[isuaggie]

All teachers get pink slips at Rhode Island school - CNN.com

Seriously, talk about extreme measures to possibly improve test scores.



I hear they were spotted at a Legends the day before and it didn't go over well with everyone else protesting

[CyFever]

They cited a 3 percent increase (over two years) in math scores as something in their (the teachers) favor? That doesn't sound like "we're getting the job done" to me.

[Knownothing]

They all went down to Legends bar and grill afterword to discuss what the hell just happened.

[isuaggie]

A 21% increase in reading scores suggests that the students have a long way to go in every subject. From my experience, if kids have poor reading comprehension almost all other subjects will suffer.

[tman24]

sounds like they just need to fire the math teachers.

[ruxCYtable]

Did they all have inappropriate relationships with students? I thought that was the only way a teacher could get fired. I have never heard of a teacher being fired for performance reasons.

[Kyle]

I would bet that well over half of them are rehired. I think this is usually just a tactic to get around the teacher's union. I've heard of several schools that have fired everyone.

[hawkfan]

Yeah....standardized test scores are SUCH a good way to measure the knowledge of our nation's students. This is what upsets me sooo much about our education system. How many standardized tests have any of you taken in your career paths? How many of your daily jobs require (bi weekly) multiple choice tests for you to succeed?

The importance of our education system is to teach kids the skill set of being able to acquire knowledge, or to put it more bluntly, teaching kids how to learn. Content knowledge (what is tested by a multiple choice test the majority of the time), isn't all that important, teachers simply use content knowledge to guide the learning process. Let me ask you this question: how many of you have ever needed to know the starting date of Gettysburg in your daily job? How many of you have needed to know how the process of photosynthesis works in order to successfully get through your work day? How about a complex calculus equation, have you ever had to solve one of those on the job? You may have needed history, or science, or calculus for your job....but you didn't use it in the way that it was used in a high school text book (if you did use it that way, you are probably in less than 10% of the population). Basically, when a kid says: "I'll never use this in my daily life." They are actually probably right quite often. The content isn't that important....knowing how to think and learn is important.

The problem with the way standardized tests are done is that they test content more than they test ability to learn. It is very difficult to test a student's ability to learn on a standardized test. In order for a student to demonstrate to me that they have a wealth of knowledge, they need to write an essay, conduct an experiment, or do some other kind of assessment where they have the freedom to shape their response. Currently, standardized tests assess how well a student can memorize rote facts....and that is a skill that is not all that important in the real world. In the real world (not the MTV kind ), creativity, critical thinking, and leadership/teamwork are FAR more important than your ability to memorize facts....unfortunately, our nation judges a student based on the later and not the former, simply because the tests are easier to check and they are a completely objective....not everything in the world is easy or objective, unfortunately, our education system hasn't figured that out yet.

Again, content knowledge, in the long run, isn't that important to students in high school. If your future career requires that you become proficient in algebra, biology, or english, your college curriculum will most certainly acquaint you with those topics. The content should simply be used as a tool to teach our students HOW to learn, and the tests we measure our students by should reflect that.

[DaddyMac]

Solid timing.

I'm sure they're well motivated to complete the school year on a positive note.

[hawkfan]

On top of all of the above, keep in mind that students have NO INCENTIVE to actually perform well on most standardized tests. I'm sure all of you knew at least someone who simply "christmas treed" the Iowa Basic Skills Test. There is no reprimand for a student who does poorly on a standardized test, yet there are dire consequences for a school district who's students do poorly. A school's funding is sometimes directly linked to their student's performance on those tests.

In the case above, how many of those students in a poverty ridden district value their education and/or tried really hard on the aforementioned tests.

[CloneIce]

Originally Posted by ruxCYtable

Did they all have inappropriate relationships with students? I thought that was the only way a teacher could get fired. I have never heard of a teacher being fired for performance reasons.

