Gothamist: City Students' Reading, Math Scores Improve, But Critics Wonder if Test Was Too Easy

Spiritof76

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:19:56 -0500

Yonkers is one of the "big four" in New York state outside of the city? I would have thought it would be Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany.

JMH

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:10:20 -0500

If the kids aren't able to get a well-rounded education and still learn the basic math (come on, the shit on the standardized tests isn't that hard) that's required, it's because the teachers aren't doing their jobs well enough.

edEx

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:11:10 -0500

K-A-T cat. I'm outta here! –Brian Regan

JacqueMehoff

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:55:53 -0500

don't you need to take foreign language to get into some colleges? why are they getting rid of that? music/chorus will always be the first to be cut. shame because reading music is a great skill. along with music appreciation in general.

JenChungsBra

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:25:43 -0500

It is a reason to oppose putting so much emphasis on standardized testing if you want kids to get a well-rounded education. I want my kid to have band practice and learn a foreign language, and that kind of stuff is being shutout because of the need to spend so much time on standardized tests. My friend who I mentioned above is a test specialist who spends all his time bouncing around a Queens public school teaching test-taking techniques to different classes. That's all he does. His principal took him out of regular teaching duties to do this because the school ranking and the principal's bonus are based almost solely on test scores.

legend92

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:22:09 -0500

where are the stats for asians? do they not put that stat on so white people wont feel so dumb?

JMH

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:01:09 -0500

"teachers teach to the tests" isn't a reason to oppose standardized testing, it's a reason to oppose lazy teaching.

eyekantspel

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:22:05 -0500

how did things get so fucked up. we spend a zillion dollars on education, and for what? We should consider a different approach. Maybe make school attendance mandatory only through 9th grade, and make attendance after that a privileged to be earned, instead of a right. We could offer a trade school program for those who fail out but want to attend that, but again, attendance is a privilege not a right. Maybe also allow them to attend military school/boot camp if they want -- there are probably plenty of kids who would thrive outside of a classroom environment but could still be productive and contributing members of society. Anyone who doesn't qualify for 10th grade and doesn't want to attend or gets kicked out of trade school/military school can submit to fingerprinting and dna testing, be preemptively assigned a parole officer (call it something else, like social worker), and set free until they commit a crime (it's not a big stretch to imagine that a good number of the opt-outs would eventually be criminals).

babyhitler

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:45:02 -0500

I remember I went to public school in the 80's and all the teachers just gave the students the answers during the tests. They were all like "you ain't gonna pass anyway, here's the answer, just move up and out of my grade so I can be gainfully employed with teacher's benefits" - Well, they didn't say that, but that's how it was and is to this day. Never send your kids to public school in NYC.

JenChungsBra

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:36:31 -0500

A friend of mine teaches fifth grade and told me months ago when he first saw the tests that they were much easier this year than they had been before. Looks like he was right.