A recent study by the Great Lakes (MI) Center for Education Research and Practice suggests that parents are uniformed about the MEAP exams:
High stakes testing is the pillar of education reform under the national No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Yet, despite all of the time and money spent on the testing process, one out of four parents do not know what the results are used for and two out of three do not even discuss MEAP during parent- teacher conferences.
Parents rate grades, report cards, and classroom tests as the most important indicators of whether their child is getting a quality education. Their child's interest in and attitude about school follow.
"Standardized tests alone don't meet the needs of students and parents, yet teachers and schools are spending more time, energy and money on them than ever," said Teri Moblo, director of the Lansing-based Great Lakes Center. "Standardized testing is not a bad thing if it is one of many ways that student progress is assessed. But we must find better ways to use such tests to help individual children, and we must address the other things that parents believe are even more important for their kids."
I agree with parents that great test scores are not necessary for success in life, because test scores in and of themselves are not the key. It's the education behind high test scores that is a key; scores are merely a measure of how well schools are doing.
I also found these results interesting:
One in three parents asked feel that rewards such as increased funding from the state or higher property values based on a school's test results is a bad idea. One in three parents asked feel that the current state and federal government consequences under NCLB for schools that perform poorly on such tests are a bad idea.
Does that mean that two in three parents felt that increased funding was a good thing, or that NCLB consequences based on testin are a good thing? It's a bit frustrating for only the oppositional results to be reported here.
The study found that parents who say they did poorly taking similar tests (one in four) when they were in school were twice as likely not to go on to college as those who did well on such tests. This raises the issue of whether test scores might hold their children back from getting the education/training needed in today's competitive job market.
Again, it's not the test scores - it's the education behind them. It's not tests that hold children back from college - it is the fact that their secondary education was subpar that holds them back from being competitive in academics. The parents surveyed here do realize that test scores are not the be-all, end-all; what's behind them is what's most important.
Posted by kswygert at November 16, 2004 12:03 PM