Standard test was Re: [Sca-cooks] Iceland & Scotland - what to get?

[Elaine Koogler]

I must differ with you here.  I have a protege who is an English teacher at a high school in the Norfolk/Portsmouth/Va. Beach area.  She tells me, as have others, that she is required to teach to the test.  The text books that she is given at geared toward the tests, and she is evaluated on how well her students do on the tests.

I know that the same thing is happening in adult education as well.  A number of companies in the computer industry have certification tests that a person can take after taking classses or with experience.  This certification is very helpful in getting jobs/promotions/etc.  Courseware developers are being required to develop courses that are geared to teach a person precisely what is on the certificaiton tests.  I had this happen:  I was given the outline used to develop the test and was told to use the same outline to develop the class.  It's frightening.  The instructor is no longer allowed to teach
what is needed to do the job, but rather what it will take to pass the tests.

Kiri

grizly at mindspring.com wrote:

> sca-cooks at ansteorra.org wrote:
> > In a message dated 6/8/01 10:20:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time,grizly at mindspring.com writes:
>
> > They don't tell you how to teach so much as tell what is and isn't being
> > learned . . . assessment tolls and not policy making tools.
>
> Have you seen the curriculum of high schools in Virginia? They give us this little sheet every year that has corresponding SOL numbers and teachers have to go by that sheet to teach. >>>>>
>
> What you seem to be unhappy about and railing against is the policy and decisions made . . . . not the tests.  The test is an assessment tool.  The test didn't decide what the teacher teaches.  I was in high school once and have felt the way you describe about test taking and cirricula.  It requires a sentient being to decide what is being done in a classroom and being given to students to learn.  Believe me when I suggest humbly that effective change can only be made by directing energy and feedback to people who make the decisions and not the piece of paper that lands in fromt of you on testing day.
>
> niccolo
>
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