<p>I’m a fan of the more homework, less testing idea. I feel like tests don’t adequately measure someone like… completely. Homework can and usually does. Probably just me (since I am a horrid tester…).</p>
<p>Both of my D’s had only one college course that used a multiple choice test (they are/were non-STEM majors). Every other course was graded on papers, essay tests and oral participation. </p>
<p>If it is a goal to prepare high school students for college, then multiple choice and standardized tests will not do this. The problem is that high school teachers claim they do not have enough time to grade papers and essay tests, so instead they use multiple-choice tests (that they do not return to the student because it would take to long to write a new one - so how can we parents help them??? ugh that is another issue)</p>
<p>[New</a> achievement tests in the works - chicagotribune.com](<a href=“http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-new-state-tests-1031-20111031,0,4856479.story]New”>http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-new-state-tests-1031-20111031,0,4856479.story)</p>
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<p>Miami-Dade is the nation’s 4th largest public school district with around 350,000 students. Only NYC, LA, and Chicago sytems are bigger. Lots of people are impacted with this Miami-Dade testing policy.</p>
<p>in my school you do not take midterms or finals if you have an A in that specific class,nor do you take finals if you are in the most advanced of classes. So not having to take them is a gift for students like me lolz :)</p>
<p>I take so many quizzes and tests a week that not having to take a final or midterm will have no damage on me.</p>
<p>People who do well on tests complain about homework grades and participation points. People who do poorly on tests complain about the content and skills tests cover. Both of these measure different skills. Combining them to evaluate a student is more effective than using one or the other. It’s why colleges look at both the transcript and the test scores. IMO, evaluating students in high school should work the same way, with part of the grade being based on in-class testing and part of it being based on homework and such. That said, I don’t know how many tests they had to take in Florida; maybe it really was out of hand.</p>
<p>Blackrose,
It may be a gift to you now, but it won’t help you in college. A test over one or two chapters is not the same as a midterm or final exam. You will have to take finals in most college classes regardless of your gpa or how advanced the class is. You might as well get some practice in it now.</p>
<p>@Kudryavka; The test-focused method is much more in line with college practices, so doesn’t it seem a better way to measure preparedness? It doesn’t matter if I don’t do a single problem set as long as I’m able to ace the final. Doesn’t that show more than the ability to drudge through repetitive assignments?</p>
<p>IthacaKid - No, it’s not, really. Because once you get past freshman-level survey courses, your college classes won’t be all graded on a couple giant exams. Depending on your field, they’ll likely be heavily based on long-form written assignments or practical lab exercises that draw extensively on your ability to perform research/practical work and communicate information effectively.</p>
<p>Critical thinking and communications skills are completely ignored by the standardized-test fetish - fill in more bubbles!</p>
<p>The dichotomy between tests vs homeworks oversimplifies the true situation in college. </p>
<p>It really should be tests, HS type daily homework/extra credit, and long-term assignments. A college experience is more of the first and last rather than the middle types of assessments. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, most US high schools rarely give long-term assignments that compels a student to learn how to manage his/her time in a span of a few weeks, months, or even the entire semester. </p>
<p>Also, many US high schools place far too much emphasis on less essential aspects such as giving extra/deducting too many points for what IMHO are non-essential aspects such as neatness beyond legibility<em>, degree of ornamentation</em>, insistent conformity to the teacher’s approved method for a given solution when there could be multiple equally valid and sometimes better methods, extra credit, etc. </p>
<p>It is one important factor in why students who excel in this environment suddenly find themselves struggling in college while conversely…students who were penalized in the same suddenly find themselves excelling in college. </p>
<p>While college-level work isn’t all tests, the testing regimen in high schools comes much closer to the actual college experience than high school type daily homeworks/extra credit. The latter certainly does far less IMHO to foster communication and critical thinking skills than tests or better yet…long-term assignments commonly given in colleges. </p>
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<li>a.k.a. Grading on basis of “arts and crafts” rather than actual academic acumen.</li>
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<p>Homework has a couple of key functions:
- It actually lengthens the school day, in effect - more time is devoted to learning the material. It’s hard to imagine a scenario in which better learning would be fostered by little or no homework.
