But if you think that's the end of standardized testing, then the article linked below is a must read!
http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/Sun-Setting-on-TAKS-Test--89940462.html
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http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/Sun-Setting-on-TAKS-Test--89940462.html
Clint, this is actually a response to a much earlier post, however, I was afraid if I posted it there, you wouldn't look back.
ReplyDeleteThe Progressive Era in college a U.S. History course encompasses at least one chapter and has one to two lectures or up to 3 hours of lecture time devoted to it. The selection of an essay covering this period is appropriate, however, the prompt given has an innate conservative bias as conservatives argue this period did more harm and than good and liberals argue it was necessary and did not go far enough.
A better prompt would have been: “Using at least three laws and/or Constitutional amendments and at least three reform organizations or movements from the Progressive Era, 1900 to 1917, to support your thesis, what was the impact of Progressive Era on the United States.”
Standardized testing...ahh.
ReplyDeleteI hold a special enmity in my heart for these kind of tests simply because I've seen the extreme end result of testing. In Japan, school is compulsory through junior high. You pass through to the next grade regardless of your grade. However, if you want to go to high school, then you must take an entrance exam. The exam is different by school, as each high school has a different balance of subjects. So for the latter half of junior high all teachers do is focus on cramming in the knowledge necessary to pass a high school exam.
I feel that these kind of tests in Texas, while giving an estimation of the skill of a school population, are detrimental to learning as a whole. (I am not a Texas native and if my ideas about TAKS are wrong, please correct me.) Teachers who are forced to "teach to the test", especially in liberal arts classes, are forced to teach unnaturally and quickly, stunting progress rather than improving it.
In elementary school I took the ITBS (Iowa Test of Basic Skills). This was a standardized test, but it didn't affect me in any way; rather, it just provided information about the knowledge of my school's students. I think that these broad tests should do just that, rather than decide student's fates. Teachers need to be more free to teach the best way for the students without worrying about some test.