Posted on 11/19/2007 1:19:23 PM PST by NCDragon
RALEIGH - A state commission agreed today on a draft report saying “there is too much time spent on testing” and that several exams should be eliminated or no longer counted in the state’s testing program. The Blue Ribbon Commission on Testing and Accounting agreed to recommend to the state Board of Education that the fourth-, seventh- and 10th-grade writing tests and the eighth-grade computer skills tests be eliminated.
The commission also agreed that the number of end-of-course exams used to measure how high schools are doing in the state testing program be cut from 10 to five. They no longer want to count physics, physical science, chemistry, algebra II and geometry, which if adopted by the state could lead to those exams no longer being offered.
In addition, the commission is recommending not counting new science exams in fifth- and eighth-grades in the state’s testing program. The state is only offering the exams for the first time this school year to satisfy federal requirements.
It’s up to the state Board of Education, which created the commission, to decide whether to adopt the recommendations. The commission will present its final report to the state Board in January.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsobserver.com ...
So... instead of changing the curriculum to be more effective at all levels...(which the tests results WOULD/SHOULD reflect)...you simply REMOVE the method of verification because it SHOWS the weaknesses in the system? Incredible!
And...if I'm reading this wrong, by all means ...set me straight! :)
North Carolina’ rush to mediocrity (posted by a TarHeel)
But what really matters in the end is that the students FEEL good about themselves.
All part of No child left behind. This is one area President Bush should have stayed away from.
The NEA Roolz!
FMCDH(BITS)
NC teaches to test—meaning that the teachers spend the year “teaching” kids to pass state mandated end of grade tests. Result: no actual teaching/learning takes place.
On a side note, I have an ADHD child with minimal reading skills. Very bright but cannot get the answers from his brain to paper. Instead of exams, he had to take s-m tests in math and reading. They read the math test to him, but wouldn’t allow help with reading. HELLO? You wouldn’t expect a blind child to read a printed test, or a deaf child to take an oral exam.
It breaks my heart the way kids fall through the cracks. Most of my son’s heartache could have been avoided if they would just have spent more time helping him learn to read. He won’t do it for me. :(
IMO it allows officials to compare the learning experience across the state. One school may be doing a lot better or a lot worse than the others. If so, that school would either be on to something good the other schools hadn’t tapped into, or it could benefit greatly from other schools that had.
The student experience is the key here. Schools aren’t the beneficiary. Students should be.
Instead we have state officials acting like a petulant child, digging in their heels and refusing to carefully analyze the data and act accordingly. Then they stomp on the floor, slam their fists into the table or roll on the floor screaming.
For heaven’s sake folks, get over it. Analyze the data, help the kids and shut the F up.
This is so typical of North Carolina...
It seems that all of this testing is keeping the instructors from concentrating on the three "R"s of modern education.
The three "R"s...Racism, Recycling and Reproduction!
This mission of public education is to:
1. Avoid anything that would hold it accountable to teach reading and math, including testing.
2. Focus on what really matters, political and ideological indoctrination.
3. Always claim that we need more money so we can hire more people at high rates of pay to carry out points 1,2 and 3.
The cheater's approach to teaching. If they actually taught appropriate principles, the test would be a piece of cake.
I think you’ve picked up on what they are getting into pretty well.
Anything but reading and math.
Amen. My youngest is a sr this year. Six more months and I am outta here!
Right. Can't have incoming freshmen knowing more than graduating seniors.
I am replying but not necessarily calling your reading of the article wrong. It is more likely a case of poor reporting which allows you to draw conclusions that aren’t supported by the facts. BTW, I am not a NC resident so my response is more along the lines of general education and process improvement concepts than the specific NC approach.
As I see it, the problem is one of measuring the wrong things with instruments that are not aligned to the job. The concept that you can test quality into a product is flawed and has been ever since Deming pointed it out over 50 years ago. Further, if you start a process with material that is not suited to the desired end result, then you have no way within the process to address the material performance shortfall. Translation: many home environments do not prepare children for success in the school setting and schools are not suited to addressing that lack of preparation. While there have been many Band-aid approaches that have ranged from Head Start to school breakfast/lunch/dinner, the core problem has still not been solved nor can it or should it be solved by the education process.
If I were a NC parent/taxpayer, I would want to understand the linkages of the required curriculum to the tests being taken. It is likely that those linkages are tenuous at best and are more likely fatally flawed. Using the Deming approach of Plan/Do/Check/Act, it now falls to the designers of both the curriculum and the standardized test to evaluate what they have learned and implement the necessary changes to improve the linkages and, hopefully, the learning. Also, in general, I agree with less testing that comes down from above while improving the lower-level, more timely checks at the classroom level.
Recommended reading: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780873896078&itm=6
You read it correctly....but....the question I have is “What good are the tests? The kids can’t read anyway.”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.