"Only 9 percent of total revenue for public elementary and secondary education are from the federal government." (Spring, pg. 178)
I'm a little confused here. I read in Spring that only 9% of total revenue comes from the federal government and the "High Stakes Testing" article says that schools face a loss of funding if they don't do well on standardized testing. "schools face sanctions such as a loss of federal funding or the diversion of federal monies to pay for private tutoring, transportation costs, and other “supplemental services” (Burch, 2006, 2009)" (High Stakes Testing) Why is everyone so worried? It's not that much money to begin with so why are we stressing standardized testing? Am I totally misunderstanding these readings? I may have to ask Dr. Love about this one.
"...tests are essentially controlling what knowledge is taught, the form in which it is taught, and how it is taught (Au, 2007, 2009)." (High Stakes Testing)
This quote is so true because standardized testing mandates that children know a certain set of information therefore limiting how the children can be taught. Standardized testing controls the cirriculum students are taught and plays a large role in telling whether a student will be successful later on in life. For example, in order to do well on CAPT testing the teacher must take time out of their busy week to incorporate CAPT review. The best way to teach for CAPT testing is to administer sample tests, timed essays, and more individualized work. In addition, in order to do well on the SAT you need to be able to understand and apply various math equations such as y = mx + b, A = L x W, V = LxWxH, etc. to real life situations. You can't do well on these standardized tests if you aren't taught the material in which is on them. Today schools are stressing the importance of standardized testing (although I disagree) and now it seems like there is a cookie cutter approach to education.
"NCLB mandated that 100 percent of students be proficient in reading and math by 2014. Any school not on track to meet this utopian goal—one never reached by any nation in the world—would face a series of sanctions, culminating in the firing of the staff and the closing of the school." (Obama's War on Schools)
Man do I feel like a terrible person not understanding the federal policies of education when I plan to become a future educator. My question is this, what good is it going to do firing staff and closing schools? What happens to the kids in the schools that have closed down? They go to another school where that school will then face overpopulation? Then what? Those schools test grades are going to suffer because there's not enough teachers to fulfill the needs of the old students and the new ones? Why would any politician, or any human being for that matter want to keep this kind of legislation intact when it's clear it can only do more harm than good? Also, the expectation of having 100% of students be proficient in reading and math is simply absurd.
I so agree with your second comment, but I have a question of my own for you. Have actually ever used the information you where taught for the SAT's and the CAPT after you graduated high school? I know I sure as hell didn't. My sister was working on a practice test the other day for the PSAT's and I flipped through the book and I just don't understand how people believe that a test like the SAT's actually amounts to testing students and figuring out what they know. I personally believe that standardized testing is crap, but I also know at the same time we will never get rid of them. I just wish schools would stop freaking out about them and actually teach students. I understand if a school wants to give students a practice test before the actual test. That can help reduce a students anxiety about the test because they will have a better idea about what is on it and the formatting of the test. However, I believe that constantly teaching to the test is only raising students anxiety levels about the tests. It is creating more harm than good!
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you when you say that standardized testing is creating more harm than good in our schools. I must say in response to your question that I have used some of the information tested on the SATs and CAPT mainly because I am a EL ED Math major. As for the vocabulary and such covered in those exams I have not used that information. I don't have a large and obscure vocabulary which can be seen as both good and bad. I also hope that schools would stop freaking about the tests because it's really harming our youth and I feel that it's forcing our children to behave like robots within our society.
ReplyDeleteI must say that my vocabulary is not that large or obscure which I believe is fine. I am more than capable of getting my point across without throwing in SAT words. Also I agree with you that the tests are causing children to act like robots in society. I see too many kids now a days hating school because of these tests. Also I see kids selling themselves short because of the scores they receive from these tests. I believe that the scores associated with these tests are creating a lot of damage in children in todays society. They get that score back and like in Kozol's book with the Level 1's - 4's they associate their worth with that score. They begin to perceive that they are only that good and can't do any better.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. To me it is such a shame that children associate their worth to a test score and feel that they can't better themselves because of it. I wish we taught students in our public school systems that they don't have to be an engineer, scientist, or a mathematician in order to be valued in this world. As a society we need creative expression to help people find happiness in life.
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