Friday, July 25, 2008

"Feel-Good" Testing from the Feds

Here's a nugget which was buried in the middle of an article.

Hyde’s team coded the difficulty levels of the No Child Left Behind exam questions, and found that all 10 states had absolutely no questions requiring strategic or critical thinking.

“It’s something I think is worth worrying about,” Halpern said. “We’re going for more minimal standards than excellent standards.”

“Teachers are teaching to the test and the test items are not very complex or involved,” said Ellis, a former high school teacher herself. “This has terrible ramifications for students trying to understand math concepts.”

At some point in time, we'll recognize that the GWB program should be called "No Child Very Educated."

1 comment:

Jimi5150 said...

Bad, bad, broad brush policy. This should be repealed. Many schools are doing exactly this . . . teaching to the test to stay under the policy radar.