Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Teacher's account of testing

On another post Anonymous wrote


New post please:
A teacher’s troubling account of giving a 106-question standardized test to 11 year olds
By Valerie Strauss, Published: October 6 at 1:30 pm

An account from a Pittsburgh teacher was the 2 most read article in the Washington Post.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/10/06/a-teachers-troubling-account-of-giving-a-106-question-standardized-test-to-11-year-olds/ 

1 comment:

Louis said...

Very good article! But I do question one sentence:

Because the test is a reading diagnostic exam, it does not necessarily carry “high stakes” with it as many other standardized tests do.

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Diagnostic tests do carry high stakes. High stakes for the teachers, not for the students.

Diagnostic tests used to be just that. They were tests given at a time chosen by the teacher, to be used solely by the teacher as an aid in planning instruction.

Not so much any more. Many diagnostic tests now have another use. PPS Administrators use them as predictors of how the "real" tests will turn out.

When ANY test scores are low, someone must feel the heat. The tests, as poor as they might be, will not be faulted. The curriculum, as poor as it is, will not be faulted.

So round up the usual suspects. The teachers.