Obama: Too much testing

[feuser]

Finally something we can all get behind:
http://qz.com/532572/obama-thinks-kids-are-spending-too-much-time-on-standardized-tests/


In an announcement today, via Facebook, Obama said he wants to prevent public school students from spending more than 2% of their total classroom hours on testing. The proposal comes at the same time as a new study of the nation’s 66 largest school districts that found that students are spending between 20 and 25 hours a year taking tests.

[mrgybe]

Average school year is 180 days. Average hours per day 6.7. So, total hours in school year 1,206...........2% of 1,206 is 24.12 hours, or, about the time that is currently being spent on testing. What is it that we can all get behind?

[swchandler]

Really, the issue is about the value of standardized tests, and the strategy of focusing teaching on being prepared for the test.

When you think about it, how does one prepare an average American student for a productive future? As I see it, life and work is about solving problems and improving how things work. It doesn't really matter what the work is.

What curriculum, or different series of them, should we be teaching to yield the best results? As I see it, we could do better. With manufacturing jobs going to the emerging third world, even China is going to feel the pinch.

What kind of jobs await the kids and young adults of today into the future? The thing to remember is that answer isn't always reserved for the best and the brightest, since it must be also focused on the average American with less than a stellar academic history and middle of the road performance. We can't walk away from reality.

[mac]

It always amazes me that right wingers, who haven't spent appreciable time in classrooms in decades, just know what the answers are. Those answers tend to benefit businesses to the detriment of public service, and further the segregation of our schools--under the talking points of choice and no child left behind.

To correct the misconceptions of mrgybe, who doesn't know what goes on in a classroom. Teachers evaluate students every day. They look at the student's homework, and whether or not it shows they understood the concepts. They arrange for intervention by specialists in math, reading, and mental health when those evaluations show that student's are struggling. They use the results of those evaluations to adjust their teaching methods, and to reinforce lessons that didn't get through to some students. It happens every day, not once a year--but it happens in the context of improving teaching and figuring out on an ongoing basis, not at the end of the year, which students are learning.

[jp5]

Standardized tests:

Version 1: A question is asked and there are 5 answers to choose from. 4 are varying degrees of wrong with one being the correct answer. Anyone who has studied the material should get the right answer.


Version 2: A question is asked and there are 5 answers to choose from. 4 are varying degrees of right with one being more right than the rest. Anyone who has studied the material could easily select the wrong answer. Why? because in their mind it isn't the wrong answer, but it isn't the most right answer so that's why they got it wrong.

[feuser]

I thought this would be the most non-controversial issue possible. The emphasis on standardized test, test preparation etc. has been decried by both parents and teachers alike.

I can tell you as the parent of a NYC high school candidate, that reality is a far cry from the 2 percent number (the desired maximum allotted time for testing and evaluating).

Instead of asking "what did you learn at school today?", I've been asking my boy "how did you score on the xyz practice test?". Returning the emphasis in education to its original purpose from testing and specific test prep is welcome news here.

[isobars]

[mrgybe]

It's a shame that the Obama Administration didn't consult with the experts on this forum before introducing policies that perpetuated and increased standardized testing. Fortunately, they have now recognized their mistake and taken a much more scientific approach to derive the correct level of testing.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/10/26/where-did-obama-administrations-2-percent-cap-on-standardized-testing-come-from-you-wont-believe-it-or-maybe-you-will/

[mac]

Boy it would be nice to have commentary that was a little more thoughtful and not just another slap at Obama. I agree that Obama and Arne Duncan have perpetuated the mistakes of George Miller and George Bush in the no child left behind program. There were good intentions all around, but the idea of high proficiency for all or schools would be closed was a meat cleaver where a scalpel was needed. Using grants rather than threats of closure has not been an improvement; it tinkers with only a few schools rather than provide funding for those most in need. The failure of these efforts, bipartisan on the part of No Child Left Behind, and an attempt at reform under Obama, suggests to me that the Federal government is not the best party to implement educational reform. Between partisanship and the lack of real expertise on education, what comes out of Congress, or even the Department of Education, is unlikely to be the best new ideas that quality research on education methods suggests would work.

I have seen Common Corps rolled out in elementary schools; it is a dramatic upgrade in curriculum. The best education minds agree that upgrading curriculum is the best way to improve education. For mathematics in particular it is an upgrade. But it is opposed by many conservatives as an unwanted intrusion of the Federal government into schooling. Since it is a state program, and not Federally mandated, this is just more silly stuff from inside the beltway.

My sister, who retired from teaching math in high schools in Los Angeles's system, reminds me that reforms are cyclical, and have good aspects as well as bad. She has heard complaints about the value of Common Core as a high school program--those complaints might be legitimate, I don't know.

It might be more useful to post ideas about what would be an improvement instead of a link to a multi-page article that has not been summarized.

[mrgybe]