<p>This is one of the best articles Ive read in a long time regarding standardized testing. I probably would home school if my children were small, thank goodness the youngest will be out of high school soon. I dont think folks realize the amount of politics that are being played with our childrens educations. Politicians award contracts to these testing companies that are full of crap. In the meantime, our kids are no smarter, and we as a nation are so behind others.</p>
<p>Every job needs to have some accountability set to it and testing is one way to measure the effectiveness of teachers. No teacher, nobody wants to be assessed, evaluated. I’ve seen some loving wonderful teachers in my day who didn’t teach the kids a measurable things Maybe they are happier and learned a lot of this or that, but those kids also needed to learn grammar and math facts which were not done If these teachers are so danged wonderful perhaps they can study the test and incorporate them into the ir teaching year round so that the kids can do well on them without just the drills, x weeks before the event </p>
<p>If you home school your kids, and want them to have the best opportunities for the most selective college, you had better add teaching to some tests to your list of very important things to do. WIthout an independent teachers/ counselor’s report and grades from a large group of kids, the test scores become all the more important. A couple of my kids were terrible students and were not so good behaviorially , and I got them into the top high schools with academic scholarships by pulling them out of school and home schooling them, focusing on the entrance tests so that they aced them getting into the top stanine. The only recs on the table were those from extracurriculars and really those programs were specific with me paying for my kids to be in them, and they gave glowing recs, of course. Yes, it can work that way for college entry too. But those test scores end up important in many ways, because how else can one quickly, inexpensively and easily differentiate and assess large groups of kids. </p>
<p>@cptofthehouse I dont have a problem with some tests, but it is out of control. We had tests when I was in school, we took the IOWA a few times, and maybe an achievement test or two. I did very well in school, and had good test scores. My thoughts are if you receive a good basic education, the test scores will come. What really gets me, at least for Ohio is, these legislators are requiring these test sight unseen??? And that raises major flags for me. I dont need someone on the state board rewarding one of his pals with a testing contract.</p>
<p>I agree that things are going to far with some tests and there is a suspicion of political gain and corruption. But I can also tell you that a good basic education is not the only thing that brings up the test scores. I live right next to one of the highest regarded school districts in the country. THey have testing centers send buses to get the kids bussed right to them after school No wonder at all that those kids do well on the tests, that get them into a kinds of things. A woman I know moved into NYC after her marriage dissolved, and she was so grateful about the test emphasis that she actually fought, hated so much, because that the kids were test savvy meant they were able to do well on the NYC tests that got them into the favored public schools. You don’t do well on those tests, the school you get may not be very good at all, in fact, unacceptable to many of us. That’s what it comes down to. </p>
<p>If those kids don’t learn to take test well and learn what is on the test, there will come a time when it hurts them, and there would be little time to do anything about it. The testing is making sure that teachers, curriculum and schools are covering important info that it is important for kids to know. </p>
<p>My cousin who homeschooled her kids hated tests and avoided them. Her one kid was as smart as a whip and he did just fine on the test when it finally came time to take them to get something. Her other two bombed which closed a lot of doors. They were perferctly capable and I’d bet a small fortune that I, or any teacher could have brought the test levels up for them had that been directly addressed as I did for my own kids that did not naturally learn that material. Had to be poured in their heads </p>
<p>I disagree, I have seen no correlation with the Ohio Achievement tests, and the other tests they give translate to higher ACT/SAT scores. There are kids that can ace the OGT(ohio graduation test) and the OAT(Ohio achievement test)and they are not prepared for college.I think you have to remember, most of the parents on here are parents to overachievers, and/or are college centric. Doors will not be closed for the majority of high school kids who dont have astronomical test scores, that is just not true. Not to mention, there are too many excellent colleges that dont even require tests and those graduates are quite successful</p>
<p>There is no way passing the OGT correlates to college readiness. My 15 year old passed every section with the highest grade last year, It is basic competency, not college readiness. </p>
