Tomorrow is the Nov. 5th SAT, which I can guarantee is freaking the crap right out of teenagers across the nation. Poor bastards. When I took the Rite of Passage for American High School Students (standardized tests written by pain-in-the-ass adults whose heads are shoved so far up their exit ramps that they can no longer navigate reality), I must say I had a rather cavalier attitude about the whole thing. Almost twelve years of public school had made me quite the badass standardized test taker; I was unconcerned.

Most students don’t have that attitude. To them I advise chilling the eff out, this is not the end of the world. I promise. Shite of a much higher magnitude will befall you in the course of your lifetime, I can guarantee it. So quit your whining and suck it up, kiddos. You walk right in there with your #2 pencils and kick some standardized ass! Or don’t, and head for your 5th choice school. No biggie.

Need some advice on SATs and ACTs and how they may affect your future matriculation plans? Allen Grove is a font of information about college admissions. Here are four of his bits of wisdom:

Low SAT or ACT Scores? These Colleges Don’t Require the Tests
What ACT Scores Do You Need to Get Into College?
Are My SAT Scores Good Enough?
Low ACT Scores? What Now?

Further Reading (my cranky attitude toward standardized tests in general):

Secret SAT Scores
Colbert’s Wickedly True Take on the SATs
Testing Season Begins
An Excellent Argument for Abolishing the SAT
The Newly Unfabulous SAT
Awesome Parent
The SAT Is Not Good
College Admissions Testing: For and Against
January 23rd SAT Results
Calculating Potential
Kaplan SAT Prep Tools on Facebook

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(image: panic)

Pennsylvania public schools have jumped on the cheating bandwagon. I’m excited to find out which state will be found out next. And I’m super duper excited to read American History a few decades from now when someone theorizes that President Bush and his No Child Left Behind Act pushed American educators to cheat on standardized tests.

Further Reading:

Atlanta Cheats, Too
Too Many Erasures On D.C. Standardized Tests
It’s Not On the Test
No Child Left Behind Is Ruining Our Education System

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(scantron)

Remember the jackass educators in Washington D.C. who erased students’ incorrect answer bubbles and filled in the correct ones? So classy, so honest, such role models for the impressionable young minds they’re wearing down to nubs with high-pressure standardized tests. Adults suck. Need more fact-age to prove me right? Atlanta educators are slimy too:

Investigation into APS cheating finds unethical behavior across every level

America’s biggest teacher and principal cheating scandal unfolds in Atlanta

Report on Atlanta school cheating inquiry validates AJC analysis

Deal: APS cheating investigation outlines ‘dark chapter’ in system’s history

Atlanta school kids angry over cheating scandal

High-Stakes Testing & the Culture of Fear: The Atlanta Case, Report #1

Why Were Test Answer Sheets Altered? The Atlanta Case, Report #2

Atlanta Public Schools cheating: Some teachers admit guilt

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(Atlanta school bus)

Born too late for the homework-free society Race to Nowhere is bringing on? Sucks to be you. And me, I might add. Where in the hell was filmmaker Vicki Abeles when I was a wee slip of a thing, playing outside in the sunshine on my pink banana-seat BMX bike and feeling guilty about the 13 years of homework I never failed to put off until the morning it was due?

It’s amazing there hasn’t been a homework revolt before now; the kids have the numbers. School kids are like ants: If they ever decide to take over, there’s not a lot the human adults can do about it. I’m just saying.

I’m a firm believer that Thank-You Notes and the grandparents who force kids to write them are the devil’s work, but every public school student from K-12 should at least send Race to Nowhere’s Abeles a good thought, if not a huge-ass muffin basket.

Further Reading:

New Recruit in Homework Revolt: The Principal
Race to Nowhere

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(banana seat bike)

Here’s the latest press release from the National Assessment Governing Board. I’m not a fan of standardized testing, but I’m sure there are others who feel differently and would like to know how well American school kids did on their civics exams. The full press release is below.

NEWS RELEASE
May 4, 2011

Fourth Graders Post Gains in Civics Knowledge and Skills Since 1998
While Twelfth Graders Lose Ground From 2006
Nation’s Report Card Shows Hispanic Students Improving

Washington, D.C.–Achievement by U.S. fourth graders in civics has increased while twelfth graders’ performance has declined, according to the Civics 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress at Grades 4, 8, and 12–known as The Nation’s Report Card.