- It may provide a different type of learning or approach to the material. Sometimes, the teacher may explain something in a way that the student just can’t get. Reviewing the same material later with a parent, another student, or even by oneself can lead to understanding it. </p>
<p>The homework as an “elitist” requirement makes no sense. Are we really going to design our education systems around the worst possible scenario, e.g., chaotic home life? There are low income kids whose parents are strict about studying, and wealthy kids with parents too busy to pay attention to them.</p>
<p>Our Jrs and Srs are exempt from finals in classes where they have As all four quarters. They have taken the mid-term, and don’t get the green light until the last minute as forth quarter grades aren’t calculated until the last minute so most do prep anyway. I have no problem with this method. </p>
<p>I am with others who say get rid of the standardized tests that are causing so much overload (or greatly modify). We have the SOLs (I am NOT making this up! Standards Of Learning) in May given in various subjects on differing years. It’s a real pain. The bar to pass is quite low IMO. They have been revamped to avoid too many kids getting perfect scores. Well, that’s what happens when kids are now ‘taught to the test’ and funding is tied to scores.</p>
<p>You guys didn’t tend to realize that the reason of the elimination of the mid term and finals is because of students taking the EOC. Though in Miami dade, I don’t remember any midterm or final test to be anything but easy. Though I still consider the students to be lazy since the EOC is only on the math portion…</p>
<p>This is one of the biggest problem I have with US schools. We are expats from Finland. I got most of my schooling there, so did my husband. Our kids has had most of their earlier schooling there. In Finland the grading system is exam focused. Grades are from 4 to 10 and course grade is (average of) your exam grade(s) plus/minus one grade for classroom work and homework. 8 is considered a good number (kid has met all the academic goals for the course) and maybe one or at most two kids at class get a 10. Best GPA’s in any given school are usually between 9 and 9,5 very seldom anyone gets better. I have never personally met anyone, who has had better GPA than 9,6. Practically all exams are mainly essays or problem sets. Usually very little multiple choice-questions. It’s not the perfect system, far from it, but one thing I have had a lot of trouble getting used to here is, that grades simply tell very little about what my kids have learned. If my kid gets an A, I do know that they have been at class and they have turned in their homework and that is it. It tells almost nothing about if my kid has learned the material or not. It also tells nothing about how my kid did compared to other kids. In our kids school I think one third or even more of students do get an A and it seems that almost all the neighbours kids have straight A’s or almost.</p>
<p>It’s of course nice and all that and make kids feel good for themselves, but I worry that my younger kids will be in for shock of their lives when we one day move back and they will put their feet into Finnish school and have to survive there. Or even worse, Finnish university ( I can still remember those dreaded grade lists on the wall there 200 students took an exam, 170 students got 0 (In Finnish universities grades are usually from 0 to 5, zero is failed), 20 got 1, 7 got 3 and 3 got 5. Yes, we were allowed to do multiple repeat exams for courses to pass them or even to get a better grade.)</p>
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<p>I agree with you, but you might have a hard time convincing others that increased standardised testing along with threats do not necessarily increase the quality of education.</p>
<p>As a student in one of these schools I can say it benefits those taking AP classes because the teachers don’t have to waste a few days reviewing for the midterms and end up having a couple more days for AP reviewing. I personally think this is a good change. The problem lies elsewhere. The school system is putting so much stress on preparation for the FCAT and does so successfully according to our ‘A’ school ranking yet when it comes to other standardized tests such as the SAT the school average on the reading/math is around a 980.</p>
<p>I am also a student at Miami-Dade, and I completely agree with you… my middle school put an inordinate amount of effort into teaching us FCAT (including to all the advanced students that had never seen below a 5), and it’s the same (though to a lesser degree) at my current high school.</p>
<p>The school system here is really messed up, in so many ways.</p>
<p>I am a MDCPS student right now, and this new rule is making it impossible for me to get an A in any course.</p>
<p>How awesome.</p>