Sunday, September 23, 2007
Green take on high stakes testing
Imagine for a moment that you are back in high school.
Now imagine that to get the diploma you had worked towards for twelve long years was not going to be yours unless you pass a single test. This is called "high stakes testing" and it is the cause of much agonizing and a lot of Tums purchases.
Back when my wife and I were students at the University of Georgia back in the late 70s we heard Ralph Nader as he spoke to the student body. even back then he was speaking out against these sorts of tests. Lauren Gilchrist writes about the situation faced by students today, and no surprise, things are as screwed up as when I was in a classroom. The article is about high stakes testing in Canada, but the same sort of facts are at play in the US, including the Green Party's opposition to this system, which takes the student, parent and teacher out of the formula, and substitutes their wisdom with the opinions and ideas of a far-off corporation and their henchmen (academics) who help them craft these tests from hell.
Now imagine that to get the diploma you had worked towards for twelve long years was not going to be yours unless you pass a single test. This is called "high stakes testing" and it is the cause of much agonizing and a lot of Tums purchases.
Back when my wife and I were students at the University of Georgia back in the late 70s we heard Ralph Nader as he spoke to the student body. even back then he was speaking out against these sorts of tests. Lauren Gilchrist writes about the situation faced by students today, and no surprise, things are as screwed up as when I was in a classroom. The article is about high stakes testing in Canada, but the same sort of facts are at play in the US, including the Green Party's opposition to this system, which takes the student, parent and teacher out of the formula, and substitutes their wisdom with the opinions and ideas of a far-off corporation and their henchmen (academics) who help them craft these tests from hell.
// posted by Gregg Jocoy @ 2:55 PM 
