What happens when educated professionals take the 11th grade PSSA's? The results here and some thoughts as I read these as well as the comments on Kristin's page:
- An engineer performs below basic. He does not see the relevance in the tasks students are asked to do. Math in high school does not mirror math in real life.
- I am sure I would perform below basic as well. It is not a measure of what I can do.
- It is a poor measure at best, we still keep doing it, legislators do not understand what we are measuring or what the data shows (it is just political...let's call it what it is)
- You run the risk of turning kids off by labeling them. Actually, we turn them off in middle school by disconnecting knowledge with what it is for. Does it have to be this painful to be educated or can we change this? A post I deleted in the edit phase calls for a change in structure. Really society is stratified and schools prepare us for this with the same stratification system. Why can't we talk about this?
We can talk about it, but we choose not to---at least in the political arena. The people in power and wealth want to remain in power and wealth, so, ethics and long range thinking aside, why should they?
ReplyDeleteTesting and "standards" are cheap attempts at true school reform. Who can be against standards? As if I did not have standards for my students in 1970. True reform means a big investment not as much in money but in intellectual currency. The winners at playing the game of school, and this includes some teachers unfortunately, see no need to alter the process and structure which allowed them to win.