Covuschik wrote:
Thank you so much for posting this! This is exactly what *we* needed. The public school system here is pretty much tailored to get kids proficient enough to pass standardized testing, but pretty much nothing beyond that. Today, we have a state bill before the Florida senate to base teacher pay on student scores for these high stakes tests. "We don't teach to the test!" but pretty much all of third and forth grade is spent preparing the students for these tests. As long as the students are meeting the minimum diagnostic scores, they don't get any extra enrichment or challenges, because the teachers are spending all of their resources on the kids that don't meet those standards.
A kid who is getting A's in math and predicted to score a 5 (highest score possible) on these tests should be allowed and encouraged to expand his knowledge. At least with this, even if he isn't getting it in school, he'll be able to get it at home.
Covuschik, I am sorry to hear what the FL legislature is trying to do to education. Check out this NY Times article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/11/education/11education.html?_r=2&src=me&ref=homepage
From this article:
"One notable early finding, Ms. Phillips said, is that teachers who incessantly drill their students to prepare for standardized tests tend to have lower value-added learning gains than those who simply work their way methodically through the key concepts of literacy and mathematics.
Teachers whose students agreed with the statement, “We spend a lot of time in this class practicing for the state test,” tended to make smaller gains on those exams than other teachers.
“Teaching to the test makes your students do worse on the tests,” Ms. Phillips said. “It turns out all that ‘drill and kill’ isn’t helpful.” "
09 Mar 2011, 9:21 pm
