to do, because you don't have the background to fairly argue my point.
This isn't an English class nor is this a paper to turn in to my professor after I have completed the editing and revisions. But, I understand, you have to pick apart something. I have seen this on many blogs, the ones that know that they can't argue always try to offend the person by attacking how they write.
I write a response at the moment ... read the text an listen to the message instead of picking apart everything you can find.
Thanks for your response as well.
Review my first response, you will see...granted look over the mistakes that this "awful teacher" made, I said exactly what you said about the testing situation. Teachers are made to teach to the test and teach how to read and interpret questions and text presented.
I'm sure you would do all you could to keep your job and your boss happy regardless of what you think is right or wrong. I am one of the good ones out there that fight against this and expose my children to as many different learning experiences no matter if THE TEST will have this on it. I want them to think for themselves, and I want them to be able to analyze a situation when it arrives and know what and what not to do.
Typical General Public guy
Submitted by rtowson on November 22, 2007 - 1:40am.
Once again, you seem to presume that because I am not a teacher I do not “have the background to fairly argue [your] point.” This is not the case; I simply was unable to follow the rambling that you posted. Perhaps this is my failure – perhaps not.
If you believe that my calling your writing into question is a matter of spite, or is some kind of attempt to dodge a powerful argument, you are missing the point. The point, to be completely unsubtle about it, is that if you cannot string together a coherent sentence I don’t want you teaching my child. There is a basic level of communication ability needed to teach, as that activity involves one person delivering information and another receiving it. I realize that the ‘net is notoriously slack when it comes to clear communication, but as a teacher I expect that you would put at least as much effort into your writing as I do, given that I am not an education professional.
Just for the record, I do not do all I can to keep my boss happy, regardless of what I think is right or wrong. And I do not hold the kind of position of sacred trust that you, as a teacher, do. If you are telling me that you are going to keep on giving my kid short shrift because that’s the way things are, expect little sympathy.
No test, no failure
Testing can be a valuable tool. What we test for; what we do with test scores; how we test; and when and whom we test are what we need to stress and improve.
Think we are teaching the test and shouldn’t? Show me what is on the math test that you don’t want taught.
If you want to see straight A’s and get lots of feel good reports, stop standardized testing and use subjective measures. Remember an A for effort? Can’t have straight A’s and then get average scores on standardized tests, can we?
Stop being scared of testing. The truth shall set you...to studying harder.