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 Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 9:38 am
I have an essay to do in my English and it has to have an interview of some kind of expert or person with first hand experiance with my subject. My subject is standardized tests and how they're bad. So if you'd like to answer some questions and then I'll ask one of you for details about yourself later so my interwies is official. I'd prefer to talk to teachers and current students. Thankies!
1. How has standardized tests effected your life?
2. (for teachers) How much of the curriculum is now driven by the tests? Do you feel the students are really learning anything from the new curriculum?(explain)
2.(for students)What kind of tests do you prefer? why? After taking the tests, how much of the information do you remember?
3. If you knew there was another way to rate schools and intellegence, would you do that instead? Why? Any sudgestions?
Thankyou. I'll message the person I want to use in my paper.
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 10:49 am
Just for kicks, I'll go ahead and say this: I'm a high school senior currently enrolled in a SAT prep course. Also, I need to study for and take the ACT.
1. How has standardized tests effected your life?
They determine whether I get into college, or not, and even if I do get into college, if I don't get a good enough scholarship (again, dependant on standardized tests), I won't be able to go.
2. (for teachers) How much of the curriculum is now driven by the tests? Do you feel the students are really learning anything from the new curriculum?(explain)
N/A for me, however, from previous reports from my own teachers, and syllabi from previous courses, anywhere from 20 - 50 % of the course grade depends on your test scores. Also, it would depend on the student whether they're really learning anything, or just memorizing the information for the test. Generally, if the student earns anywhere from a B+ to an A on a test, they're more likely to remember the information, whereas a student who earns a B- or lower is less likely to do so.
2.(for students)What kind of tests do you prefer? why? After taking the tests, how much of the information do you remember?
Short answer/fill in the blank, because it forces me to study harder, and actually remember the information. Quite a bit for tests like these.
3. If you knew there was another way to rate schools and intellegence, would you do that instead? Why? Any sudgestions?
Yes, because the SAT, for example, does not measure your intelligence. Instead, it measures how well you take their idiotic test.
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 11:10 am
hehe. I'm just going to say this: if a test is STANDARDIZED, it means that there is a group to compare any particular score to. It measures how much you're like the other people who have taken the test.
It DOESN't mean that it measures what it says it does OR that each time you take it, you'll get a similar score.
it is important for a test to be standardized in many fields, such as psychology and education. they are useful in assessing what the norm is for a particular group and who falls where. All tests in education (i believe) are standardized--going from the above definition--because they compare the class members to each other. it is IMPORTANT for all tests to be standardized, otherwise, what information are you getting from it?
teaching to the test is bad. I say teach test-taking skills, knowledge acquisition skills(i.e. use flashcards), the information that they should know (not for the test, but for life and other classes), and the information that is fun to know.
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 2:23 pm
YES! people posting! Thanks a ton! heart
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 3:49 pm
Standardized tests only rate how well the school is doing, it has nothing to do with the performance of the students. And then most of the time the teachers teach to the tests and not what they need to know and then the student is lost when it comes time to take the ACT or SAT.
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Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 6:40 am
Well I've been out of school for a while now but I'll share with you what I can. I remember kinda liking tests but that's because I'm a good test taker. Unfortunately, standardized tests aren't necessarily good indicators of how much you know-- just how easy you find it to find the patterns in a multiple-choice test. (I don't remember a single standardized test that wasn't Scantron and thus multiple-choice.)
So the test affected me in that I had to pass some of them to be allowed to move on to the next grade but they didn't affect me in that I didn't need to take either the SAT or the ACT to get into university. In my area (Maryland) the community college systems are considered part of the state university system. I attended my community college for the first two years (taking all the basic courses there that I'd've had to take at the university and saving a bundle!) and then simply transfered to the university once I'd graduated with my Associate's Degree.
I don't like the direction testing is going in the States. There is more to life and knowledge than being able to spit out "X" or "Y" factoid and standardized tests don't have much room for critical thinking. Our classrooms are becoming places of reception and regurgitation not exploration and expression.
