How many years? HOW MANY DAMN YEARS? How many years will pass before so-called professional educators in positions of real authority (not classroom teachers who have had to relinquish nearly all their authority) give up on the profoundly ignorant idea that standardized tests are reliable indicators of educational progress?
The latest in a long, long line of standardized testing horror stories comes from the great state of Illinois. While smoke and mirrors play a big role in Illinois politics -- after all, our national education secretary was Chicago's public schools superintendent before he got his cushy job in D.C. -- they're also heavily employed when it comes to convincing parents that their children are doing well in school.
What does "meets the standards" mean to you? Doesn't this phrase imply that whatever has been done meets a standard that is desirable in some way? After all, who would want someone to meet a standard that was not worth meeting in the first place?
Apparently, education officials in Chicago.
The Chicago Tribune reports that students who "meet the standards" on state standardized tests of reading and math are still so poorly equipped that most will not score high enough to get into college. An expert on testing is quoted as saying Chicago schools in general have shifted over the years from a focus on excellence to one of mediocrity.
This same expert also acknowledges that this has been going on for some time. (Pity no one in the Obama administration thought to quiz Arne Duncan about this since these testing boondoggles happened at least partly on his watch.)
Furthermore, the expert adds, most parents would not want their children to"meet the standards," despite the positive status such an accomplishment implies because it's akin to pretty much failing.
Did you know that in order to pass the math portion of the Illinois State Achievement Test you have to get only 39 percent of the answers right?
Maybe it's a Northern thing, but where I come from in Texas 39 percent would be a failing grade if 100 is a perfect score. A big, fat failing grade.
Even more laughable is the fact that Illinois has been reducing the number of correct answers needed to pass the ISAT exam even at a minimum.
No wonder meeting the minimum standard there is really more like failing to meet the minimum standard.
Schools also like to manipulate their data. They make it harder for parents to decide how the majority of kids are doing by lumping together the number of kids exceeding with those merely meeting standards so it all looks better than it really is.
Parents have no way to know whether students at a given school are doing very well or merely getting by.
If this is what Illinois calls education, it's a sin, a shame, and a big freakin' scam.
Never mind the thousands of children whose lives are entrusted to the schools only to have their time wasted and their potential destroyed.
That's just a tragedy.
No comments:
Post a Comment