http://edworkforce.house.gov/issues/.../nclbworks.htm
But perhaps that is a whole other topic.
Anyway, I've seen some of the work kids do in school and it's a joke. I got to college and I saw a lot of people struggling because they had barely any exposure to high level math and science.
I think France's education system where everyone follows the same curriculum is best. And yes, of course, students in special ed should not have to do it.
-Rudey
Quote:
Originally posted by AGDee
Standardized tests to get into college are different than standardized tests to determine funding for third graders.
Standardized tests are biased due to exposure to situations. They are also biased against those with learning disabilities, yet, those scores are required to be included with other students in the NCLB act. This means that students who are diagnosed with a perceptual/processing problem (including Downs Syndrome kids) have to be tested. If you have a school that is half special ed and half regular ed, it will always appear as if that school is failing since half of the students are going to fail the test. A co-worker of mine has a Down's Syndrome child who can barely talk, can't recognize letters or numbers, yet is expected to take the MEAP (Michigan Education something or other standardized test) this year (4th grade). Yeah right!
Standardized tests have led to teachers teaching to the test, rather than teaching a curriculum. They cram in the skills that they know are being tested and then cover other things after the tests are done for that year. This is not necessarily an advantage for the student. The intense pressure on schools and teachers to achieve certain levels has led to reported cases of teachers helping kids cheat on these tests, simply to avoid loss of funding for the schools. This does nobody any favors.
Part 3 is the tough question. Offer the tests in other languages, ensuring that cultural bias is not present (such as in math story problems), don't require that they be taken by LD/special ed students, and don't base school funding on it. Offer some real help to those schools that need it, don't cut their funding. How does cutting funding make the students get a better education there? Standardized testing is supposed to be standardized by a randomized sample population, so ensure that it is truly standardized by ensuring that all of the cultures and socioeconomic groups in our country are used to do the standardization. Consider that there are many other factors that determine whether a child will learn to his/her full capacity, like lack of food/heat, lack of a place to live, lack of parental encouragement/involvement, and high stress levels from living in unsafe environments. The schools and teachers can do little about these factors. So, cut the school funding so that they can't even afford paper and pencils for the kids...
Dee
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