To illustrate: it seems that every time I turn around I hear someone saying that the kids in Japan scored better than our kids in "Y." I lived in Japan for three years and the things I heard about the school system over there scare the spit out of me. They have to take tests to get into high school. (I believe I recall hearing that they also take tests to get into middle school.) The pressure to get into the "right" high school is so intense that they have an obscenely high suicide rate for teens.
While we were there we met an American woman who had married a Japanese man and moved to Japan. Her teenage daughter was due to come home soon from spending a year living with family and attending school in California. Her mother told us that she (the daughter) was dreading the return to the Japanese school system. In the Japanese school system, it's "Sit down. Shut up. Take notes." The Californian school system, in contrast, had given her the opportunity not only to express herself but to think for herself. Not only that but the Japanese were looking at our school systems and trying to become more us. It's sad that while they're acknowledging the shortcomings of their system and bringing in our methods, we're throwing those methods away as we look at their system and try to match it!
Though I've heard some very encouraging things about the direction teaching is going from my husband who is in teacher's college, I still plan on homeschooling if our finances allow it.
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Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 9:16 am
jambare Standardized tests only rate how well the school is doing, it has nothing to do with the performance of the students. And then most of the time the teachers teach to the tests and not what they need to know and then the student is lost when it comes time to take the ACT or SAT. Read my post. You just re-stated what I said. However, it does not only rate how well the school is doing. Again, they (especially the SAT) only measure how well you take their idiotic test. Most of the people who write the SAT haven't even graduated college, and got mediocre scores in high school themselves. It's ridiculous. An excellent source for information concerning the SAT is the Princeton Review. 3nodding
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Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 10:03 am
Itesa I like what you say....
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Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 12:57 pm
Itesa To illustrate: it seems that every time I turn around I hear someone saying that the kids in Japan scored better than our kids in "Y." I lived in Japan for three years and the things I heard about the school system over there scare the spit out of me. They have to take tests to get into high school. (I believe I recall hearing that they also take tests to get into middle school.) The pressure to get into the "right" high school is so intense that they have an obscenely high suicide rate for teens. While we were there we met an American woman who had married a Japanese man and moved to Japan. Her teenage daughter was due to come home soon from spending a year living with family and attending school in California. Her mother told us that she (the daughter) was dreading the return to the Japanese school system. In the Japanese school system, it's "Sit down. Shut up. Take notes." The Californian school system, in contrast, had given her the opportunity not only to express herself but to think for herself. Not only that but the Japanese were looking at our school systems and trying to become more us. It's sad that while they're acknowledging the shortcomings of their system and bringing in our methods, we're throwing those methods away as we look at their system and try to match it! Hence, the reason that my second career choice is teaching English in Japan, the way it would be in an American class. 3nodding
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Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 10:58 pm
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 10:50 am
Kipluck, I love that pic! xd
You know, I hate it when it says of "in terms of "
><"
I normally just cross that out, plug in for the variable with another number like 2 or 10 (unless it's supposed to be an odd integer), and then solve
:3
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Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 8:47 am
*bumps to top for more responces*
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Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:58 am
I love standardised tests! xp But that's because I did well at them. My actually in-school marks sucked though, but that's because I was very lazy, and still am! razz We only took them in elementary school though. Maybe Canada is different, I dunno.
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Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 12:01 pm
Serena I love standardised tests! xp But that's because I did well at them. My actually in-school marks sucked though, but that's because I was very lazy, and still am! razz We only took them in elementary school though. Maybe Canada is different, I dunno. I did well at them too and I really didn't mind them, but like I said, it's for a paper. The US standardized tests are mostly high risk ones where if a person doesn't pass it, no graduation/progression. this is more what I'm talking about. I'm glad Canada's different. If it weren't so cold, I would probably move there(I've heard alot of good things, but I hate being cold!).
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Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 1:09 pm
It's possible we took standardised test in highschool, but that was like 5 years ago and it's all kind of a blur. But for entering the University here, you just give them your highschool transcripts, no standardised tests involved.
Actually, before I went to highschool, 2 other students in my class and I were invited to apply to the highschool Advanced course. I think it was solely on standardised tests, because my school marks were not good. In fact, they never tell you the results of the tests you take in elementary, so that's really the only indication that I did do well on them (if I did).
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