this story is awful, skewed, and incomplete! i can't blame the schools for circumventing reporting requirements. the tests are disastrous, and the sanctions are pretty fucking potent to the school (as in, bye bye, title __ funding) if "academic progress" isn't constantly demonstrated.
""They're asking the question, not how do we generate statistically reliable results, but how do we generate politically palatable results," he said."
no, they're asking the question, how do we generate results to an invalid test that will keep our funding from being cut? the tests do not demonstrate the state of "academic progress"; they demonstrate the ability of children to take tests.
wanna know the stats? white children give good scantron. so do asian children. black children, latino children, amerindian children do not. but what is also demonstrated is that all these kids are equally able to learn and academically proceed.
i was the co-researcher on a project that attempted to find a way around bush's nclb testing requirements (to no avail, natch -- our alternative, which was proven to be both an effective curriculum-based assessment *and* valuable pedagogical tool, was too expensive and huggy). what i learned was that nclb's standardized tests constitute terrible pedagogy; instead of being able to teach to the kids as they're able to learn, teachers (because of the huge testing burden of the law) have to teach standardized tests. when the tests are treated as pedagogy, we leave quite a few kids behind -- and yes, the traditionally ditched kids of off-white shades.
the kaplan method of education ("okay, kids, this is what's on your iowa test of basic skills! we'll be studying it for the next four months!") was being dished out like crappy pizza full of intellectual doom. it's a huge chunk of the academic year spent on empty lessons.
check out Fairtest (http://www.fairtest.org) for more.
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screw you, nclb
Date: 2006-04-18 01:11 pm (UTC)""They're asking the question, not how do we generate statistically reliable results, but how do we generate politically palatable results," he said."
no, they're asking the question, how do we generate results to an invalid test that will keep our funding from being cut? the tests do not demonstrate the state of "academic progress"; they demonstrate the ability of children to take tests.
wanna know the stats? white children give good scantron. so do asian children. black children, latino children, amerindian children do not. but what is also demonstrated is that all these kids are equally able to learn and academically proceed.
i was the co-researcher on a project that attempted to find a way around bush's nclb testing requirements (to no avail, natch -- our alternative, which was proven to be both an effective curriculum-based assessment *and* valuable pedagogical tool, was too expensive and huggy). what i learned was that nclb's standardized tests constitute terrible pedagogy; instead of being able to teach to the kids as they're able to learn, teachers (because of the huge testing burden of the law) have to teach standardized tests. when the tests are treated as pedagogy, we leave quite a few kids behind -- and yes, the traditionally ditched kids of off-white shades.
the kaplan method of education ("okay, kids, this is what's on your iowa test of basic skills! we'll be studying it for the next four months!") was being dished out like crappy pizza full of intellectual doom. it's a huge chunk of the academic year spent on empty lessons.
check out Fairtest (http://www.fairtest.org) for more.