Re: [Phys-l] High stakes testing (Was:What's the point ofteachingto the testwhen it's questions are incorrect?)

["John Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>]

When I was in NY State HS I think we only spent a couple of weeks on the
Regents exam, at most.  It was a small country HS with only 1 science
teacher.  Actually it was a consolidated school with the HS, 7th &  8th
grades in the main building and the elementary school in a new wing.  The
7th & 8th graders stayed in one room and the teachers changed classes, while
the HS students changed while the teachers stayed in one room.  Each HS
subject had only 1 teacher, English, history, math, science, languages...
But each teacher had only 4 classes with 55 min periods.  There were no
field trips, no athletic pull outs, just in class every day like clockwork.
The bell schedule was on a revolving tape with a mechanical clock that could
not be easily changed.

In states with high stakes testing private schools, and I think also charter
schools are exempt.  So diploma selling does happen.  There was even an
outrageous case of a principal soliciting sex from a mother in return for a
rebate on the entrance fee.  The school was an obvious diploma mill, but had
been accredited through one of the religious accrediting agencies.  A mother
wore a wire and the principal was on TV.  They had the gall to say that he
did not have the opportunity to express his point of view, after he said it
for the wired mom.  If the tests were required for all and the aggregate
scores released for each school the parents could monitor the schools
without the worst distortions produced by the high stakes.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX

> Wow!  You guys stopped in March!?  I thought I was hustling to finish up
> by
> late May and run a couple week review!  Did your school/teacher just do
> the
> minimum curriculum, or cover all the optional and extended topics?  That
> had
> to be a SERIOUSLY boring final quarter for you guys!
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Joseph Bellina" <jbellina@saintmarys.edu>
> To: "Forum for Physics Educators" <phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu>
> Sent: Friday, March 20, 2009 2:56 PM
> Subject: Re: [Phys-l] High stakes testing (Was:What's the point of
> teachingto the testwhen it's questions are incorrect?)
>
>
> > Just a couple of comments
> >
> > I grew up under the regents system in NY, going to a reasonably good
> > private school.  I recall that in March we stopped whatever we were
> > doing and started doing practice regents exams...there wasn't even an
> > attempt to use them as the basis for learning.  Basically the
> > teachers guessed what the hot topic would be that year and then
> > drilled on it.
> >
> > On the other hand, I know there are seriously sub-par schools, where
> > there is little motivation to change.  It seems to me in these
> > extreme cases, there is a reason for testing, as a way to attack the
> > bottom.
> >
> > So I think there is some reason for doing something.  The UK wrecked
> > their ed system by going to high standards testing before we did.  We
> > should learn from them and find some other way to get the bottom moving.
> >
> > joe
> >
> > Joseph J. Bellina, Jr. Ph.D.
> > Professor of Physics
> > Saint Mary's College
> > Notre Dame, IN 46556
>
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