Kids took Living Environment yesterday and we graded them all today. This just reaffirms my belief that to hold these kids to a science standard is unreasonable and unfair.
Let's see what these standardized tests in science do to our students:
1. Demoralizes students who are low functioning
2. Acts as an academic barrier rather than a motivator for success
3. Hypocrisy! They emphasize differentiated instruction yet the standardized tests neglect any form of differentiation since they're all unimodal.
4. Science is VERY impractical! Less than a fraction of a percent of students will successfully pursue a career in science, so how is holding them to a high science standard reasonable?
5. Tests are heavily CURVED! It creates the illusion of a standard. This year's curve is significantly more generous than last year's curve. Getting a 65% requires answering approximately 47% of questions correct.
6. Failing students are forced to take classes over again leading to disruption, truancy, and generates apathy amongst students who fail.
7. Teachers and administrators are "assessed" by student test performances (HA!)
8. Science departments are not given enough time to cover the content, particularly with a group of students who are grade-levels behind in reading comprehension and writing
Regents are dumb. And the word is that they're thinking about administrating similar systems in other states like New Jersey. That would be a disaster.
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