The over testing culture going on in schools today.

[RelentlessMalice]

I am starting to hate the job I once loved.Why am I starting to hate my job?

 

Well I added up all the district/state mandated tests my students will take in one school year. This total does not take into account tests I will give my students at the end of each unit, or their other teachers give. The total is....

 

27 tests!!!

 

4 of the tests count 30% of the students final grade.

 

2 determine promotion to the next grade.

 

10 determine school grades and teacher evaluations.

 

The rest are placement tests to determine remedial, normal or advanced.

 

The name of school should be replaced with tests.

 

We the teachers now only have 3 nine weeks to teach our content. The last nine weeks is all testing. An entire 9 weeks is one test after another. Why does it take so long? Because these tests are given on the computer because the state mandated it. The problem is our school and other schools do not have enough computers for each student, which adds days for each test. The state makes it law and yet doesnt give us the tools to do it.

 

School has become all about tests and data. This is not what I signed up for. This madness needs to stop!

[Ms. Spam]

Excuse my maniacal laughing.

 

we have a congressman who wants to test 4 year olds, because we need to justify pre-k.

[Ms. Spam]

Oh and I am in charge of finding the schools key low scoring questions they consistently miss and developing a program to teach them the skills needed to not miss them. Word problems and graphing.

[Darth Krawlie]

What do they do in countries that don't have shitty education? Serious question.

[Metropolis]

Malice, you and my wife should have lunch to compare notes. She's talked about quitting for a while but she seats she lives the kids too much to do it.

[Cerina]

And this is why I home school now.

 

Well, one of the reasons at least. But the idea of testing is so ingrained in our culture and minds that it's the biggest fight I have with my family now. They all think it's ludicrous that I'm not giving my son tests or grades. Apparently they weren't listening when I was younger and would complain about the standardized tests we had to take.

[pavonis]

Oh and I am in charge of finding the schools key low scoring questions they consistently miss and developing a program to teach them the skills needed to not miss them. Word problems and graphing.

Life is a word problem.

 

I hate it when college kids come to me and say "Oh, I love X (algebra, calculus, physics, etc) but I hate/can't do/don't get word problems."

[Carrie Mathison]

bla bla bla My name is RM and I constantly b-tch about testing because I suck at preparing students for them bla bla bla

 

 

 

School has become all about tests and data. This is not what I signed up for. This madness needs to stop!

Oh how terrible. All that data and numbers. Makes my feeble mind hurt. Man, can't we go back to the days when I'd get raises and promotions just by being around a long time?

[Darth Ender]

I am starting to hate the job I once loved.Why am I starting to hate my job?

Well I added up all the district/state mandated tests my students will take in one school year. This total does not take into account tests I will give my students at the end of each unit, or their other teachers give. The total is....

27 tests!!!

4 of the tests count 30% of the students final grade.

2 determine promotion to the next grade.

10 determine school grades and teacher evaluations.

The rest are placement tests to determine remedial, normal or advanced.

The name of school should be replaced with tests.

We the teachers now only have 3 nine weeks to teach our content. The last nine weeks is all testing. An entire 9 weeks is one test after another. Why does it take so long? Because these tests are given on the computer because the state mandated it. The problem is our school and other schools do not have enough computers for each student, which adds days for each test. The state makes it law and yet doesnt give us the tools to do it.

School has become all about tests and data. This is not what I signed up for. This madness needs to stop!

You need to test almost everyday to properly adjust your instruction to meet your student's learning needs. If you don't know if your students understood the day's curriculum, how do you know what to do the next day?

 

 

And this is why I home school now.

 

Well, one of the reasons at least. But the idea of testing is so ingrained in our culture and minds that it's the biggest fight I have with my family now. They all think it's ludicrous that I'm not giving my son tests or grades. Apparently they weren't listening when I was younger and would complain about the standardized tests we had to take.

How do you ascertain your son's knowledge and appropriately adjust your instruction for remediation or enrichment?

 

What do they do in countries that don't have ****ty education? Serious question.

Actually the US has a good educational model. Our test scores are lower than other countries because we test 99% of our kids. Homeless, English language learners, cognitive disabilities, etc--we test them all. Countries with high test scores do not do this. Furthermore, the US has a much more heterogeneous population.

 

 

[Destiny Skywalker]

 

Oh and I am in charge of finding the schools key low scoring questions they consistently miss and developing a program to teach them the skills needed to not miss them. Word problems and graphing.

Life is a word problem.

 

I hate it when college kids come to me and say "Oh, I love X (algebra, calculus, physics, etc) but I hate/can't do/don't get word problems."

 

Because engineers and scientists are generally pretty socially inept.