The 2010 report showed that fourth graders posted the highest civics score since 1998, with the percentages of students at or above the Basic and Proficient achievement levels higher than in 2006 and 1998. However, high school seniors scored lower in 2010 than in 2006, and had a lower percentage at or above Proficient compared to 2006. There was no significant change in the overall score for eighth graders compared to 2006 and 1998.

Twelfth-grade girls scored lower in 2010 compared to the civics assessments in 2006 and 1998. Hispanic students made gains with average scores increasing from 1998 to 2010 in all grades.

The NAEP civics assessment measures the knowledge and skills critical to the responsibilities of citizenship in America’s constitutional democracy. Comparing the results from the 2010 civics assessment to results from 1998 and 2006 shows how students’ knowledge and skills have progressed over time.

“We are encouraged by the gains in civics achievement being made by our nation’s Hispanic students, who are an increasingly important voice in our democracy,” said David P. Driscoll, chair of the National Assessment Governing Board, which sets policy for NAEP. “But clearly we need to reverse the trend for our twelfth graders–particularly the drop in scores for twelfth-grade girls–so they too understand important concepts that contribute to a full civic life.”

The 2010 NAEP civics assessment was administered by the National Center for Education Statistics to nationally representative samples of public and private school students, which included about 7,100 fourth graders, 9,600 eighth graders, and 9,900 twelfth graders. The results are reported as average scores on a 0 to 300 scale and as percentages of students scoring at or above three achievement levels: Basic, Proficient, and Advanced. Basic denotes partial mastery of the knowledge and skills fundamental for proficient work. Proficient represents solid academic performance and competency over challenging subject matter. Advanced represents superior performance. The scores cannot be compared across grade levels.

The civics assessment contained a mixture of multiple-choice and constructed-response questions for each grade level. The assessment questions addressed three interrelated components: civic knowledge, intellectual and participatory skills, and civic dispositions. The civic knowledge questions assessed students’ understanding of civic life, politics, and government; the foundations of the American political system; how the constitutional government employs principles of democracy; the relationship of the U.S. to other nations; and the role of citizens in American democracy.

At grade 4, students who scored at or above the Basic level (77 percent) were likely to identify a method used to select public office holders, students scoring at Proficient (27 percent) could identify a purpose of the U.S. Constitution, and students at Advanced (2 percent) could explain two ways a country could deal with a shared problem.

At grade 8, the 72 percent of students who performed at or above the Basic level were likely to identify a right protected by the First Amendment, the 22 percent who performed at or above the Proficient level could recognize a role performed by the Supreme Court, and the 1 percent who scored at the Advanced level could name two actions that citizens could take to encourage Congress to pass a law.

At grade 12, the 64 percent of students who performed at or above the Basic level were likely to interpret a political cartoon, the 24 percent scoring at or above Proficient could define “melting pot” and argue whether or not the phrase applied to the U.S., and the 4 percent scoring at Advanced could compare U.S. citizenship requirements to those of other countries.

Some detailed findings:
“¢ Twelfth-Grade Score Declines. The average score of twelfth graders in 2010 declined 3 points from 2006 and was not significantly different from 1998. The percentage of students at or above Proficient in 2010 was lower than in 2006 but not significantly different from 1998.
“¢ Scores for Female Students Increase at Grade 4 and Decrease at Grade 12. The average civics score for twelfth-grade girls decreased by 3 points from 2006 to 2010, while average scores for twelfth-grade boys did not change significantly from previous years. However, the average score for fourth-grade girls increased by 5 points over 2006, while scores for fourth-grade boys did not significantly change over the same period. There was no significant change in the average scores of eighth-grade girls and boys.
“¢ Scores Increase for Hispanic Students and Gap Closes. Average civics scores for Hispanic students were higher than in 1998 for all three grades and higher in 2010 than in 2006 at grade 8. The average score for Hispanic eighth graders in 2010 was 5 points higher than in 2006 and 10 points higher than in 1998. Although the gap between the scores of White and Hispanic eighth-graders was 23 points in 2010, it was narrower than the gaps in 2006 and 1998. In twelfth grade, the 19-point gap between the scores of White and Hispanic students in 2010 was smaller than the gaps in 2006 and 1998. At grade 4, the White-Hispanic gap of 27 points narrowed compared to 1998, but had no significant change compared to 2006.
“¢ White-Black Achievement Gaps Persist. White fourth graders, for instance, scored 24 points higher on average than Black fourth graders in 2010. The gap at this grade level narrowed compared to 1998, but was not statistically different compared to 2006. On average, White eighth graders scored 25 points higher than Black students in 2010, with no significant changes in gaps compared to 2006 and 1998. In the twelfth grade, the 29-point gap between White and Black students was not statistically different from the gaps in 2006 or 1998.

