When I was a student, I was responsible for my academic performance. This reader noticed the same thing:
“I remember when standardized tests were a reflection of *my* performance and aptitudes as a student. Could our society possibly remove *more* responsibility from students and their families?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Nothing new here. When I was teaching in NYC I had a class of repeaters in economics who were “super seniors” and largely indifferent to making an effort to pass the class. One day out of frustration I told the students that most of them were on the way to failure. One student who made a point of not making an effort stated that I can’t fail too many students because I will be blamed!
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Not that I think we should really go back to this system, but with the one-room schoolhouse model of education, the onus of responsibility for learning was on the student. The teacher was merely there to keep order and to examine the students once they memorized their lessons.Today we have placed most if not all of the responsibility on the teacher.
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I’m old but not that old.
I did not go to a one-room schoolhouse
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LOL! Neither did I! We were progressive: 5 classrooms and the teacher of the oldest grade was also the principal.
I have an editorial comic on my refrigerator with two panels, one labeled 1960 and the other 2010. In both panels a boy is bringing home a failing grade. In the first panel the parents yell at the boy. In the second panel they (as well the boy) yell at the teacher.
I have taught grades k through 9. The best combination for student success is a dedicated teacher, supportive parents, and a willing student. Once when teaching second-grade I had two struggling students whose abilities were at the exact same level. One set of parents was very involved, met with me, helped their child with homework, and expected their child to succeed. The second set of parents was not involved and seemed to have a negative attitude toward school. Guess which child was on grade level a couple of years later?
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On another note, this so called aptitude test told me I was going to be a C student in college. Fortunately, I told it that it wasn’t going to tell me what I was and was NOT going to be.
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Ah that standardized tests truly measured aptitude. That would make things so much clearer.
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Of course, they don’t, but they used to make that claim. That’s why the SAT was called the Scholastic Aptitude Test. It evolved from IQ testing.
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And now many colleges recognize analyzing potential college candidates based on SAT measures is flawed and have modified their process as a result.
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This was my comment earlier today or last night.
I like having standardized test scores available to me and to my team and even a competent administrator to help me assess and improve my own teaching.
It can be useful, and there are ways to use testing that will not enforce teaching to the test or placing teacher’s jobs on the chopping block.
The question of my impact on scores is an organic one,and there are so many variables (including the politics of which class/classroom/materials/ administrative effectiveness etc. I get) that any direct tie to my job security is patently unfair.
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“I like having standardized test scores available to me”.
Those standardized test scores are “vain and illusory” due to the myriad errors involved in the standardized testing process. See: “A Little Less than Valid: An Essay Review” found at:
http://www.edrev.info/essays/v10n5index.html or see Noel Wilson’s “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” found at:
http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577 to understand the fallacy of relying on standardized test scores to validly tell you anything.
If you haven’t read those two studies then you need to and I challenge you to refute what Wilson (the “true” standardized testing expert) has to say.
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Reblogged this on teachingandlearningtoday and commented:
Where do you stand in this thinking? What is the balance between a student and family being responsible and the teacher being the educational leader in the student’s learning?
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When I was a kid (7th grade), I was in a pilot Spanish class. At the time, my father was president of the local school board and friends with the superintendent. Entry into the class was determined by scores on an aptitude test. My score did not put me in the class, but unbeknownst to my parents the superintendent put me in anyway. (My parents had made it clear that they wanted me to earn my spot.) Well, at the end of the year, I had the second highest grade in the class behind the superintendent’s daughter who had lived in a Spanish-speaking country. He told my parents at that point that I had not scored high enough on the entrance exam. So much for high stakes tests!
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” So much for high stakes tests!”
See my response to Querculus above to find out why the test “failed” in your case.
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In Chicago, the 7th grade ISAT is used, along with grades and an entrance exam, to determine which kids get to attend a selective high schools. An Algebra exit exam determines whether a student gets to bypass high school Algebra and start with Geometry.
These tests matter to kids and parents. But otherwise … I don’t understand why a parent should worry over a child’s score going up or down a few points? It seems we are much too preoccupied with the scores.
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You’ve just answered your own question. Here in NYC these test scores mean everything starting with selective middle schools. Some schools won’t even look at you if you don’t score high enough on state exams. This means a child’s future is determined at the age of 9 based on a test s/he took in the 4th grade!
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“These tests matter to kids and parents.”
If they kids and parents knew just how invalid those tests are, if district’s knew that fact and refused to use said tests as sorters and separators then we might indeed begin to see some true school reform.
See response to Querculus above on the invalidities involved in the whole process.
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SO LOGICAL!!
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Such great responses. No one has mentioned how many children now think of themselves as a Level # and not what they like or don’t like. What they are good at. There is also an attitude of elitism among many students. Many students wear the words Level 4 as a badge of honor and I’ve seen essays where in response to a question “What is your goal for the year?” has written, “My goal is to become a Level 4”
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