[pavonis]

"Riiiight", said the physicist to the engineer. WTF does "socially inept" have to do with facing word problems?

[RelentlessMalice]

Darth ender I do not have to do an assessment everyday.

 

I can do exit slips, or summary questions, review game,project, etc...

 

There are many different ways to see if a student knows the content without giving them a test or more specifically a "standardized test" with a one size fits all mentality.

 

So I have 11 units to cover in a given year, which means 11 unit tests in just my class. Now add all the unit test each teacher gives for their classes.

 

When you add these 27 non teacher made standardized tests it equals out to overtesting.

 

It has got to stop. Kids should go to school and learn to enjoy learning, not be worried about the next test coming around the corner.

 

When an entire nine weeks is devoted to all testing and no teaching that is what I have a problem with.

[Destiny Skywalker]

"Riiiight", said the physicist to the engineer. WTF does "socially inept" have to do with facing word problems?

You said life was a word problem. Hence my point that you get students who claim they don't get word problems but understand higher math and hard science.

 

You know, we're just kind of proving my point by going back and forth on this.

[RelentlessMalice]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/os-florida-common-core-scott-maxwell-20141007-column.html

 

Here is a good article on this issue.

[pavonis]

 

"Riiiight", said the physicist to the engineer. WTF does "socially inept" have to do with facing word problems?

You said life was a word problem. Hence my point that you get students who claim they don't get word problems but understand higher math and hard science.

 

You know, we're just kind of proving my point by going back and forth on this.

 

1. We're not "going back and forth" on this.

2. I didn't say that only math and science students claim to hate word problems. I can see how you might have assumed that from what I said, but many students outside of physics and math will claim to have an interest in the subjects, but claim to be put off by all the math, especially word problems. As if activities such as balancing check books or calculating drug dosages for patients aren't examples of math problems posed in words.

3. Most college students are socially inept, not just science and math geeks.

[Destiny Skywalker]

Holy shit, dude, can I make a joke, ever? Call me when you find the broomstick up your ass.

[Cerina]

 

And this is why I home school now.

 

Well, one of the reasons at least. But the idea of testing is so ingrained in our culture and minds that it's the biggest fight I have with my family now. They all think it's ludicrous that I'm not giving my son tests or grades. Apparently they weren't listening when I was younger and would complain about the standardized tests we had to take.

How do you ascertain your son's knowledge and appropriately adjust your instruction for remediation or enrichment?

 

Seriously? I spend all day every day with him. I actually talk to him and listen when he speaks to me. I listen to him explain to my husband everything he did that day, and I watch him teach the neighbor's kids some of the stuff he learned. I do occasionally "quiz" him verbally, but it's rarely more than one or two questions, and we have been doing comprehensive "projects" at the end of a unit. For example, after learning about animal classification for a couple of weeks, we went on a scavenger hunt at the zoo.

[Cerina]

 

 

"Riiiight", said the physicist to the engineer. WTF does "socially inept" have to do with facing word problems?

You said life was a word problem. Hence my point that you get students who claim they don't get word problems but understand higher math and hard science.

 

You know, we're just kind of proving my point by going back and forth on this.

 

1. We're not "going back and forth" on this.

2. I didn't say that only math and science students claim to hate word problems. I can see how you might have assumed that from what I said, but many students outside of physics and math will claim to have an interest in the subjects, but claim to be put off by all the math, especially word problems. As if activities such as balancing check books or calculating drug dosages for patients aren't examples of math problems posed in words.

3. Most college students are socially inept, not just science and math geeks.

 

http://33.media.tumblr.com/279fb8cdc0106c81aa043d62323008a6/tumblr_nakn244B731tv0602o1_500.jpg

[UK Legend Killa]

Annnnnnnd lets calm things down in here shall we?

 

Damn kids making so much noise. Don't make me come back in here and do some moderating! Cause I will!

 

Stop baiting people and don't jump down people's throats with your own reasons with why they are wrong. Remember the manners we were taught in school.....

[Darth Krawlie]

I didn't take a standardized manners test so I don't know what's appropriate and what isn't. Shithead.

[pavonis]

Holy ****, dude, can I make a joke, ever? Call me when you find the broomstick up your ass.

Making a joke? On a message board, without smilies? Are you new to the internet?

 

 

 

 

"Riiiight", said the physicist to the engineer. WTF does "socially inept" have to do with facing word problems?

You said life was a word problem. Hence my point that you get students who claim they don't get word problems but understand higher math and hard science.

 

You know, we're just kind of proving my point by going back and forth on this.