There you have it. For more information, the following sites have lots:

The Nation’s Report Card: Civics 2010, Grades 4, 8, and 12
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB)

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Have I not stated the utter worthlessness of standardized tests? They’re the faster, stronger, better version of pure evil; the quickest way to inadequately measure how the infinitesimally funded teachers of the American public school system educate their K-12 pupils.

Filling in bubbles on a one-size-fits-all metric of knowledge absorption is not only the most efficient way to measure crap, it’s also the most easily manipulated. The statistically improbable number of erasures and corrections on the bubble sheets for D.C. public schools is worth digging into. Most specifically, the D.C. schools that had made the best progress in their No Child Left Behind numbers. The schools Michelle Rhee and Arne Duncan gave high praise and cash-money teacher bonuses to in recognition for their awesome test scores. Those scores being the ones from the overly erasured answer sheets. Wait…

Again I will shock us all by going way out on a limb and state that NCLB is a shite system, it still doesn’t work, and neither does the newly bizarre system involving removing money from the public school system while promising teachers that if they can teach their charges better than all the other under-funded educators, then they will get to keep their jobs and will be given bonus money.

Further Reading:

When Standardized Test Scores Soared In D.C., Were the Gains Real?
President Obama’s Plan For Education
Sen. Obama’s Education Reform Speech
It’s Not On the Test
No Child Left Behind Is Ruining Our Education System
Obama’s Race To the Top
Teacher Compensation Reform
Accountability

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(eraser)

Brought to you by Teacher Certification Map and MAT@USC | Master’s of Arts in Teaching

Seriously, all of you possible teen drop-outs with too much reality on your plates to be able to handle the mundanity of high school: do everything in your power to avoid letting down the adults (parentals and the Dept. of Education) who have clearly done everything except get you through your childhood in one piece. You owe them so much.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

The parents who will be driving their offspring to insanity as soon as the kids can spell S-A-T start in on the psychotic haranguing early:

Try to stay off of my sh*t list, lesser humans.

Further Reading:

What Makes A Good Parent?
Media Frenzy Around High Pressure College Admissions
Testing Season Begins
Play-Doh Smeared Credentials
Find Your Happy Place
(Possibly) The End Of Helicopter Parenting

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Five Miles Away, A World Apart: One City, Two Schools, and the Story of Educational Opportunity in America is Ryan’s account of the research he did comparing and contrasting two high schools in Richmond Virginia. There is an unfair, and–one would hopefully argue–un-American disparity in the educational opportunities for each school’s students. Mr. Ryan not only lays the situation out for us all to fully comprehend, he also offers solutions to a problem we are smart enough to have solved by now.

Sadly, our severe lameness as Americans–who continually spout off about freedom and equality and the right to a decent education (we drive the proverbial big truck), in order to compensate for the fact that our public schools are lacking (in order to compensate for our proverbial, unfortunately sized penises)–has mightily contributed to the less-than-illuminated public education system in this great nation of ours. I love America and that damn National Anthem makes me cry every time, but that doesn’t mean I have to love the way politicians allocate funds.

Martha Minow’s In Brown’s Wake: Legacies of America’s Educational Landmark, covers what has and what hasn’t been achieved since Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka[italics] brought the idea of racial equality in public schools to the forefront. How equal are American public schools? Is it possible they’re more segregated now than they were before Brown?

Minow, in case you’ve not heard every Obama speech, was the professor Obama spoke of in a 2008 campaign speech, “When I was at Harvard Law School I had a teacher who changed my life—Martha Minow.” She’s Dean of the Harvard Law School, but more impressive (to me) is the fact that she’s considered an expert in human rights and advocacy for persons with disabilities, women, children, and for members of racial and religious minorities. All of which is to say that she uses her powers for good and I am always appreciative of that quality in a fellow human.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

This is what I’ve been saying! Although, Mr. Colbert does it ever so much better.

Previous Posts:

Testing Season Begins
An Excellent Argument for Abolishing the SAT
The SAT Is Not Good
The Newly Unfabulous SAT
Awesome Parent
College Admissions—Looking Good Only On Paper
Media Frenzy Around High Pressure College Admissions
Inequality in College Admissions
Getting Into College Without Taking the SAT
Acceptance
“Rethinking Admissions”
College Admissions Testing: For and Against
“College Panel Calls For Less Focus on SATs”
Wake Forest University Drops SAT Requirement

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(via AssortedStuff)