(no subject)

[unluckystunt.livejournal.com]

Comments

[breakingdecency.livejournal.com]

that kid looks like bill gates.

[vlion.livejournal.com]

if the test encompasses enough knowledge, teaching to the test is fine by me.

[darkblood777.livejournal.com]

It doesn't.
The test also just teaches a bunch of random facts, and doesn't teach any sort of critical thinking whatsoever.

[kadaria.livejournal.com]

And it skips over science (which our country is already falling behind in) as well as other important aspects of education. I also think that it kills creativity.

[darkblood777.livejournal.com]

It certainly doesn't do anything for music and the arts, two very important subjects in helping to unlock creativity and genius thinking.

[nallyo.livejournal.com]

Is Gary Larson writing under a new name?

[bluetooth16.livejournal.com]

Nobody is going to get rid of that anytime soon.

[filthy-bonnet.livejournal.com]

That's the sad part.

i just left high school

[eiojads.livejournal.com]

anyone who says that its good to teach bye the test has not been to school when they started this great program, WE do not learn anything we just get worksheet after worksheet it also does not give the teachers the freedom to teach that they need to get it into are heads,

Re: i just left high school

[darkblood777.livejournal.com]

And just from this statement alone, you can see how well it works.

I implore all of you kids in school or just left school. Don't listen to the establishment! Learn as much as you can, any way you can learn it! Go to college, the one last untarnished bastion of education!

Ok my rant is over.

Please proceed.

Re: i just left high school

[library-chair.livejournal.com]

untarnished bastion?

bwahahahahahahahaha

Re: i just left high school

[darkblood777.livejournal.com]

bastion (noun)

1. A projecting part of a fortification.
2. A well-fortified position.
3. One that is considered similar to a defensive stronghold: You are a bastion of strength.

Well maybe it's not untarnished, but it certainly is less tarnished than U.S. Public Schools.

Re: i just left high school

[library-chair.livejournal.com]

well I KNOW what it means. jesus. don't assume everyone on the internet is ig'nant.

Just the fact that I go to college, currently, made me laugh cynically at that comment.

Re: i just left high school

[darkblood777.livejournal.com]

Sorry, however I work with the general public so it is usually safe to assume they know nothing at all about the issues they bring to you. And a partisan political forum is a prime breeding ground for dullards and people who cannot think for themselves.

Re: i just left high school

[unluckystunt.livejournal.com]

I thankfully graduated high school before NCLB started, but I remember when we had to stop and prep for tests, and it always halted any actual learning. It was mind-numbing stuff. I can't imagine what it's like now that schools rely completely on test scores.

Re: i just left high school

[darkblood777.livejournal.com]

I remember that. Even the teachers admitted it was a stupid and useless test.

Re: i just left high school

[vlion.livejournal.com]

Tomorrow I graduate with my bachelors.

Tt's very odd, you know. I don't recall "teaching to the test" in the last 5 years of my life.

There was material we covered, and then we had a test over the material.

Thing was, I guess, was that the tests were built to test your knowledge of "What you need to get from this class". And the material fit the test and vice versa. Maybe I don't have enough experience with the high school system but I don't understand why tests are bad.

Let me further continue...
Law has a bar exam; for every state, I believe.
Engineers have the "FE" which the entirety of your bachelors is what you prepare for, in addition to your specialisation.
Quite often Master's programs have a non-thesis option which consists of a single test.

In one of Europe's traditional systems, there is a single bacculaurate test, after which you obtain the degree.

Why is the concept of standardized knowledge so inherently evil to some people?

I've taken bout 153 hours in my life at college, from 3 different institutions. Believe me when I say a quality test can test knowledge, critical thinking, and creativity. Again, I don't see the problem here: the system seems to have a fundamentally good premise behind it.

Re: i just left high school

[zombiesmustdie.livejournal.com]

Theres nothing wrong with testing at all. The trouble comes when teachers are forced to teach students how to pass a test rather than teach knowledge. Recently, thanks in large part to Bush, students have been getting more and more tests. So much that educators complain they are forced to teach students how to take a test rather than teach them knowledge.

In short its a question of balance, yes there should be tests, but there should also be critical thinking and creativity. Right now the scale is weighted too much on the testing side.

Re: i just left high school

[darkblood777.livejournal.com]

We're referring to high school and below. There is nothing wrong with standardized testing, however when it becomes the primary focus for review then the students do not learn to their full potential, and they do not learn critical thinking, which is very important in college.

Teachers should be able to teach the material in their own way, as long as the students learn the necessary knowledge. Teachers should also be able to choose the test they will administer their students. As long as the test covers what the teacher taught in class, then that's good.

[stout-john.livejournal.com]

Seems like a problem with the test development/implementation process than the teaching process to me.

Would it be better to not teach what the test is going to cover?

Evil Mindless tests

[minimal-effort.livejournal.com]

I had two years of High school left when I decided that there was something seriously wrong. All of my required classes were nothing but preparing for the taks test, (I was living in texas at the time), and the only classes I wanted to take for fun required 2 years of classes I wanted nothing to do with. I was always an A+ student and there was no way around all of the hoop jumping to have fun. I just got sick of it and walked out to take my GeD and start college 2 years early and I am so glad I did.

I HATED high school and k-8, evil evil mind numbing crap. I dont know if it was going to schools with over 4 thousand kids, but it was not fun. I wish I was home schooled or went to a smaller private one because the large scale public school system is a joke. Its hard to learn anything beyond the test they make you take at the end of the year.

Thinking is completely removed from these tests because all it is, is random facts. No wounder so many kids are bored and lackluster they dont even get to think anymore! Its just seeing who can remember the most.

[kitsuneluke.livejournal.com]

Here, a couple years ago, they instated a high school exit exam, that everyone would have to pass before graduating. You know, to try and make sure they learned everything they should have, like how to read and count.

When not enough people passed it, they just made it easier. So not only are they teaching to a test, but if no one learns the arbitrary things they're testing for, they'll just dumb the test itself down. It's like they're not even trying to pretend that school is something other than day care for big kids anymore.

[darkblood777.livejournal.com]

I'd bang my head on my desk, but I do not wish to contribute to our society's growing number of dullards.

[library-chair.livejournal.com]

My school district started getting statewide standardized quarterly tests for each subject about two years before I graduated high school. It was utter bullshit. The tests covered things that anyone who had taken the last class should already know, but often they looked like they'd been written by a chimpanzee with epilepsy so half the time the teacher would just give out the answers because the questions were incomprehensible.