Friday, December 27, 2013

Testing Our Patience



December 27, 2013


GAAA!!!

This one has me so aggravated that I don’t even know if I can be coherent (which is why it took me so long to write it):

A new twist on standardized testing for grade school: Having kids type the answers.

Raise your hand if you think this is a good idea.

From someone whose fine-motor control stinks to this day, I can tell you that this is a terrible idea. Some kids won’t have a problem with it, but for others, it really is unfair. The tests are timed, remember, so if you have to go back and fix your typing mistakes, you won’t get as far, or you’ll get answers marked as incorrect because you didn’t fix your typing.

(I could have proved my point by not correcting any of my typing for this entry—but then you wouldn’t have been able to read it.)

AND: Now teachers will have to teach kids to type instead of teaching them content. GAAA!!!

Please, please stop this nonsense. Test the kids on what they know. If testing is so important to you, take the time to read written answers—no filling in bubbles, no typing, just have kids write down the answers. Hire qualified people to read the answers instead of sending the tests through the machines—just think of the jobs you’ll be creating.

And remember: The quick brown foz jusmped over the lzy dog.

2 comments:

Vicky said...

Who came up with this?

Peg said...

Apparently there's a group called the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, a group of 23 states working on an exam that will ultimately be used to rate school and student performance.

(From an article in the Statesman)