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Re: [Phys-l] California state standards and their tests





"Rauber, Joel" <Joel.Rauber@SDSTATE.EDU> wrote in part: John D wrote in part:

| "The /test/ is the only thing that matters, and the
| test is lousy. The teachers are going to teach to the test,
| no matter what the standards say. If you really believe the
| standards are driving the test, then your standards are
| lousy, because they produce a lousy test. And on the other
| hand, if the standards are not driving the test, it doesn't
| matter what the standards say.

The test will not really drive instruction because high school teachers are not allowed to look at the test. There will be a few who will peek, but the majority will not, because, if the state finds out, your school’s results will be invalidated. We have to undergo training sessions before the tests and sign agreements stating we have undergone the training and understand what will happen if we do not follow the guidelines.
However, the sample questions and the framework are what most teachers use to determine what they are supposed to teach. For most, the list of formulas at the end of the sample test was helpful. After all, they probably would not give the formulas for topics not on the test. And every year, in my school district, not every school district, we get a report from our Data Services Dept. showing how well each student performed on each standard. We know for which standards our instruction is reaching our students, and for which of the standards our instruction need more work. Because they give us the names of the students, we can tell which groups of students are not doing well. I also compare their unit grades to the standards.
<Interestingly enough, I just spent last week prostituting myself for our
<state, writing questions for our physical science/physics standards. It
<was a frustrating experience in many ways. In part, because I was
forced to do things that contradict some of the excellent advice I see
here at Phys-L. Also, in part because the standards are not written
very well and are quite muddy.

This brings up a couple of observations.

One agreeing with the above. I tried to take the viewpoint that the
test is going to be the true standards, not the verbiage in the
standards document. So here was a chance to hopefully at worst "do
no harm" and at best to improve things a bit.
And we thank you for trying to help!

I have increased empathy for my colleagues in K-12, because I don't
see any easy way that they can cope with these standards documents
other than ultimately trying to see what the actual tests seem to be
testing. One obvious problem is how are they supposed to guess how
the question writers are interpreting the standards as they write their
test questions? It is a big morass.

And thank you for your empathy to our plight.

It was quite an eye-opening experience. I'm not sure that the process
is resulting in anything that will improve the education in our state.
But I met colleagues that I haven't met before and I got a week's pay,
so I'm glad I participated; and hopefully "I did no harm".
The only reason I know as much as I do about the test questions, is I also spent time in Sacramento a few years ago, for Harcourt reviewing the test questions written by college professors. Our groups were mostly high school teachers. Our job was to review the questions to see if we believed the standards were being addressed. Because two of us taught EL students (students with English as a second language), we rewrote most of the stems of the multiple choice questions and some of the answers to shorten them so our students would have a chance to answer them. And as John Denker pointed out, our textbooks are wrong sometimes, so we threw out a few questions because the answers contradicted our textbooks. Unlike you, we did not receive payment for our services, we are just high school teachers trying to make sure our students got a fair shake. I did not mind volunteering my time because Harcourt did pay for our expenses.
Once again, thank you for trying to help and thank you for your understanding. It was very nice of you to share your experience.
Thank You, Barbara Bay

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