When an adult took standardized tests forced on kids - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

pompadoursandpincurls:

“I can’t escape the conclusion that decisions about the [state test] in particular and standardized tests in general are being made by individuals who lack perspective and aren’t really accountable.”

I got 7/7 right on the reading test but DAMN, that shit is a lot harder than I remember. And I graduated college, too. And they’re giving these complicated/intentionally confusing tests to high school kids.

Also, I’m realizing that I always had such a hard time with math in school because I spent most of my time trying to figure out WHAT THE FUCK THEIR WORD PROBLEMS WERE ASKING FOR.

Surprisingly, I’m actually a little conflicted about this.

I am a person who has traditionally aced standardized tests (I did both the math and the reading tests found in this article and scored 7/7 on the math, 6/7 on the reading — missed the last question). And I HATE them so, so much. Standardized tests are the devil. They should be abolished.

In this particular case, I think the reading questions were worded extremely poorly, and there were at least three questions where more than one answer could conceivably be correct. Those two poems are a shitty way of measuring literacy, particularly because (at least in my experience) students aren’t even exposed to all that much poetry before they hit Grade 10. 

However, I’m kind of concerned by the school board member’s inability to score even marginally well on the math section. He claims to have not known the answer to any of the questions. Assuming that the questions on the website were at least somewhat similar to his test, that’s actually kind of scary as fuck. (And I say this as a person who stopped taking math as soon as possible in high school.) I can totally forgive an adult for forgetting that a2 + b2 = c2, or that you can calculate the angles of a triangle based on the principle that the angles of a triangle add up to 180 degrees, and that a straight line is also 180 degrees. I’ve never used the Pythagorean Theorem once outside of high school math. I guess the last question is kind of stupid, too, in that it misleads you into believing you are supposed to double, when the pattern is really based on a Fibonacci-esque sequence.

But at the same time, someone who is in charge of financial decisions should be able to read simple graphs, like the ones in question two and question 5. I’m not saying that math is totally necessary for everyone — but a basic understanding of it is really, really important for people who need to parse statistics and figures in the course of their jobs, especially if you are someone who helps “oversee an organization with 22,000 employees and a $3 billion operations and capital budget”!!! (Also: I really feel like getting a bachelor’s of science would require the skills from this math test — am I wrong on this?)

In this situation, I kind of don’t want to place the blame on his failure to pass the test on the test’s structure. I think this actually points to a systemic problem where people who land these kinds of jobs (aka politicians, which is what school board trustees are) aren’t getting them based on their ability to actually parse data well and make decisions based on carefully considered evidence — and this includes the ability to discern issues within the data collections process. Instead, these jobs go to charismatic people with “influential friends” who toe a party line. And students pay for it. And teachers pay for it. 

The critique of the standardized tests here is that if X school board member can’t do it, X student shouldn’t be required to do it. Agreed — to a point. I actually think that some of the skills measured on these tests are really important, and the rationale for throwing out these tests shouldn’t be “they’re too hard!” or “you’ll never use this after high school” — because in many cases, you will, even if it’s just the ability to critically analyze patterns, and not the specific pattern you were taught. Instead, standardized tests should be thrown out because they are useless, anglocentric bullshit. 

Teachers feel pressured to “teach to the test”, since their positions might actually depend on their students’ scores. What really needs to happen is that we need to spend more time researching education methods that are actually effective, and deal with the needs of ALL students, not just the privileged few who can afford SAT tutors. (There is so little research in this area, and the research that is produced is rarely implemented in schools — for, I think, very obvious reasons).

When students graduate from high school, they should be able to read a graph. Standardized tests won’t make that happen, though. 

(Source: msamberhazard)

Notes

  1. evelark reblogged this from pompadoursandpincurls and added:
    I got 7 on the reading and 6 on the math, which I guess is not a surprise because I was always that kid that did...
  2. gooddrumbreak reblogged this from pompadoursandpincurls and added:
    Surprisingly, I’m actually a little conflicted about this. I am a person who has traditionally aced standardized tests...
  3. ohaydiva reblogged this from pompadoursandpincurls and added:
    Blew the math out of the water. I gave up after a couple questions on the “reading” quiz. I don’t get what things...
  4. pompadoursandpincurls reblogged this from msamberhazard and added:
    I got 7/7 right on the reading test but DAMN, that shit is a lot harder than I remember. And I graduated college, too....
  5. msamberhazard posted this