The standards indicate what a student should know and be able to do…year by year. Perhaps we should test what teachers should be able to know and be able to do to ensure that great teachers are paired with students who need them. Hurray to rrteacher, I pray for more like you on the scene.

I wonder what the principals subgroup data looks like. In my school district, our blue-ribbon schools have made AYP prior to and since NCLB of 2001, despite the horrific test results for minority and disabled children. It’s easy to teach children who easily learn and would probably do so if you stuck them in a closet with a book and computer. How about writing an article where AYP is determined in, let’s say, the year 2010 by whether your subgroups are proficient or not. That would have allowed school districts across the nation time to address the achievement gap…nine years into building in AYP as an accountability measure. Students are tested up the ying/yang and they being early in their academic life, of which the results are most blatant in academic tracking. The state standardized tests are the screaming wheel that’s getting the attention, while all those hundreds of other tests are truly determining one’s academic progression and destiny.

Thank you redneckprof for spouting the truth of the matter and encouraging people to think about what they’re reading. Please speak on this matter as often as you can, you’re insight is valuable.

I’ll get down from my soapbox now.

I looked at the released test items for Ohio’s 6th grade math test. They are trivial questions. Here are a few:

Item 2. Similar Triangles
Item 3. Number pattern
Item 6. Simplify 10 - 4/.5 + 4 to find its value
Item 8. A percentage of a whole using pie segments
Item 9. The student has to answer what information he/she needs to cover a floor with tiles. No calculations need to be done.
Item 11. A 3D cube visualization problem.

This is a straight reflection of Everyday Math that so many in the education field love. No special preparation should be necessary. These questions are supposed to reflect the silly critical thinking concepts that ed schools love so much. So what’s the problem? What’s the complaint? Schools get to teach their fuzzy ideas and the tests are a very simple reflection of these fuzzy ideas, but they still complain about teaching to the test. It’s all quite incredible. They have it all, but they still complain.

When experts in mathematics complain about low expectations and bad curricula, schools start talking about higher-order thinking as if they (with no knowledge of what real world math is) have something better. Mathematicians and engineers are left scratching their heads over what on earth they are talking about. They have redefined math and they even have their own tests. They still complain. If they can’t get kids to pass these tests with plenty of time left over for whatever other fluff they want to do, then something is very seriously wrong.

Let’s try: A: “My mother dies in a car accident yesterday”. B: “Oh, I’m so sorry”. Thwere’s no assertion of responsibility, here. In no sense is this an apology. If the principal intends this expression of regret as opposition to his employers’ policy, he can honestly resign.

I’m sorry government schools put con artists like this in supervisory positions.

http://www.ode.state.oh.us/GD/Templates/Pages/ODE/ODEDetail.aspx?page=3&TopicRelationID=1070&ContentID=7479&Content=52396

John Thompson:
Where I come from, it would be “britches on fire”, and my apologies for my incivility, but it was the second time that day I had read that article. The original newspaper article included more mendacity, like giving up 8 instructional days for testing - most students had 2 mornings of the school year utilized for testing, he took every day that any student (Senior, Kindergarten, Middle school) had testing and led the reader to believe that every student had that many days lost - like I said, that’s a big fib.