Jsut asking?

Question

all my teachers say they dont agree with the state test and whether they decide if your in honors or in basic skills

so why do they have them anyways

and also do you agreewith them

Answer 1

State testing I don't disagree with.  I think it is valuable to see where a student ranks in terms of the content that is learned through the school year.  I do however disagree with what they have become.  The no child left behind has ruined the essance of what we would like to use them for.

Answer 2

I think they should give the test, but let the kid decide whether they wanted to take an honors course. Taking the test could show the student that the test is too  hard for them, but on the other hand, someone could take the test and do poorly on it but should still take the honors course and only got a poor score on the test because they are not good test takers.

Answer 3

It's political. Mrs. President W. Bush had something to do with it, with the propoganda "No Child Left Behind."

Answer 4

In my state you can get into honors classes with a teacher recommendation, or parent insistence.

The state tests have been a requirement for accountability purposes for a long time. Nowadays, with NCLB (No Child Left Behind) they are mandatory. While practically every state used them before, or something similar like NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) or CAT (California Achievement Test), now most state's have developed their own tests to match their curriculum.

All state tests continue to be conducted for accountability purposes - Are they teaching what they say they are teaching?

Many colleges are now questioning SAT scores as criteria for entrance. Students are not necessarily more or less successful because of them. They are not good predictors of college and/or subsequent life success.

I think we need the state tests to show accountablility, but I find it difficult to agree with their use for placement decisions when it comes to honors, AP, or any advanced classes.

As an educator I find that test scores do not accurately predict  much of anything except a good guesser, or a good "Christmas Tree" effect (where you mark the pretty circles in a pattern), or a smart kid. There are many other indicators that must be taken into consideration.

(About the Christmas Tree - I once had a severely delayed student that marked such pretty dots on an Otis-Lennon tests that the gifted coordinator came to ask me if my student was gifted in math. Unfortunately, he could not find page 25 in the math book, much less solve 5 + 7.)