<p>The problem with standardized testing is that that it doesn’t work. It hasn’t made our schools, which are the best expression of democracy, not the worst; it hasn’t made them better. We’ve been testing for DECADES with no tangible results. What it does do is reduce every student to a numerical commodity that can be monetized, marketed, and rejected if imperfect. What it does do is give unbelievable influence over educational best practices to businesses who have their own agenda and bottom line (and neither of those are remotely related to the education and success of, say, a 10 year old). What it is doing is driving qualified engaged professional staff away from a career and substituting TFA temps and the like. Homeschooling can be wonderful but it’s hardly a sustainable nationwide public policy. </p>
<p>Standardized tests are applied to non standardized students. Because they are people. With individual learning styles, tastes, interests, backstories, and traumas. It is a grave disservice to act like if we just taught every child exactly the same, across the country, we’d get exactly the same results. Nobody wants a bad teacher out of a school more than the good teacher who is picking up the slack. But to make a teacher’s success dependant on student scores is ludicrous, insulting, and simplistic. The test is NOT about covering material. It is about selling test prep materials, tests themselves, and a political agenda meant to dissasemble public education because you can make more money if you just got those idiot teachers out of the way between companies and students. </p>
<p>//gets down off soapbox//</p>
<p>My sister is a special ed teacher in Texas who instructs OTHER teachers each summer - she is good at what she does. She is discouraged and frustrated because her school expects her students to pass the standardized tests. Some of these kids can hardly read. They are in elementary school now - I wonder what will happen when they get to high school.</p>
<p>**<strong><em>BRAVO @greenbutton *</em></strong>**MY SENTIMENTS EXACTLY!!</p>
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<p>That is the typical line repeated ad nauseam by the service providers and the politicians they bought! It is akin to tell us that the thermometer does not work in measuring your temperature. Nobody expects the thermometer to also diagnose the illness, let alone help the nurses become doctors. </p>
<p>Do you wonder why, as MLH said, that “Some of these kids can hardly read. They are in elementary school now - I wonder what will happen when they get to high school.” ? It happens when the kids did not go to school armed with a loving family who made sure they could read before they even started 1st grade. </p>
<p>The fight against standardized test is fueled by the consistent NON acceptance of the mediocrity of our public school system. A system that relies on finding the cheapest “new talent” culled from groups of students that do NOT have great qualifications to balance the obligations due to older teachers. That is the system we now have after six decades of letting the leadership of the teachers decide what kind of education system we should have. And that is the price we will pay for at least several decades more.</p>
<p>Fwiw, why is anyone surprised when testing or tutoring firms are bad? Where do you think the operators learned the ways to manipulate the system? </p>
<p>What you have is an industry that attracts not only well-meaning and well-educated professionals but also hordes of unqualified and lazy individuals. The good ones are soon frustrated of the politics and having to shore up the deficiencies left by the ones who work the system. They leave and the balance of the rotten apples gets bigger and bigger. The most enterprising ones leave the system to exploit it even further. </p>
<p>All in all, testing is an easy scapegoat. It diffuse the attention to the real problems that permeate all levels of our education. Again, we are sick because the thermometer shows a high temperature! </p>
<p>PS For what it is worth, I am not a fan of all tests. But again, you have to look at the morons who brought us those tests known as ERB and Iowa tests! </p>
<p>I ran into the former principal of the d’s elementary school the other day. Back in the day when older d was in elementary school this is what he told parents at one of our PTA meetings regarding standardized testing. He said prior to D being there every year they administered the full battery of IOWA tests plus NYS standardized required (at the time tests, way less than today’s students) in grades 3 and 5. This was a small grade 1-5 elementary school with approximately 250 students. Some students the first in their family to attend the school, some the second or third, some second generation and possibly third generation as the handsome building was built in 1926. They did away with the full battery of IOWA tests as so much data was generated it was very difficult to maintain and evaluate. The NYS tests were used primarily to identify giftedness and those in need of remediation. However… if by the time your child was in third grade in our school system (one that was pioneer in NYS full-day kindergarten back in a very long ago day) they would have been evaluated and recommended by the classroom teachers, all push-in/pull-out programs and the gifted teacher when requested to observe and evaluate specific children and it was the rare situation where a student was missed, possibly one that had recently moved to the district or one that was borderline. I know for my children… older d was considered borderline for pull-out gifted in second grade but was moved in the following year and younger d was evaluated for speech therapy in second grade.</p>
<p>@xiggi " It happens when the kids did not go to school armed with a loving family who made sure they could read before they even started 1st grade."