Well, my old football coach got fired for getting too many OWIs. It was too bad because he was a cool guy. He didn't get fired for performance reasons, even though people would turn out the lights and tackle him during class, or throw rubbers full of BBs at the blackboard, or throw desks through walls. And that was just Gov't class... yeah I don't think I went to a normal school.

[weR138]

[QUOTE=hawkfan;1567563]Yeah....standardized test scores are SUCH a good way to measure the knowledge of our nation's students. This is what upsets me sooo much about our education system. How many standardized tests have any of you taken in your career paths?QUOTE]

A few really important ones.

signed,

Doctors
Lawyers
Architects
CPA's
Engineers

[hawkfan]

[quote=weR138;1567629]

Originally Posted by hawkfan

Yeah....standardized test scores are SUCH a good way to measure the knowledge of our nation's students. This is what upsets me sooo much about our education system. How many standardized tests have any of you taken in your career paths?QUOTE]

A few really important ones.

signed,

Doctors
Lawyers
Architects
CPA's
Engineers

Continue reading....I was talking specifically about high school students. I acknowledged at the end of this same post that once you get to college, content/testing becomes much more important.

You won't see too many kids leave high school and operate on someone....at least no legally

[aauummm]

Originally Posted by hawkfan

Yeah....standardized test scores are SUCH a good way to measure the knowledge of our nation's students. This is what upsets me sooo much about our education system. How many standardized tests have any of you taken in your career paths? How many of your daily jobs require (bi weekly) multiple choice tests for you to succeed?

The importance of our education system is to teach kids the skill set of being able to acquire knowledge, or to put it more bluntly, teaching kids how to learn. Content knowledge (what is tested by a multiple choice test the majority of the time), isn't all that important, teachers simply use content knowledge to guide the learning process. Let me ask you this question: how many of you have ever needed to know the starting date of Gettysburg in your daily job? How many of you have needed to know how the process of photosynthesis works in order to successfully get through your work day? How about a complex calculus equation, have you ever had to solve one of those on the job? You may have needed history, or science, or calculus for your job....but you didn't use it in the way that it was used in a high school text book (if you did use it that way, you are probably in less than 10% of the population). Basically, when a kid says: "I'll never use this in my daily life." They are actually probably right quite often. The content isn't that important....knowing how to think and learn is important.

The problem with the way standardized tests are done is that they test content more than they test ability to learn. It is very difficult to test a student's ability to learn on a standardized test. In order for a student to demonstrate to me that they have a wealth of knowledge, they need to write an essay, conduct an experiment, or do some other kind of assessment where they have the freedom to shape their response. Currently, standardized tests assess how well a student can memorize rote facts....and that is a skill that is not all that important in the real world. In the real world (not the MTV kind ), creativity, critical thinking, and leadership/teamwork are FAR more important than your ability to memorize facts....unfortunately, our nation judges a student based on the later and not the former, simply because the tests are easier to check and they are a completely objective....not everything in the world is easy or objective, unfortunately, our education system hasn't figured that out yet.

Again, content knowledge, in the long run, isn't that important to students in high school. If your future career requires that you become proficient in algebra, biology, or english, your college curriculum will most certainly acquaint you with those topics. The content should simply be used as a tool to teach our students HOW to learn, and the tests we measure our students by should reflect that.

And to think, most of those standardized tests that you rail against were conceived, promoted and copyrighted by the University of Iowa hawkeyes.

[ruxCYtable]

Originally Posted by hawkfan

On top of all of the above, keep in mind that students have NO INCENTIVE to actually perform well on most standardized tests. I'm sure all of you knew at least someone who simply "christmas treed" the Iowa Basic Skills Test. There is no reprimand for a student who does poorly on a standardized test, yet there are dire consequences for a school district who's students do poorly. A school's funding is sometimes directly linked to their student's performance on those tests.

In the case above, how many of those students in a poverty ridden district value their education and/or tried really hard on the aforementioned tests.

No incentive? How about performing well in school so you can have a career, a roof over your head and a life?