tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post4762975743482360866..comments2024-03-26T11:07:03.496-04:00Comments on Ed Notes Online: Fair Test: Testing Resistance & Reform News: April 18-23, 2013ed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-88212457104728506332013-04-24T07:41:31.088-04:002013-04-24T07:41:31.088-04:00You loved them because you were pretty good at the...You loved them because you were pretty good at them. My trauma moment came when after we had a half year of after school test prep for the Brooklyn Tech test when we were in 8th grade - at JHS 166 - Gershwin - which had just opened the year before and wanted to compete for honors in having lots of kids accepted to Tech -- I found myself leaving 1/3 of the question blank not because I didn't know them but because I screwed up on the time --- in other words I didn't know how to take a test like that. But I did learn from that experience and did much better in the future. That was my first high stakes test. Before that I remember the day before a stand test being told to bring a number 2 pencil the next day and that was it. No prep or high stakes we knew about. No closed schools. No 3rd graders being told their teachers' jobs or the schools fate hung on the test. Or that they would not pass and be held back.<br />So yes I believe in stand tests for college entry and some high school entry -- when kids are old enough to handle the pressure and really understand the stakes for them.<br />But even in those cases colleges do not just use the SAT alone. And studies of tests do show some bias towards white males. <br />There is no question that people who are reading before they enter school have a major advantage that is never overcome given the resources put into the kids that do not.<br />ed notes onlinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-12863437556608224172013-04-24T03:39:59.868-04:002013-04-24T03:39:59.868-04:00Is there something wrong with me?
I absolutely lo...Is there something wrong with me?<br /><br />I absolutely loved standardized tests when I was a student!<br /><br />Metropolitan Achievement Tests<br /><br />Iowa Skills Tests<br /><br />Citywides<br /><br />Regents Exams<br /><br />PSATs<br /><br />SATs<br /><br />CEEB Achievement Tests<br /><br />You name it!<br /><br />Loved them all!<br /><br />The prep was time off from "regular work."<br /><br />The testing days were opportunities to legally eat and drink in the classroom.<br /><br />Proctored exams could become pretty loud depending on who the proctor was.<br /><br />On a first grade test, repeated in second, one series of questions involved selecting which of four pictures (diagrams) did not belong. To this day, I wonder which of the four pails pouring a stream of water it was. Back then, all four choices looked as if they belonged.<br /><br />On a sixth grade test, one series of questions had been based on the map of the imaginary country of Japonica. But I had already seen the questions one week prior when I had discovered a stack of the test booklets lying around in Hebrew School of all places.<br /><br />And then there was my shame of picking the wrong multiple-choice definition of "coronet" in seventh grade.<br /><br />I knew how to find the area of a circle, though, in seventh grade, as I had learned the topic in sixth.<br /><br />In eleventh grade I was pleased to know the definition of "contretemps" since a TV character had used the word just the day before, and I was able to find it in a dictionary.<br /><br />Do other people remember some of their favorite, least favorite, or simply puzzling standardized test moments from their student days?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com