Really? It happens for all kinds of reasons. Look around </p>
<p>Testing measures a snapshot of specific skills on a specific day in a specific way. (And that specific way is not designed by educators. It’s designed by marketers and politicians) It is a sliver of the landscape as seen through the window of a cattle car going 70 mph on some railroad. It might tell you if it is raining, or snowing, or hot, or cold. It might tell you if it’s forested or desert or coastal. It won’t tell you what the town is like, where the town is, it’s history, or its zoning policies. If the railroad doesn’t go past a certain place, it won’t tell you anything at all about it. </p>
<p>Most teachers I know and observe and watch go through college are the top of their class, not xiggi’s poorly qualified group. Their GPA is required to be much, much higher than the standard, and I suppose that varies from state to state. Testing is “an easy scapegoat” for some of education problems because it is a complete distraction from actual solutions. Common Core and Testing are the gifts of deformists who want to implement anything that makes them a buck. Or gets them a vote. I’m all for benchmarking and evaluating. But when kids take 34 standardized tests a year (Pittsburgh) in 3rd grade, things are outta hand.</p>
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But using what methods? Most of us work in professions in which we are evaluated based on the results of our work. Certainly there can be bad standardized tests, and they can be badly applied, but what are some other methods of measuring the results of teachers’ work?</p>
<p>U think the kids in the countries that are kicking our butts on the PISA test every year aren’t taking standardized tests in their home country? </p>
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<p>What does that mean? </p>
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<p>You might be lucky to know and observe a group of people who were top of their classes at (I assume) superior colleges, Less lucky people like me have to rely on the statistics such as GRE to “measure” the academic achievements of aspiring teachers. And, if that fails, looking at the academic requirements of those wonderful colleges of education. If you think those are the top students, so be it. </p>
<p>All in all, I also think that there are way too many tests. And not enough tests that are … directed at the teachers or administrators. </p>
<p>As far as actual solutions, I’d say that the current crop of service providers have had plenty of chances for half a century to slow down or stop the dive into abject mediocrity. But then again, if we’d listen to the controlling forces, we really do not have a problem, and would have fewer if we simply stopped measuring what is actually learned in school that EXCEEDS what amateurs and parents are able to do through homeschool or after-school assistance. </p>
<p>The objective measurements are there to ascertain, Kids in our schools do well in K-4, start slowing down in middle school, and the wheels fall off in high schools with unacceptable levels of dropouts, abysmal graduation rates, and deficient skills for most of the graduating classes. </p>
<p>The area where the US DOES excel is coming with an endless series of excuses for the relative mediocrity of our educational system. We spend more than most nations and are poor performers in almost all metrics. </p>
<p>Not that the people in my Education cohort aren’t smart people but the GPA minimum to be admitted into the program is only a 2.5 and there are people who got in with a a 2.55, 2.8, etc.</p>
<p>well, that’s what xiggi is talking about, then. Here, the entrance gpa of 3.5 has to be maintained throughout all field experiences and a full course load must be maintained. </p>
<p>@greenbutton - Maybe I should live in your area. My kids have had some amazing, bright and dedicated teachers over the years. But if I had a dollar for every assignment, note, etc. written by a teacher that came home with glaring grammatical errors (“there” instead of “their”, or “they’re”), I’d be rich! Most of the teachers I’ve encountered, especially at the elementary school level, don’t impress me as having been at the top of their class. </p>
<p>I do agree that taking 34 standardized tests in one year is absurd! </p>