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Learnin' ain't what it used to be. Gothamist is so glad we're not a small child in the public school system anymore because the state tests required sound insane. Brooklyn parents Eve Gartner and Joe Morris, whose son goes to PS 372 in the Slope, created a site, Brownie the Cow, that include passages from the state
s fourth grade English exam. The NY Times takes up the cause, outlining the fight between parents and exam officials about how the exams overall might just be too nutty and stupid for their own good. Okay, not exactly in those words but if you listened to the passage, "Why the Rooster Crows at Dawn," you'd realize that it kind of does suck. Reading it is another matter, but the kids only got to listen to it twice. The story is mostly about a rooster in a barnyard with other barnyard animals, but a lot of the questions are about Brownie the cow! One student gave his memory of the question:
"I didn't think the test made that much sense. I felt good and confident when I was going to take the test. I listened to the story about the rooster (I couldn't look at it). They read it twice, I took all the notes I could and once I got to the big question I only had one thing I had recorded about the cow. I felt terrible. I didn't have the information to answer the question. I thought I had made a mistake, how could I have missed the information about the cow?"We are sure that tons of kids need to go into therapy after their exams. If the kids had been able to read the questions ahead of time and anticipate what they needed to focus on, it might be a different story.
State education officials tell the Times that the Brownie portion of the test was field-tested successfully and it didn't count for much of the exam anyway. But parents Gartner and Morris point out on their website that English exam scores have gone down. They have asked the city's Schools Chancellor Joel Klein to take the test, “We have asked several friends to take the ‘Brownie the Cow Challenge’. So far, none of our adult friends seem ready to advance to the fifth grade.”
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When it is realized that all these tests are is political ass covering, they will be eliminated and then perhaps the kids can actually learn what they need for life and not what they need to pass the test.
why are the students listening to the story instead of reading it?
They are listening because it's the listening comprehension part of the test. Yeah, I have no idea beyond that - I suppose education officials thought that was an important thing to gauge, whether kids could understand what's being read to them, do they pay attention.
In other news, The Human Torch was denied a bank loan.
Hahahaha, this is an excellent story. It is indeed very easy to completely screw your students by not thinking through an assignment or test question. AND, usually, one is not accountable, you can just gloss it over or insist you are right - you are the teacher, after all!
I don't really want to make a claim as to whether standardized testing is right or wrong, but this kind of transparency is very very important. The people involved should just admit that parts of the test sucked and move on.
Too bad they'll never teach kids how to actually learn rather than memorizing shit so they can play Jeopardy.
I can't wait until they take it (public education machine) COMPLETELY apart and actually take a look at what all the 'parts' of education DO for kids...when they finally put it all back together, I'm hoping standardized tests will be looked at as a filter rather than the engine that drives it.
I'm a fourth grade teacher. I watched as my kids struggled with this test, furious that the question was so bad (even worse than usual). It's not enough, bklynd, for the state and city to admit that the test sucked and moved on. I want to see that there are efforts to make the next one better. I want people to be accountable for the crap they produce. "Moving on" is EXACTLY what the city and state would like everyone to do. Brownie the Cow is the kid of question/essay they come up with because they don't think anyone is ever going to say anything about how these officials don't do their jobs. Now thousands of lives will be affected by their laziness. A great lesson for kids!
Let us all remember to ask this about the tests:
What do you measure?
With what do you measure?
For what purpose do you measure?
Every year there are different tests, and there are different scores. Any other conclusion is baseless.
I am wondering why this year there is such concern about the poor quality of the test questions. Chances are, the questions last year were no better. Perhaps if your child got a 4 last year the time was not taken to research the questions? I think most parents know that standardized tests are not the way to go when evaluating all children and frankly they are never fair. It just seems that this year because there weren't more 4's suddenly it's time to take action.
Well, my daughter got a 4, and a very high one at that, and I am very proud of her. Of course in school all the buzz is how the test was unfair so it's hard for her to be very pleased with her accomplishment, although her teacher feels that this was the first year the test scores actually reflected the ability of the student body. Furthermore, the Brownie the Cow essay question only accounted for 2 points AND the parents complaining have no way to know whether their child got that question correct or not. In fact your child my have gotten it right and made mistakes in other areas.
I am celebrating my daughters achievment, as well as my 4th grade (last year) daughter, who got a 3 on her ELA. She also did great and I am equally proud of her. I am certainly not telling her she only got a 3 because the test was unfair! What is that going to do to her sense of accomplishment?