How do we hold our public schools accountable if we don't administer standardized tests to see if the students are actually learning? I understand that there is a lot of pressure on teachers to teach the students how to do well on the exams, but isn't it possible that the students are actually learning something in doing so? If you take away the accountability, how do we improve our education system? =============================================== Obama says too much testing makes education boring http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110328/ap_on_re_us/us_obama_education By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said Monday that students should take fewer standardized tests and school performance should be measured in other ways. Too much testing makes education boring for kids, he said. "Too often what we have been doing is using these tests to punish students," the president told students and parents at a town hall hosted by the Univision Spanish-language television network at Bell Multicultural High School in Washington, D.C. Obama, who is pushing a rewrite of the nation's education law that would ease some of its rigid measurement tools, said policymakers should find a test that "everybody agrees makes sense" and administer it in less pressure-packed atmospheres, potentially every few years instead of annually. At the same time, Obama said, schools should be judged on criteria other than student test performance, including attendance rate. "One thing I never want to see happen is schools that are just teaching the test because then you're not learning about the world, you're not learning about different cultures, you're not learning about science, you're not learning about math," the president said. "All you're learning about is how to fill out a little bubble on an exam and little tricks that you need to do in order to take a test and that's not going to make education interesting." "And young people do well in stuff that they're interested in," Obama said. "They're not going to do as well if it's boring." The president endorsed the occasional administering of standardized tests to determine a "baseline" of student ability. He said his daughters Sasha, 9, and Malia, 12, recently took a standardized test that didn't require advance preparation but was just used as a tool to diagnose their strengths and weaknesses, and areas where they could use more emphasis from teachers. The girls attend the private Sidwell Friends School in Washington. Obama, who has been pushing his education agenda all month, has expressed concern that too many schools will be unable to meet annual proficiency standards under the No Child Left Behind law this year. The standards are aimed at getting 100 percent of students proficient in math, reading and science by 2014, a goal now widely seen as unrealistic. The Obama administration has proposed replacing those standards with a loftier yet less prescriptive requirement that by 2020 all students graduating from high school should be ready for college or a career. Obama wants Congress to send him a rewrite of the 2001 law before the start of a new school year this fall. Although his education secretary, Arne Duncan, has been working hard with lawmakers of both parties, the deadline may be unrealistic with Congress focused on the budget and the economy. Congressional Republicans also look unwilling to sign off on Obama's plans to increase spending on education.
Hum Being in grades K-12 test prep publishing, I’d like to hear more about the president’s plans. I know that the administration is pushing a new “Race to the Top” funding program for states and implementing new national standardized testing requirements with national Common Core Standards. Still, I’d like to know how this will affect testing.
Teaching is not A + B = C Kids learn differently Kids test differently Good Test Scores . . .don't always mean the student 'learned'. We talk alot about ACCOUNTABILITY . . .but we must be careful what we hold people accountable for. . . It a Kid is up all night because his mom and dad are fighting His dad beats him in the morning. He goes to school with no food. he bombs on a test. .. which is most responsible for his failure Him? His teacher? His parents? As a society . . IMO . . .we hold teachers FAR TOO ACCOUNTABLE for somethings that are simply beyond their ability to control. Rocket River
Before I go any further, I just want to preface by saying that I'm one of the lucky people that went to a good public school. I may not truly understand all the problems schools deal with in the trenches. While learning "A + B = C" might not mean you actually understand the entire concept, it will probably lead the student to understand the concept if the school reinforces that knowledge. Perhaps schools can concentrate on that after the tests are administered. I understand there are things that our schools cannot control (e.g. domestic issues), and some schools or teachers may be graded harshly. However, that doesn't mean we turn our blind eye to the problems. Considering how much money both our federal and state government pumps into our education system, isn't it wise to give them some visibility to see what is working and what is not?
Having baseline assessments is fine. TEACHING TO THE TEST is not. Students need to learn independent thinking/critical reasoning.
of course Obama does not want more testing. That just means more uneducated kids.... aka more donkey votes
Wife is a teacher. Hates the tests. I don't see anything wrong with them. She has some smart kids and some that aren't. Those that are smart on non-TAKS related stuff are also do well on TAKS. Those that aren't that bright on non-TAKS related stuff usually do poorly on TAKS. Hence, I'm ok with the tests. They may not be perfect but I think it gives a good ballpark estimate of how a school is doing. But ya, some teachers seem to almost exclusively teach to TAKS which is bad.
You'd have to be borderline r****ded to fail the TAKS test... From personal experience, TAKS is usually testing on subject matter that is a grade or two grades back in terms of difficulty. Honestly, the problems of our education system today are derived from the lack of motivation to succeed in school. If the environment in which you learn in stressed more about the importance of school, and maybe used a bit of peer pressure to motivate kids; breed competition. Maybe we wouldn't be having this discussion. If you crowd a school with a bunch of morons who have no desire to get far in life, then obviously that mantra will spread around the classroom and create a domino effect. That is the difference between public school and private school unfortunately.
Teaching to the test is indeed bad, but who says critical reasoning and standardized testing must be mutually exclusive.
The problem is. . . if you a teacher. . and you wanna keep your job what is the most important thing to you? 1. Be a good teacher and teach independent thinking/critical reasoning . . only to have you kids not do well on some test. or 2. Teach to the test . . have the kids do great . . get to keep you job, make bonuses and get pats on the head. I think that is the main issue. it is not the test. . it is the fact that they weigh so heavily on Teacher job evaluation It is like basketball .. . we wonder why one kid is scoring 50 pts a game and his team is losing . . . well . . 30/pts a game on a losing team may gets you into a D1 School . . . 15 points a game and 5 asst on winning team may not. What you stress . .. is where people will focus. Rocket River
If your kids cannot do the simple math problems on the test then critical reasoning can wait. I mean how much critical reasoning can a kid do if their brain doesn't even have a basic mathematic language?
