Well, Here's Something That Will Never Fly

[dr_pretentious]

Check out this astonishing article in the New York Times. Apparently our nation's illustrious Secretary of Education knows just what American higher education needs: federally mandated standardized testing for undergraduate degrees. Because, you know, No Child Left Behind has been such a rousing success in our nation's primary and secondary schools.

This quotation is especially mind-blowing:
“Too many Americans just aren’t getting the education that they need,” the report said. “There are disturbing signs that many students who do earn degrees have not actually mastered the reading, writing and thinking skills we expect of college graduates.”

And increasing the emphasis on standardized testing is so conducive to developing sophisticated writing and critical thinking skills, right? Nothing like filling in dots with a number two pencil to reveal a capacity for independent thought. And turning colleges into cram schools is sure to prepare our college graduates to compete in a global labor market.

Thank you, Secretary Spellings. Why didn't I think of that?

Comments

[peartreealley.livejournal.com]

While I agree that many graduates are a little below expected educational standard (at my graduation, when they were handing out the PhDs--"Doctorate of Philosophy, Social Engineering..."--the graduate sitting next to me turned to his equally perplexed companion and said, "Dude, did all they all double major in philosophy?"

Which doesn't have much to do with reading or writing or critical thinking, but I'd at least hope someone with a 4 year degree knew what a Doctorate of Philosophy was!

Standardized testing isn't the cure. Alas, I'm not sure what is, other than making admissions more select, or being tougher in the grading...

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

Or supporting engaged and engaging teachers and drastically cutting class sizes throughout the education system, thereby fostering a culture of genuine learning instead of crowd control? That'd be a start.

Mind you, my Dad was complaining about graduates not being able to spell properly or write decent reports in the mid-80s, and used to spot-test the typing pool (back in the days when they had one in mid-large sized police stations) by throwing in words like vicissitudes, elucidation, and extrapolation. He left school at 15 and felt that "everyone should be able to use a bloody dictionary, for pity's sake!"

[serbrew.livejournal.com]

It seems that they are now passing the buck to the higher institutions of learning to make sure that one knows how to read and write? Excuse me, how are they going to use standardized testing to determine if someone is to graduate? That is the role of the professor knowing whether the student has demonstrated the knowledge to pass the course. And how do you standardize a test between a chemical engineer and a philosophy major? It should be up to the the K through 12 grade levels that we learn the basics. College is an option. Even a HS graduate should be able to read, write and comprehend what is being read or written and be able to function in the working world. Perhaps not a great job, but a job nonetheless.

[twoeleven.livejournal.com]

it's been my suspicion since the inception of no rhetoric left behind that its real purpose is to discredit federal education standards.

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

headdesk. headdesk. headdesk.

[jeneralist.livejournal.com]

Why does Secretary Spellings remind me of Dolores Umbridge in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix:

"...a theoretical knowledge will be more than sufficient to get you through your examination, which, after all, is what school is all about."

[evaelisabeth.livejournal.com]

Amen Sistah

[kistha.livejournal.com]

*Indeed*

Stupid, stupid people.

Where is a herd of angry centaurs when you need them?

[jasminewind.livejournal.com]

Ugh, MORE standardized tests?

I am actually thinking of taking my kids OUT of school on standardized test days and making them enrichment days - especially here in DC, the could go to any number of museums or cultural events instead of filling in bubbles on a scantron form.

But, that doesn't get rid of the whole test-prep method of education that prevails when the tests are given such weight. We decided to keep A in private school for kindergarten, perhaps we'll just go that route the whole way up. I also kick around the desire to home school, but I also want to work so that is a hard one to balance.

Education is such a sticky issue! I want to support the systems and make them accessible and successful for the majority, but I also don't want to raise a drone or have my children's individuality suffer from the system.

[puckmls.livejournal.com]

Ick. Ick, ick, ick. The problem with the higher ed standardized testing idea is the same problem as with K-12 testing, only more so. College is when students are supposed to branch out and start becoming adults, and each college/university has its own path to that goal, so that students of different abilities and cultural preferences can find their educational niche. The thought of trying to test this is just ludicrous. The Dept. of Ed's cookie-cutter and Procrustean Bed models don't work NOW ... They'd be better off spending the money to improve teaching, support more faculty at underserved institutions, etc., etc.

OK, end of rant. :-/

[garybart.livejournal.com]

Even if it doesn't fly, I have the horrible feeling that they'll take it up to the top of a cliff and toss it off.

Along with most of the remaining quality in US education.

How, how, HOW can these people be so fucking stupid? Perhaps the rot in the education system set in rather sooner than we're supposing...

[aberdeen.livejournal.com]

Just so you know, if your kids miss the Standardized Test Days, your school will be dinged for it. No, I'm serious. One of the criteria on which schools are judged is the percentage of students taking the tests. Where I live, that's a really important factor, because one sick kid and we drop below the cut-off for that class and automatically fail the NCLB requirements. Probably less of an issue for your school, but something to be aware of.

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

Well, wasn't mass education in the US and UK (I don't know about elsewhere) set up - rather sadly - to teach people to be good factory workers? So the good, engaged teachers have basically been struggling against the weight of the system from the get-go.

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

I once failed a biology test for facetiousness; it was poorly written, so that the questions didn't actually mean what they were supposed to, and I was fool enough to point it out. The biology teacher was a lovely woman who told me that, "I know it's very tempting, but please don't do this again - you'll only hurt yourself, and it's not worth it."

[jeneralist.livejournal.com]

I've got a different perspective on the whole education thing than most -- the best teacher I ever had, the one that most engaged me and left me eager for our next class, the one that helped me through several "grade levels" of work in a single year by getting me interested in the material and cutting out the BS (and the one who taught me Danny Kaye songs!) -- was a home-school teacher from the town schools. (In the US, I'd say "public" -- but I know that public and private mean different things in the UK.)

And how did I get a one-on-one, home school teacher? I was too ill to go to the school building, so they sent me a teacher three days a week for about 1.5 - 2 hours at a time.

Can't recommend it to anyone else; I just thank the Gods it worked out the way it did.

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

I had a tutor from the county council because I was off school so long - actually, I got 2 in succession. Unfortunately, though they were really into the subjects I was into, which meant we got good discussions on English lit and history, they weren't up to speed on sciences and maths, especially not at GCSE exam level. This wasn't helped by various members of staff at the school refusing to provide their syllabi or homework (aside from the maths teacher, who came and gave me some lessons out of the goodness of her heart), so that the tutors were grasping at what they thought was most likely to be workable. Add to that my amazing collapsible immune system (much worse then than the period of time you've known me), and it was all a bit of a cluster-fuck.

I think one on one teaching has to be the best; perhaps on on five at the most. It's something I regret about the infertility thing; I'd been looking forward to helping a child learn, but I have nephews and neices, and no doubt there will be friends with kids.

[reynaud.livejournal.com]

You know, I can give you a concrete example of how doing well in standardized tests has nothing to do with actual knowledge learned. As a senior in HS, I took and passed the Math/Calculus AP test, DESPITE getting straight C's in the course. Also, I did quite well on my SATs ... and flunked out of college my first time. When will these bozos learn that doing well on standardized tests means that you do well on standardized tests, and may or may not have any bearing on with what you truly know?

I even remember a couple of years ago how many colleges were thinking of dropping that SAT as a requirement because it meant so little in reality.