Re: Teaching to the test

[Hugh Haskell <hhaskell@MINDSPRING.COM>]

Arlyn DeBruyckere wrote:
> In Minnesota we even encourage teaching to the test.  If a student here gets a
> "5" on a AP test the teacher gets check for $50, $25 for a "4".  That is for
> each student, and our district just decided to match this because
> "it is a form
> of merit pay", of course only the teachers who teach an AP class even have the
> opportunity to get this "merit pay".
So let's see, the next step is the AP teacher offering to share the
"bounty" with the local test administrator if the administrator will
slip an advance copy of the test to the teacher so the teacher can
prep the students for what they will actually see.  This could turn
into a regular cottage industry. Sound fantastic? What about the
scandal in New York (?) recently where teachers had gotten hold of
the end of grade tests for their schools and had prepped their
students so they could do better than they otherwise would and thus
get their schools (and themselves) a higher rating. As I recall, the
test scores for several schools were thrown out and several teachers
lost their jobs and may face criminal charges.

This is the climate we create when we start using grades on these
standardized tests to evaluate teaching and school performance. As
long as politicians demand some kind of immediate feedback on school
performance we are headed for this sort of problems. And what do the
students actually learn? That cheating is an acceptable way of life.
What a great school system!

Heaven help us!

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto://hhaskell@mindspring.com>

Let's face it. People use a Mac because they want to, Windows because they
have to..
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