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Re: How Bad it Is
Posted:
May 29, 2012 3:55 PM
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Yeah, over achieving is so over rated. Eventually that attitude catches up with you Gary and the government can't afford to pay your bills any longer.
Bob Hansen
On May 29, 2012, at 12:04 PM, Gary Tupper <gtupper@peda.com> wrote:
> Anna:
>
> Your comments are most refreshing. I would surmise that as you read the missives of this list you likely feel you have fallen through the Alice in Wonderland hole & emerged into a weird nether-land where the sky is purple & many moons are in the perpetual heavens. A land fraught with danger - mafiosi, Ayatollahs, fraudsters and other assorted rascals. "Be afraid - be very afraid!"
>
> To address your concern with assessments that seem to go nowhere, I offer the suggestion that they were never intended to go anywhere - the basic idea is that the tests themselves will lead to improved performance: the teachers will spend time prepping their students who will themselves "work harder". A sure fire technique to dampen any latent educational enthusiasm.
>
> We have a screw ball out-fit up here in BC that collates test results on a school by school basis & ranks the schools. The idea being that schools will "try harder" to improve their ranking. Our district went into a breast-beating hair-tearing frenzy over the fact that our students were "below average" in literacy and mandated that teachers should develop strategies to improve and become "above average". As I look about me & overhear coffee shop conversations I cannot for the life of me see any reason why we would expect to be above average.
>
> There are those who use the international tests in a similar fashion. I recall reading a comment from an American who was horrified to learn that the US ranked 32nd, I believe, in some international assessment. But where should they be? 45th?, 17th, 1st? I can only assume the fellow had bought into the concept of "American exceptional-ism" & presumed that the US should be in the top tier.
>
> Gary Tupper, in sunny Canada
>
>
> On 5/28/2012 5:08 PM, Anna Roys wrote:
>> Robert,
>>
>> No, we cannot save every student, but that does not mean we should not try our best.
>>
>> In my last post, I was kind of ranting about one of my pet peeves - schools administering assessments and then doing nothing with the data - giving more assessments and then again, doing nothing with the data - a useless cycle that is more about school, district, state and national politics than increasing student achievement levels.
>>
>> Anna
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