I work for a company that scores 8th grade graduation tests for schools in various states. It is my job to grade the essay portions of these exams and make certain that each essay contains the correct memorized answers in whatever baloney a student wants to pad the paragraphs with. The questions that are asked may be relevant to some students, but irrelevant to others depending on the environment in which the student lives and his or her background. Answers given do not necessarily reflect actual knowledge a student may or may not have about a subject. For instance, a student may know two memorized examples of telemedicine and two memorized explanations for those examples but most students could not give a clear and intelligent answer about what telemedicine even is. In many cases, the student could not formulate an intelligible response, and many had problems with spelling and grammar.
Because students are so busy cramming for exams, little time is left for really learning to use their basic reading, writing and math skills. Also, little time is left for creativity, criticial thinking, problem solving and pondering the world and universe.
5 comments:
If only they taught philosophy at school.
roya said: If only they taught philosophy at school.
Definitely....
If only they taught useful stuff in schools... like Reason, Logic, Rhetoric...
If only we had a decent education system....
roya - The big problem is that most young people who are becoming teachers were the little "memorizers" from the public school system and so have become programmed to just teach for tests and collect a paycheck. Once in awhile a creative and thoughtful teacher will appear. It's a big reason we let our kids independent study/homeschool/community college for their high school years.
The high schools here are "factories" and "prisons"...also can be called convenient "day care" for kids while Mom and Dad work to pay for a huge house they only sleep in and hire maids to clean.
The main objective of most school districts is to produce good little "regurgitators" so average test scores will be high enough to get awards (Blue Ribbon Schools) and more state money for their kids doing a good job of memorizing pre-determined answers. But ask these students (and many times teachers) what states border their own and they won't know. Ask the older students who their governor and state senators are and they won't know. As where Iraq or Iran is and they won't know. The state of public education is embarrassingly pathetic here.
stardust -- Your kids' situation points to the key problem with US schools today: not so much the teachers or tests, but the PARENTS. I know one family that is definitely NOT the yuppie type you refer to -- the mother usually stays home with the 3 kids -- but they still suffer in school b/c she's bipolar and not dealing with it effectively. As you might guess, that makes home life semi-chaotic, since she provides inconsistent supervision and has been hospitalized 3X in the last year.
I wonder how many other low-performing kids are in a similar boat?
You clearly pay attention to your kids' education, but far too many parents don't or can't, and the level of social services (esp. mental health care) that might help such parents is awful if you don't have money.
The tests aren't winning too many friends in the schools themselves, either. School admin people I've talked to hate the fact that they essentially paralyze the entire school for weeks every spring, in part b/c the NCLB requires schools to give the SAME tests to their disabled students that they give to regular kids, regardless of how serious the disability is. Those kids get numerous forms of testing assistance, but that doesn't change the fact there's no practical point to giving some of them the test at all.
Those kids get numerous forms of testing assistance, but that doesn't change the fact there's no practical point to giving some of them the test at all.
jay - This is one of many reasons why I disagree with standardized testing. All kids are expected to participate and environmental, developmental and other factors are not considered. Many kids who are immigrants and barely speak English are made to take these tests.
Then for a real absurdity...here in Illinois, blind high-school students are forced to take written exams for Driver's Education!
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