Cartoon about one-size-fits-all testing. Couldn't have said it better.

[madfloridian]

This is courtesy of Canadian education blogger, Joe Bower. Overtesting is happening there also.

David Staples, the Wildrose and their war on teachers and learning

It is hypocritical for adults to demand students and teachers be held accountable in ways that they would not hold themselves to.

Standardized testing is what constitutes an amazingly contrived and unrealistic form of assessment that is used by people outside the classroom to judge and control what happens inside the classroom without ever visiting the schools.

Teachers are not afraid of accountability -- but they do oppose being held accountable for things out of their control. Teachers also know that there is nothing transparent about having children fill in bubble-tests.

The best feedback parents can receive about their children's learning is to see their children learning. The best teachers don't need tests because they make learning visible via projects and performances collected in portfolios.

[madfloridian]

1. In another post Joe Bower used this quote to show why teachers are concerned.

[AdHocSolver]

2. Teaching To The Test empowers the Test Makers to Determine Content.

Students who spend time learning pap or rubbish to pass a test have no time to study any subject in depth.

Having no time to learn any subject in depth, means that students will leave school having memorized, and mostly forgotten, a smattering of disconnected "data" that may or may not actually be "factual".

In other words, they will not only have not learned anything useful, they won't have developed any learning skills.

No Child Left Behind and Race To The Top are not about assessing learning. They are about making certain that no real learning occurs.

[madfloridian]

5. Exactly. Testing companies are setting the content for learning.

And it is done in secret. No one really knows what's on the test. That's a whole lot of power for corporations....to determine the agenda for schools. Too much power.

[Enthusiast]

3. The people that advocate this are flat out wrong.

It's Dubya's plan and he has never been right about anything.

[madfloridian]

4. And when we speak out we are told there must be testing.

There has always been testing, there will always be testing. Only previous testing was done to evaluate and adjust teaching to the students' progress. This testing is done to cause failure among schools and hire and fire teachers. Not to mention what it does to the students.

[madfloridian]

6. Nothing exaggerated about the cartoon.

Some simply can not climb that tree. Some simply can not do what others do. Life is not that way at all.

[FloriTexan]

7. Big Kick

[madfloridian]

8. Thank you.

It sure did drop fast.

[bvar22]

9. DURec!

Reading your posts remind me of the old DU.
You have provided serious leadership and necessary information on this issue at DU.
Thank You.

---bvar22

[BrotherIvan]

10. Very true!

Standardized testing is an abomination! When I taught high school in an economically challenged neighborhood, aka "the ghetto", one of the questions on the test was to write an essay describing a cave. The student did a great job of using adjectives to convey visuals, actually far above the ability she had shown in previous assignments, but she received a 0 for her answer. Why? Because she was describing an underpass with a homeless person living in it. She had never seen a "cave"! So because her experience was different than the test makers envisioned, she was penalized. Those tests are an absolute waste of time and parents should be screaming to the high heavens to make it stop!

[AnotherMother4Peace]

11. I'm so glad my kids missed all this crap - the music room was my child's home away

from home - he received many accolades and honors for his music, plus it provided many great experiences - He is now a mathematician. Another child of mine is a little different (I've always suspect Asperger's). He was able to learn in his own special way. He could not take notes and learn the material, but when he was able to listen, he absorbed and remembered everything - He is now a computer engineer. I knew my children would explore and learn what they were interested in, so I made sure they had a sense of humor, knew how to make decisions, the consequences of those decisions, and how to think creatively.

[Catherina]

12. That's it in a nutshell. DU Rec and I hope this gets more visibility n/t