One big honkin' post to cover some of the multitudes of testing, education and child-rearing news I've read lately. Enjoy!
Testing news:
Stockton (CA) isn't waiting for students to get in high school - or even finish middle school - before they are exposed to the CAHSEE content.
LSAC folks are wondering what the recent fuss over thumbprinting is all about. I wonder if the Patriot Act is really the issue here, or just a convenient excuse for would-be test-takers to complaint about rigorous identification methods that are implemented solely to thwart cheating.
ETS has put off the proposed modifications to the GRE for one year. A description of the revised test is here, with changes due to be implemented in the fall of 2007. The press release notes that "the delay will better serve test takers and graduate institutions." The snitty quotes from the representative of the Princeton Review in the Dartmouth article are pretty funny to me. First they complain about the test being shorter and adaptive, now they complain about it being longer and non-adaptive.
Arizona aims to add science to the state standardized exams. In addition, the current seniors have to pass all three of the AIMS sections — reading, writing and math — in order to be awarded a diploma. The current numbers aren't that pretty - only 73 percent of current high school sophomores have passed at least one section.
Education news:
I think this is going to be a pretty fascinating article for any parent to read:
The amount of black history integrated into lessons varies not only by state but from classroom to classroom, educators say. While Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois have diversified teachers’ resources, it is up to individual districts and teachers what is actually taught. And some teachers fear that a lack of focus on different cultures in standardized tests pushes that information to the background.“I think we do get kind of bogged down with the everyday teaching that we kind of overlook a lot of the multiracial issues, not only black but other students as well,” said Peggy Durden, a third-grade teacher at Stockwell Elementary in Evansville. “They’re not concerned, I don’t think, with the issues we’re talking about. (They’re focused on) the basic concepts we teach.”
Funny, those school administrators, insisting that teachers focus on basic skills before focusing on diversity lessons. I find it a tad disturbing that a third-grade teacher would refer to her required lessons in math and reading as "bogging" her down.
Graduate student Rohan Duggan should certainly go enroll elsewhere - perhaps at a university where the grammatical skills and vocabulary knowledge of his professors are at least at the college level.
Child-rearing news:
I agree with BoingBoing that this is an example of some really cruddy child-rearing. Talk about missing the opportunity to teach a lesson in basic manners and morality.
Was this transgression worth an arrest and $10,000 bail? Perhaps we should ask the kid who was standing outside in chilly, drizzly weather for hours with no coat to protect her.
Posted by kswygert at February 21, 2006 09:47 AM