And you thought Florida was bad
According to the FCAT, 69 percent of Florida fourth-graders were proficient in math in 2007. According to an internationally benchmarked common standard, 41 percent were.
A problem? No doubt. There's a whole lot of feel-good, false impressions being given by standardized tests in Florida and across the country, according to this new study by the American Institutes for Research.
For what it's worth, the problem is worse in many other states. In Alabama, 78 percent of fourth-graders are proficient in math, according to that state's test; but only 26 percent are according to a common standard. In Colorado, the gap is 91 to 40. In Maryland it's 86 to 40.
The one exception: Massachusetts.
There, 49 percent were proficient on the state test, while 63 percent were proficient on the common standard.
AIR concluded that the gap between what students are expected to know to be proficient in the most rigorous states versus the lamest states are twice as big as the achievement gap between black and white students. It pins the blame on No Child Left Behind, which allowed each state to set its own proficiency standards.
Will national standards make things better or worse?
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Watch out ronmatus, the "truth" says spending and education results are counterproductive.
National Standards must become the standard. That's necessary. 'We though are many states, yet, we are one'. So why not education? The world over, those countries, [and even those that are not] have national standards, a regency test, a test for basic knowledge, the private schools in one faith-based church does, too. So what's holding us back?
Why aren't the states, ONE in education? It makes perfect sense. And yes, there are those problems with education funding. But is it costly to fund one set of standards? Or more costly to fund multiple groups of standards? You be the judge.
Those countries with the highest literacy rate and graduation rates. I meant to say.
Finland has national standards but the educators in each school determine the process for teaching those standards. America's problem is that every blowhard politician that ever slept through an economics class thinks they are an expert and once they are elected they gain the bully pulpit to implement "their" brilliant educational strategies (but they won't pay for them of course).
I never understood how states could individually set their own standards.
Some states don't have as many letters in the alphabet, e.g. Florida only has 6 F, C, A, T B and F.
0143, that's only 5.
National Standards, NRT....At least more fair than the overinflated FCAT balloon. LET's POP THAT BUBBLE and send the deflated carcass back to the BUSH FAMILY to mount on their "Wall of SHAME!"
Yes to national standards. No to any test you can "teach to". At least the NRT shows where students and states stand relative to each other. Why not administer an "International Test"? Get edubusiness out completely.
Try looking through the books that the elementary schools use, supplied by Harcourt and Pearson et al. They are supposed to be designed by experts and some of them are incomprehensible. So much is style over substance. There are lots of pretty illustrations, some in full color, then three or four examples, then four or five questions. A test may have fewer than 10 questions, so a minor error has a major impact on a grade.
Give me the days of those mimeographed worksheets designed by the teachers (which could be changed to deal with problem areas - what a concept), and tests with enough questions to actually determine if the kid has got it or not