Article here.

"“It might be argued that I’ve been out of school too long, that if I’d actually been in the 10th grade prior to taking the test, the material would have been fresh. But doesn’t that miss the point? A test that can determine a student’s future life chances should surely relate in some practical way to the requirements of life. I can’t see how that could possibly be true of the test I took.”

Here’s the clincher in what he wrote:

“If I’d been required to take those two tests when I was a 10th grader, my life would almost certainly have been very different. I’d have been told I wasn’t ‘college material,’ would probably have believed it, and looked for work appropriate for the level of ability that the test said I had. "

So someone who is prominently successful in the world is apparently not college material and should be a highschool drop out and/or D-grade student according to America's current standardized testing regiment.

And of course, all of our applicable knowledge of advanced calculus will help us flip those burgers. We must know their trajectory, after all.

yeah, standardized tests are a joke. they often cover material not taught in classes and in the end they just waste tax payer money in creating the thousands of copies needed to distribute the test. i once had a teacher "help" us through a standardized test because we were so far ahead and off from the material in the test that we would have failed it and we would have looked like idiots when we weren't. can't say that i can speak for general ed classes, but i'm sure they weren't too synced up either, there are so many different schools and so many topics to cover that choosing just one is unfair to everyone.

Finally.. I've been waiting for something like this, maybe now things can change

Personally I like the standardized tests.

They help give teachers and students feedback on how well subjects are being taught, and/or how well the students are learning.

When I was in 10th grade last year our teachers actaully took 20 minutes out of class each day for 3 weeks to talk to us and make sure each of us were prepared for the WKCE and PLAN tests.

As for the test itself, I found that the material had all been taught to us within the last year and was quite well written, being neither too easy nor too difficult.

So, though I realize others may disike parts of it(Or the entire thing), I've always like the standadized testing.

well i disagree i dont do shit in my classes but talk and read mangas and oof couse what evry slaker dose sleep the oly reson ive made it this far is becase iv never missed a qustion on one and im not trying to brag it just i dont give a damb about any thing thats not im portant i have not done a single assiment since the 5th grade

>>5
If you don't do shit, and only tests, you'll get nowhere. Sorry, but the grammar alone provides me with enough reason to know you're shooting us bullshit.

>>4

You miss the entire point of the article. Whether you like the tests or not means about the same as how useful the tests are.

That is to say, jack shit.

Standardized tests are having less and less of an applicable relation to anything outside of the academics. It's not about how well anything is being taught - It's that what is being taught isn't what is being used.

Bump. This topic interests me.

Ever hear of the NECAPs? It stands for the New England Child Abuse Project. :D

What does that have to do with this?

>>7 Agreed in contexts other than standardized tests. Some college classes that you take in order to supposedly prepare you for your chosen career makes no sense. It's good to see, though, that pointless tests are going to be phased out.

Also, bumping this thread to try and bury others :3

i really agree to this

I like taking standardized tests so I can brag later about my nerd-inspired scores, but aside from that, I don't see the point of them. Especially since the teachers around here would just teach what was on the standardized test. I mean, com'on. The test should be based on what we learned; we shouln't base our studies on a test. I like to learn, but I'm not learning any shit with NJASK, HSPA, and SAT being the main focus of our classes :/

I find standardized tests to be really annoying and that they are not the best measure of how well you learned something. But wouldn't it be difficult to make an objective comparison of performance in different schools (ex. different standards/grading)? Standardized tests are inherently flawed, but I think they're necessary...=( From my experience, it looks like teachers don't take advantage of the freedom they have for what they can teach when there aren't any standardized tests...so it could possibly help them at least teach things that are necessary...That having said, the standardized tests we have are currently very silly and I don't know how one would prevent what was described above....=(

I agree. Apparently, the most accurate way to judge if someone will be successful in life is to sit them down in a chair and see how many questions they can answer on a sheet of paper. Learning things like history and algebra are important, but there really should be more hands-on, real life classes.

California uses STAR (Standardized Testing and Reporting for grades 2-11) and CASHEE (California High School Exit Exam for 10th-12th graders (taken up to seven times but usually passable on the first try)).

Each year, STAR quizzes you on English, Mathematics, History/Society, and Sciences:

English - Read a passage and answer questions based on what you read. Usually they give you two similar answers and no way to justify them. If you're a bad test taker you will be screwed over. Also, there's a find the grammatical/spelling/punctuation error section. That shit's easy.

Mathematics - Simplify or find the answer. Usually you can cheat by plugging in the four choices and crossing off the incorrect ones. But on that note, there is no trigonometry standardized test. If you are in Trig you have to take a "Summative HS" test, which is basically algebra and geometry. High School Geometry is the most useless form of mathematics there is, is poorly taught, and worded confusingly. Therefore expect to lose points.

History/Society - Memorization. If you can identify what happened when, you win. If not, prepare to be raped. There is zero application of material here.

Science - If it's biology, life science, or earth science, expect to see a lot of memorization. If it's chemistry, you'll have to identify laws and principles. I will give them some credit because you do have to balance chemical equations and solve for heat transfer. And I dunno how the physics one is since I never took it.

Then you have the CASHEE:

English - Two parts. The first part is identical to how STAR does it. The second part is an essay. That's awesome because it means you can apply yourself properly. The downside is the essay is scored from 1 to 4. Meaning you could easily lose most of your points if you get a 2 or 3. The irony is the AP exam isn't even this unfair; you can score a 5 out of 9 and still pass an essay.

Mathematics - Done the same way as the one on the STAR test.

So there you have it. The California standardized test system is nothing but bollocks. The SAT is the only test that's ever challenged me because A) It challenges how well you can think critically in a time limit, and B) It's designed to be foolproof. My scores on the SAT were 740 Writing, 600 Reading and 570 Math, which I feel is pretty accurate. I've always been better at conveying messages and decent at understanding what people are trying to convey. Meanwhile, my math work is plagued by careless errors. Which makes me wonder why I'm going into a math-heavy field...

They've always been pointless. Just because someone said they were and made it "official" does not mean they'll stop making us take the tests.

If the Board of Education tells them to stop, then guess what? They have to. Everything they do, first comes out of the mouth of their 'Board of Education". The school isn't able to make the decision for what is done, for the students. The Lesson Plans. The criteria. The school lunches. The after school programs. Even the bus routes, are all created by their 'Board of Education". Even the paper work for who can use the c
Computers, or Internet, or who can get recorded on film. It all comes from them.

Which also comes from the Government, too. It's a general 'Chain of command".

Government-> Board of Education-> (parents in a sense (due to filling out the paper work which gives their kids the rights to use stuff))-> School.