Less than one third of the students at Eleanor Roosevelt High School participate in our Science and Tech program, admission to which is in part by examination. We are one of three such programs in the school system.

Add together the S&T and Quest kids and you are at a bit less than 40% of our student body.

Factchecker would have you believe that our student body is highly selective. It is not. I teach a mixture of classes. Three of my six are Advanced Placement, very bright kids taking AP US Government in 10th grade. Many of them are S&T, some are not. My other three classes are kids taking the regular state-required course in Local, State and National Government. All of my students, except those who had already passed it (and are in my LSN class because they failed the course, required for graduation, or are now as junior/seniors taking AP having previously taken LSN) must sit for the state High School Assessment in LSN Government. We require AP students to sit for the AP exam, because they receive a weighted grade for the GPA to account for the increased difficulty of taking the AP course.

I will not know my pass rate on the HSA for 2009 until later, but I note that in 2008 I had 129 students sit for the HSA exam, of which 126 passed. I do not teach to the test. I think I am titled therefore to make two comments:
1. I think I have demonstrated I know how to teach my students
2. My opposition to the testing regimen we currently have is not because i cannot prepare my students.

In fact, my objection is the time that it takes away from meaningful learning experiences. And the lack of meaningful information that it provides. My students sit for HSAs in May. That leaves several weeks of school after the exams. At least when I grew up in New York our Regents exams were the last week of school. And those were graded in school. These are not, the students do not receive back the scores while they are in the class, the only thing the teacher receives back is a scaled score with no breakout by indicator of how any individual student or the classes as whole did.

That is the least of the problems. The tests have questions with no correct answers or more than one correct answer. There is no correction for guessing. Remember, I have students in my class who do not have to sit for the test because they have passed it but failed the course. The 126 who passed in 2008 included 10 who had failed my class all four quarters.

At least in 2008, we still required some writing. As of the test in May 2009, it is now all multiple choice.

Again, what is the purpose of our current approach to testing. If it is to ascertain how well our educational programs are functioning, we do not need to test every student in every subject every year. If it is to enable testing companies to make money, then of course we do. If it is to give students feedback on how they are doing, that is better accomplished by inschool assessment that can be quickly turned around. If it is to prepare them for life after school, there are few places either in the real world or even in many university settings where life consists of picking one answer out of four or five previously selected for you – in fact, you are supposed to be able to provide your own answer in situations which may not be as clearly defined as a multiple choice item on a test.

And if it is real world skills such as those employers claim they want, such as teamwork, cooperation, creativity, etc., then our approach to testing which seeks convergent thinking rather than divergent thinking suppresses creativity, and we punish the cooperation and teamwork by calling it cheating.

It is the only enterprise in the country where there is no consensus on:

a) How to measure the quality of the product it produces (the student),

b) How to measure the quality of the process used to produce the product, and

c) How to measure the quality of the people applying the process to produce the product.

Thus, without these measuring tools, how does one ever improve (b) or (c) to produce a better (a)? And, how does one ever know if changing (b) or (c) results in a better (a)?

But then again, if there was a consensus, what would be left to discuss? I am coming to the conclusion that the seemingly unending, inconclusive discussion of (a), (b) and (c) is not the means to an end. It is the end itself.

But basically, it seems TeacherKen is against having ALL children meet the same kind of standards required for the select group of students at the high school where he chose to teach. Now what does that tell you?

Here is the information from wikipedia:

The Science and Technology Center
The Science and Technology Center is a highly challenging four-year curriculum which provides college level academic experiences in science, math, and technology. The program is offered at three centers – Eleanor Roosevelt High School in northern Prince George’s County, Oxon Hill High School in southern Prince George’s County, and Charles Herbert Flowers High School in central Prince George’s County. Students attend the center that serves their legal residence. Transportation is provided for all students. Admission into the Science & Tech program is contingent upon three criterion, with all criterion weighed equally. The criterion are:
Grades from four quarters of 7th grade and the first quarter of 8th grade (or four quarters of 8th grade and first quarter of 9th grade) in math, science, English, and social studies
A standardized verbal test
A standardized numerical test
All of these are factored into a final score. Each test is normally 30 minutes in length and has approximately 40 questions. The math test covers arithmetic, basic middle school math skills, and simple algebra. The verbal test consists of analogies. 225-250 students with the top scores are admitted to Roosevelt’s Science and Technology Program. The next 60 students are placed on a waiting list. All interested 8th and 9th grade students who are residents of Prince George’s County are eligible to apply for admission to the Science and Technology Program.
[edit]The QUEST Program/AOIT
Quality Education in Science and Technology (QUEST) and the Academy of Information Technology (AOIT) program began in 1991 with a target population of 50 sixth-grade African American males. The program currently serves more than 400 students in grades 7-12. Admission to the QUEST/AOIT Program is highly competitive. More than 250 students apply for 64 seats. Ninth grade students must complete a rigorous two-week summer program to be admitted into the program. A major objective of the program is to provide under-represented groups who have not gained admission into the Science and Technology Center at Eleanor Roosevelt an opportunity to be successful in a rigorous math and science curriculum.

That was a plan? We thought it was your imitation of Tina Fey imitating Sara Palin.

Don’t you teach at a high school which requires ALL students to attain a minimum score on a test in order to gain admission?

Does NCLB say you have to exclude certain teaching methods or does it prevent teachers from going beyond what’s tested??? How can kids be successful later on if they can’t pass a basic skills test?

Testing, even standardized testing, can be benefecial in many situations. In this toxic environment, made so much worse by NCLB, we clearly need to back off, and create more focused, rifleshot systems of accountability.