Federal standardized testing for colleges coming?

[The Straight Story]

Professors Decry Forced Testing
By Christopher Charron


(U-WIRE) MEDFORD, Mass. — Through a commission established last fall, President George W. Bush’s administration is exploring whether universities should be subject to federal standardized testing.

According to the New York Times, the commission was created in light of flagging literacy statistics for college graduates and growing calls for more accountability in higher education.

But professors nationwide — Tufts University faculty included — are generally skeptical of standardized assessment of colleges, given the diverse and complex nature of the university experience in America.

“I’m guessing that all such a system would do is create numerous perverse incentives,” associate economics professor Thomas Downes said.

http://www.ucsdguardian.org/cgi-bin/news?art=2006_03_13_07

[jrw14125]

1. wonder what Liberty U's pass rate would be in science

[MadMaddie]

2. This will be as successful as the no child left behind debacle...

Another way to dumb down the society.....teachers will have to teach to a test vs teaching actual critical thinking.....

This administration is actively working to destroy this country.....are they going to blame the professors if students flunk because they don't attend classess...will the professors tenure and pay be tied to the testing....another disaster in the making.....

[Nikki Stone 1]

23. Yes. Great post.

...

[Dora]

3. Here's my correlative reasoning re: "flagging literacy statistics"

Because fucking idiots who know squat about teaching are destroying our children's minds by testing them day in and day out.

I daresay there are probably statistics out there to support my assertion that this generation of students hitting colleges now is the most-tested EVER.

Standardized tests are worthless shit and corporate moneymakers.

[slide to the left]

7. being from texas

We have ALWAYS been tested. They even kept changin the years that we were tested, so that the class I gaduated in got test from k-8, and then again in 11, not to mention SAT and AP.
I can do a standardized test with my eyes closed.

Its the kids that need the help the most that the NCLB was supposed the help, and it ends up createing higher drop out rates.

[Dora]

9. I'm lucky - I missed a lot of the testing.

Only by a hair, though. I was still tested, of course, but not to the extent that most students are these days.

My mother is going to retire from teaching soon (she's now teaching in a college of education). She's convinced that testing is what has destroyed elementary education. She says to me that if she had kids today, she would homeschool.

I truly believe that NCLB and all government pushes for standardized testing is an attempt to destroy public schools and further the arguments for vouchers and privatized education. Such bullshit, all of it.

[HereSince1628]

4. Gotta get those conservative ideas past all those liberal profs ya know

and how better than to ask students to

1) explain trickle down economics
2) explain intelligent design
3) explain the patiotic value of military service
4) explain the value of faith-based organizations
5) explain how lobbiest's monies put officials in touch with community needs
5) explain how to rig an electronic voting system


I'm glad I am not doing it anymore. I admit to having trouble watching biology become limited to molecular and clinical sciences.

[Nikki Stone 1]

16. This is real possibility, which is why I'd recommend your response if I

could.

[ArbustoBuster]

5. Hey, I'm all for this!

As long as we make it retroactive, and test Chimpy McEmperor to see if he can pass. :evilgrin:

[valerief]

6. Yeah, and we'll let a Diebold machine score it

[naturalselection]

8. I teach at a university where we already do this.

A standardized test was started in 2004 here. The students have to meet a minimum score to graduate. They take it after completing 60 credit hours, and 15 hours of general education requirements. It is a general education exam, not a content specific exam.

The students may take it as many times they need to pass. After the third time of failing a specified area, they may request an alternative exam. This is where I come into the picture.

Several faculty here were asked to design an alternative assessment. The university did not have one developed when they implemented the original exam. Now the university has 4 students who have requested the alternative exam and do not have one. So now, it is being put on the faculty's back to come up with one by April 15, and we just found out about this last week! (I know, I know, damn administration).

The problem is that the 2004 freshman class is going to be the first class (in 2008) in which we might see a larger number of students requesting the alternative exam. My question to Testing Services, was "what do you do then?" Imagine, they did not have an answer.

Students, when asked, tell us the test is a joke. But the problem is that the general education courses are not coordinated to give the student the greatest amount in a short amount of time before they take the exam.

Anyway, my two cents.

[Nikki Stone 1]

11. Will this lead to GE's that "teach to the test"?

This is an underhanded way of curbing academic freedom in my opinion, especially if the government oversees and funds the development of the test.

[Mikimouse]

13. They already teach to the test, which is why the students...

are absolutely ignorant of anything that isn't related to their test scores. Valenzuela, et al., published findings on the Texas system (1998 or 1999, I believe) that showed the effect of standardized testing and the linkage to teacher and administrator pay and promotions. Pure BS, this is.

[Nikki Stone 1]

14. Which test? Right now, university classes are in the hands of

the professors, and they might teach students to their own "ad hoc" tests. As of now, college students are not taught to a standardized test, although high school students are. The Stanford 9 test in California has had a chilling effect on curriculum; principals can be fired for bad test scores in LEARN schools and teachers are tracked by student scores in the subjects they teach. Teacher in-services are now focusing on ways to get your kids prepared for the standardized test.

