In the state of Texas, TAKS day is dreaded more than tax day. TAKS stands for Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. It is the test students take to determine whether they proceed to the next grade or not. In the 11th grade, it determines whether they graduate the next year. The test also determines the amount of funding each school receives. The schools put a lot of pressure on the kids to do well. Some people like it because it holds the schools accountable. Some people don't like it because the schools put so much emphasis on it. Basically, they teach for the test. Kids learn more about strategies for passing the test than the subject material. Josephus, in the 3rd grade, is tested on his reading comprehension. Steb, in 4th grade, is tested on his writing abilities. They have been writing compositions all year. The teacher chooses a really good composition from each student and asks them to memorize it. Then, they teach the students how to manipulate the story to the question asked on the test. I don't see how this is beneficial. My only consolation is when they take the ACT in high school, they will be used to testing in high pressure situations because they have been doing it since the 3rd grade.
I haven't decided what side I'm on. What do you think?
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2 comments:
To me this is a very troubling trend. It is now a growing problem thanks to the No Child Left Behind Act. I don't think it is a problem to learn to perform under pressure. I don't think it is a problem to hold schools accountable. I do however think it is very sad that teachers are teaching to a test. I think that this sends the wrong message to the students. Passing a test is NOT more important than learning how to learn and mastering fundamental concepts of language and math. I have known several people who had great grades in HS and a good ACT score who couldn't hack it in college. Why? In most of the cases it was because they could test well but didn't really understand how to learn. There comes a point in your education where you have to be able to understand and apply concepts and not just pattern match. High school education to me is a big game of pattern matching which is unfortunate.
I am also saddened because I think that there is another casualty in this whole game which is the arts. My understanding is that the arts aren't considered to be a core testing area. The teachers have to make sure that the students are competent in the core areas and as a result the arts are getting short changed. This disturbs me greatly. America has managed to stay on top of the game in large part due to our ability to think and create. I think that by stifling the arts we are stifling creativity. I have heard several stories about students (mainly from other nations with a very rigid and testing based high school system) failing in a research setting because they lack the ability to think creatively. I think that we need to try and find the middle ground here. It is important to produce students competent in the core areas, but they also need to be taught to think outside the box.
Do I have any solutions? No, not really. There somehow needs to be quantitative measures for the competency of students and teachers. Testing doesn't really tell you the whole story though. New metrics need to be devised where testing is only a part of the metric. I have received way too many grades that didn't adequately reflect my mastery of the subject to believe in a system that uses tests as the sole metric. I have gotten A's when I felt I deserved B's and have gotten B's when I felt I deserved A's. Maybe my perception is skewed, but I think I have a fair grasp on how well I understand the material when I compelte a course. I am not sure what the other metrics should be. I think that possibly improvement could be one. The students could take a test at the beginning and end of the year to see if they have improved over the course of the year. I think that more peer or professional oversight in the classroom could also be beneficial. Receiving input and feedback on your teaching style from your peers could be useful. Those are just a few ideas.
I agree with you whole heartedly. Air watched a documentary in one of his sociology classes comparing American, German, and Japanese students that I find fascinating. It is a bit scary because I think we, as Americans, could be left behind if we don't change the system soon. We'll have to talk next week when we are in Utah. To be continuesd....
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