 

1. We're not "going back and forth" on this.

2. I didn't say that only math and science students claim to hate word problems. I can see how you might have assumed that from what I said, but many students outside of physics and math will claim to have an interest in the subjects, but claim to be put off by all the math, especially word problems. As if activities such as balancing check books or calculating drug dosages for patients aren't examples of math problems posed in words.

3. Most college students are socially inept, not just science and math geeks.

 

 

Oh, how terrible - you've compared me to a superhero. I'm so insulted.

 

Aren't admins supposed to, y'know, not try to insult the community members?

[Darth Ender]

 

Darth ender I do not have to do an assessment everyday.

I can do exit slips, or summary questions, review game,project, etc...

There are many different ways to see if a student knows the content without giving them a test or more specifically a "standardized test" with a one size fits all mentality.

Those are all assessments.

[Ms. Spam]

Yeah, I evaluate every day but I rarely sit behind my desk and I don't test to evaluate - I actually consider a pop quiz a punishment. The evaluation part comes with homework. My homework is structured to build on concepts and you can see based on statistical analysis where they don't make the leap and can the focus on it, but it does take a quick teacher to process, understand and adapt to teach that missing leap. This year we adapted our schedule in the Charter school I teach at so that I spend a good chunk with the kids, a half day with my 4th graders and a half day with my 5th graders and can make my own schedule for that block as long as I cover mathematics, science and geography. I am liking this schedule a lot better than changing of multiple periods because a lot of paperwork is gone as I take role 3 times (4 times if you count the free breakfast program) instead of 6 - 7 times a day. Because there's no changing of classes I can spend about 20 extra minutes focusing on something that they maybe struggling with. I am really keen to see what testing results come out of it.

 

I think that the multiple tests should be taken down to one test with shared results used for all the benchmarks that testing is supposed to measure. Why take tests that measure knowledge for National, State and local that are all basically the same test three times and just do it once and share the data? Also basing my pay on a damn test is frickin' ridiculous. I was hired to teach and I think I do a damn good job at it.

 

 

And I gotta be honest, Cerina - I am totally not dissing you - but I dunno about home schooling. What you're doing sounds a lot like Montessori school learning systems mixed with housework and doing Cerina errands with television progamming. School schedules do help kids learn socialization skills for the work place. Not all kids will thrive on the homeschool schedule. I find most of them who do really either have great will power or are scared of new things and letting go of mamas strings. Each situation is different and if Noah and you like this, then I think it's great.

[Cerina]

 

Holy ****, dude, can I make a joke, ever? Call me when you find the broomstick up your ass.

Making a joke? On a message board, without smilies? Are you new to the internet?

 

 

 

 

"Riiiight", said the physicist to the engineer. WTF does "socially inept" have to do with facing word problems?

You said life was a word problem. Hence my point that you get students who claim they don't get word problems but understand higher math and hard science.

 

You know, we're just kind of proving my point by going back and forth on this.

 

1. We're not "going back and forth" on this.

2. I didn't say that only math and science students claim to hate word problems. I can see how you might have assumed that from what I said, but many students outside of physics and math will claim to have an interest in the subjects, but claim to be put off by all the math, especially word problems. As if activities such as balancing check books or calculating drug dosages for patients aren't examples of math problems posed in words.

3. Most college students are socially inept, not just science and math geeks.

 

http://33.media.tumblr.com/279fb8cdc0106c81aa043d62323008a6/tumblr_nakn244B731tv0602o1_500.jpg

 

Oh, how terrible - you've compared me to a superhero. I'm so insulted.

 

Aren't admins supposed to, y'know, not try to insult the community members?

 

Are you new to the internet?

 

 

 

[Darth Ender]

 

 

And this is why I home school now.

 

Well, one of the reasons at least. But the idea of testing is so ingrained in our culture and minds that it's the biggest fight I have with my family now. They all think it's ludicrous that I'm not giving my son tests or grades. Apparently they weren't listening when I was younger and would complain about the standardized tests we had to take.

How do you ascertain your son's knowledge and appropriately adjust your instruction for remediation or enrichment?

 

Seriously? I spend all day every day with him. I actually talk to him and listen when he speaks to me. I listen to him explain to my husband everything he did that day, and I watch him teach the neighbor's kids some of the stuff he learned. I do occasionally "quiz" him verbally, but it's rarely more than one or two questions, and we have been doing comprehensive "projects" at the end of a unit. For example, after learning about animal classification for a couple of weeks, we went on a scavenger hunt at the zoo.

 

Other than watching him teach "some" of the stuff he learned to the neighbors kid (and that is iffy based on the context of everything else you typed), nothing you listed is neither a reliable nor valid form of assessment.