This has not yet happened in universities, but it is my fear that it will.

[Mikimouse]

22. My apologies for not making it clear; these studies were done...

on high school tests. Sorry about that. If, however, standardized testing becomes the order of the day, I think I'll opt for an overseas teaching job, rather than stay here.

[Nikki Stone 1]

26. I totally get it, and I agree with you.

I wonder if Canada will take teachers?

[Mikimouse]

30. Canada treats its college faculty very well...

I have often considered lobbying at the University of Winnipeg for a position. They had two pisitions open a couple of years ago and I was sorely tempted.

[naturalselection]

15. I teach a gen ed course

and in no way in 2 years have I modified my course content. Heck, I didn't even know (as well as most faculty here) what was being asked on the test until I saw the handout last week.

I wish I had the handy little handout I got last week that shows what they are being tested over. I will see if I can find.

[Nikki Stone 1]

18. I'd be interested in seeing that handout.

This is a vital fight, and profs should not ignore it.

[naturalselection]

19. I do recall a chilling statement

the director of testing services said last week.

In effect, the university is looking at how/why students get an "A" or "B" in a gen ed class, but cannot pass that portion of the standardized test.

My thought, even though I didn't say it, and regret it now, was "WTF"?
Several faculty here give alternative assessments on top of the regular class exam which in some ways helps the students (which is what I thought we were here for in the first place). So it is possible to do average on class exams and do very well on alternative assessments and average out to a "B".

[Nikki Stone 1]

20. The director of testing services sounds like s/he 's never actually taught

Anyone who teaches understands that a grade is cumulative, a combination of all tests and assignments. A student in a literature course might not really understand Nathaniel Hawthorne's language and do poorly on the Scarlet Letter exam, but then do better on everything else.

A standardized test is NOT an arbiter of knowledge.

My guess is that the ultimate goal is to insure that fewer students graduate college or that those who do graduate have a specific body of "knowledge" within certain boundaries.

[Mikimouse]

24. After roughly ten years of teaching at the university level, I finally...

gave up using examples and quotes from classical literature, or historical texts. The college students of today get no exposure to those things in contemporary high schools. This was one of the points in the article I mentioned above. Teachers are using valuable classroom time to teach to the standardized tests, rather than teaching the real material. Under no circumstances would I wish to teach in that environment, and don't envy the teachers who are forced to do so.

[Nikki Stone 1]

25. This is so true. Our cultural inheritance is disappearing in a single

generation.

[MadMaddie]

27. This is disturbing on so many levels....

Because the students are not learning critical thinking skills....(all they are learning is memorization), how can these students move on to fill the jobs that are going to be opening up because the baby boomers are retiring.....

This country is in trouble on so many levels......

[Nikki Stone 1]

28. Combine this thread with the outsourcing thread and I think there's an

answer.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=723961&mesg_id=723961

[Mikimouse]

32. It is certainly a Marxian redux that we are experiencing...

It is a corporate capitalist's dream to have a completely ignorant and thus, easily manipulated, labor force. We are seeing it in this country, slowly but surely. One interesting barometer which is useful, is the number of uneducated people who are now responsible for 'spreading the word' on the radio and on television. How many of these fools actually have a serious education? How many times have we heard people like Limbaugh use the phrase, "the world is full of educated losers"?
I consider myself extremely lucky to have had a mother who insisted on her children knowing about classical literature and other superficial niceties such as Roman history (from Tacitus and other real Roman historians, once we were old enough to understand it, LOL), the rise of the Egyptian culture and the literature of my ancestral home, Hungary. Very fortunate, indeed!

[lakemonster11]

34. That's definitely true (that students get no exposure to classical

literature or historical texts in high school).

That's why the college that I went to requires all students to take a year-long core class as freshmen in which they read classical literature and historical texts from the history of Western civilization. Since I took it, they now offer a third semester of core that focuses on non-Western texts.

This is what they're reading this year:
http://www.whitman.edu/general_studies/Read05.html

[Nikki Stone 1]

10. A study in Britain showed that standardized tests actually REDUCED

achievement. I need to find the BBC link for it; it was several years ago.

[MadMaddie]

29. It's interesting Britain in a couple of instances has tried programs

and when they failed misarably.....they admitted it and made the appropriate changes...

One instance is the standardized testing that you mentioned....

The other is the social security system delving into the stock market...this failed (but the administration claimed it was successful when they were pushing it)

This * administration will continue to attempt to implement programs that have previously failed in other countries!!!

[laheina]

31. That's because they are idealogues,

and "idealogues are dangerous." A quote that I still remember from my History of the Roman Empire prof.

They don't care what the truth is; they just care about what they believe.

[phusion]

12. horrible idea...

That's what the ACT/SAT is for. Those tests alone should determine literacy levels...

[Bozita]

17. Sounds like another job for brother Neil Bush's Ignite

[Nikki Stone 1]

21. Oh, Lordy, I'd forgotten about that ignoramus

:(

[laheina]

33. I wonder what else that software puts in people's heads? nt