PeterG wrote: ↑Tue Aug 10, 2021 3:06 pm
Ken wrote: ↑Tue Aug 10, 2021 2:24 pmYou DON'T follow the same Common Core curriculum standards and standardized testing requirements that RZehr is criticizing the public schools for temporarily suspending?
Generally speaking, that is correct. State standards, and their applicability to private schools, vary by state, but from what I understand the applicability of these standards tends to be minimal (someone like JBG with more experience in administration could confirm or correct this). Aside from that, in my experience there are few if any formalized curriculum standards of any kind used by most conservative Anabaptist schools. It is common for our schools to use standardized achievement tests, but these play no role in meeting graduation requirements. We use them strictly as diagnostic tools.
For what it's worth, I have found standardized achievement tests to be helpful. My students generally take them seriously and do their best. I will generally see students back in my classroom (just at a higher grade level), so achievement tests are useful for giving me an idea of what may need to be addressed. They are also helpful for assessing the needs of incoming students.
Standardized testing would actually be useful in that context. As a diagnostic tool to determine where students are weak and where to target your instruction. But in the public schools they are never used that way. Well, to be perfectly correct we do actually use various standardized tests all the time in the classroom to determine placement and for formative testing to see where students entering your class are at. But those are just tests we pull down off curriculum sites, print out, and administer ourselves.
What we are talking about here are state-administered standardized tests. Take science. Depending on the state and district you can have a 4-year sequence that looks something like this:
In Texas
9th grade: Biology
10th grade: Chemistry
11th grade: Physics
12th grade: science elective (usually AP science for college bound or some biomed/animal science/forensic science type class for the less academic)
In Washington
9th grade: Physical Science (combination of physics and chemistry)
10th grade: Biology
11th grade: choice of lab science, usually chemistry or physics or an AP science
12th grade: No science requirement but most college bound students take an AP science.
Notice that no science subject repeats from year to year? So what happens is that you administer a state-mandated multiple choice biology test to your freshman or sophomores at the end of the year, usually in May. The test booklets go off to Pearson or ETS or whoever is contracted to scan them and generate the results. And you maybe get the results back in late September when those kids are all long gone and you will likely never see them again. What is next year's chemistry teacher supposed to do with student scores on their 9th grade biology standardized test? So what are they good for? Nothing really except to generate state rankings of different high schools and school districts which real estate agents pour over and determine things like property values.
And predictably, standardized test scores correlate almost exactly with the level of wealth and diversity in a particular school or district. Rich white districts with lots of engaged parents and college-bound kids tend to score highly. Poor districts with lots of immigrant children and less engaged parents tend to score less well. It is utterly predictable. So what is actually accomplished? Not to mention the fact that the kids quickly figure out these tests are an utter waste of time so many don't bother to put out much effort.
But they are a HUGE money maker for the big private testing companies who's lobbyists have the ears of enough state legislators to keep ramping up testing requirements year after year, which takes more and more instructional time out of the classroom.
They say one purpose is testing for "college readiness" but that is belied by the fact that no college anywhere in the country uses the results of these state-mandated standardized tests for college admission. They traditionally used the separate SAT or ACT instead, which cost even more and are generally administered outside of school at regional test centers on Saturdays and cost a lot of money.