January 30

Today we began by responding to a quote by Cizek for our writing into the day.  Then, Megan walked through "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001" and highlighted the important parts of the article.  These parts discussed the intended benefits of this Act.  After that, we got into our inquiry groups and made a list of the positives of standardized testing according to Kaplan (using "My 54 Year Love Affair with the SAT).  We listed the following:

• Critical thinking
• It's for everyone
• Free of bias
• The questions are the "how" and "why" instead of the "what"of a subject
• Knowledge application rather than memorization
• You can't cram for the test
• It will predict where students will be in the first 6 months of college
• More opportunities are provided when a student gets a high score
• The test requires a student to focus, reason and practice
• Reliable and predictable
• Beyond normal testing

Then, we watched a Why Standardized Testing Fails (a TEDTalks video).  After watching the video, we talked in small groups about how to "fix"standardized testing, especially the SAT.  Then, we spent the last 15 minutes of class having the following discussion:

• The problem is the cost of the SAT.  It should be cheaper.
• High schools should require an SAT prep course.
• This would allow students to work with teachers and fellow students rather than studying from a book.
• Core subject classes should dedicate time for SAT prep.
• The SAT is exhausting.  By the time you get to the fifth section, your brain is done.
• What about history, science and the other subjects?  Why aren't they on the SAT?
• There is too much pressure put on just one day.
• Time pressure is the issue.  Scores would be higher if students were given more time.
• Split the sections up over a series of days.
• Individuals move at different speeds when they take tests.
• What happens to slow readers when they take the SAT?  They are at a disadvantage.
• The SAT is meant to break you.
• The SAT is nothing like college exams.
• High school tests need to be structured more like the SAT with less memorizing and more "how" and "why" questions.  Students would be less stressed on the actual SAT because they'd be used to that kind of testing.
• How much time was wasted in high school just memorizing facts?
• You learn in college because you spend so much time outside of class studying.
• The SAT is so tedious, like the questions about parts of speech.
• There is a lot that students don't remember when they get to the SAT.  For example, most students haven't taken Algebra for years, so they don't remember the content for the test.
• The vocabulary is full of words we've never heard before.
• Who talks like that in real life?
• You'll never have to compose a piece of writing in a 25 minute time period in real life.
• It's hard to test people in creativity.
• Because of the scoring of the SAT, it's hard to tell if you should guess or leave an answer blank.
• The comparison of scores is good.  The comparison with other test takers shows more than the actual score itself.

Homework:

• By Sunday at midnight:
1. Post to your blog about what you are thinking involving what we've talked about in class or something else involving school/education.
2. Comment on two blog posts from your inquiry group.
• By Wednesday before class:
1. Read your assigned section of "Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work" and post a reading response.

If you missed class, you need to email me so I can assign you a section of the reading.