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[Ultratech]

At first, I was shocked. Then I saw it was Florida.

If the standardized testing is like the FCAT, where it destroys actual learning, and basically tells teachers to do nothing but teach the test, then it's the definition of a bad thing.

Pretty much. Forces the teachers to focus on getting students to pass the tests. It's a dual-sided issue though, since if the teachers fail to get students to pass the tests, it'll usually cost them their jobs. (Had a discussion about this yesterday for some reason...)

Consequently, it does rob the students of learning about other stuff not necessarily related to the tests, but still important to learn.

 

[MWS Natural]

Living in FL for the past 4 years this doesn't surprise me at all.

 

[KrymynalChylde]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32p8d6OudgU

A friend sent this to me because I'm always correcting people on facebook when they fuck it up.

 

[Krogan]

Thankfully, Florida is a very insignificant state with little impact on national politics.

Not if Rubio is Romney's VP.

 

[RatskyWatsky]

Nearly half of Florida high school students failed the reading portion of the state's new toughened standardized test, education officials said on Friday.

What does the reading portion of the test entail exactly? Is there a sample or something?

 

[sans_pants]

what's the bigger crisis? education or obesity?

linked and dangerous

 

[filler]

How does this compare to other states?

 

[Strike]

I'm more surprised that half passed.

Glass half empty or Glass half full?

 

[SousedLouse]

I'm more surprised that half passed.

Until you've gone through Florida public schooling you can't even begin to understand how fucked the entire system is.

^ So, so true. As a future teacher in Florida not only do I worry about the students I'll be teaching, but what the system itself will be like.

Agreed. Pretty much everything in regular classes takes a backseat to FCAT. At my old high school, even the AP teachers would have to cram FCAT drills into their class schedules when Spring came around. So most of the students would be stuck memorizing all sorts of rhymes and tips and tricks, and then after that they'd have to try to get through an entire period's worth of work in about half the time. Some of my friends gave up on trying to understand all of their subjects, and stuck to C averages for any classes that they didn't care about so that they could get out of high school in one pass.

 

[BocoDragon]

If the standardized testing is like the FCAT, where it destroys actual learning, and basically tells teachers to do nothing but teach the test, then it's the definition of a bad thing.

All I know is that we have it in Canada, and we are in the top 10 UN ranking of worldwide education systems. Maybe we do it differently somehow?

 

[youngplaya21]

Wow that's pretty idiotic.

We do the same thing in Texas, too. I honestly thought every state did that.

 

[entremet]

How does this compare to other states?

Hard to compare since tests vary per state.

 

[GaimeGuy]

All I know is that we have it in Canada, and we are in the top 10 UN ranking of worldwide education systems. Maybe we do it differently somehow?

Do you tie school funding to test results?

 

[BocoDragon]

Do you tie school funding to test results?

I have no idea. Really doubt it?

 

[Kusagari]

What does the reading portion of the test entail exactly? Is there a sample or something?

When I took it, it was basically reading a bunch of short stories and answering questions about them. There would be also be a little inferring, as in they would see if you could read between the lines.

The most difficult thing about the reading portion is having the attention span to actually pay attention to the boring stories. I, sadly, knew many people who did bad on that portion because they zoned out on it.

 

[Ezalc]

We do the same thing in Texas, too. I honestly thought every state did that.

Went to school for most of my life in New Jersey, never heard that if I didn't pass the terra nova I wouldn't graduate.

 

[BertramCooper]

All I know is that we have it in Canada, and we are in the top 10 UN ranking of worldwide education systems. Maybe we do it differently somehow?

Well, obviously you're going to be better than us when you let bears teach your children.

 

[Speedymanic]

I've never understood how someone can get all the way to secondary school (high school) and not be able to read. How on earth did they get through primary school (assuming they weren't home schooled) without anyone noticing. It just makes no sense to me. How can the parents, teachers, friends, etc not notice?

 

[Mordeccai]

I was in the IB program in high school, so I'm obviously a bit biased, but always got the highest grades on FCAT tests. They were easy as fuck, I have no idea how kids can fail those tests.

And yes, for about six or seven years my entire curriculum was based around these tests. The only things taught to us were questions that were fair game for the FCAT. Everybody in this state absolutely hates the test, student and teacher, and I have no idea why Florida keeps this shit around when its obviously not helping.

Square peg, round hole.

 

[Majima Everywhere System]

I've never understood how someone can get all the way to secondary school (high school) and not be able to read. How on earth did they get through primary school (assuming they weren't home schooled) without anyone noticing. It just makes no sense to me. How can the parents, teachers, friends, etc not notice?

They can probably read, but they can't answer questions.

 

[Kusagari]

I have no idea. Really doubt it?

If it's not tied into funding then it's not comparable to the FCAT at all. The FCAT is possibly the biggest factor in how much funding a school gets from the state. It basically forces the school and teachers to do everything possible to get kids to pass it.

Thus, they do nothing but teach the FCAT all year long.

 

[GaimeGuy]

I have no idea. Really doubt it?

Well there you have it.

Over the last 15-20 years, conservatives have placed an increased emphasis on standardized tests in state school curricula in the US. That wouldn't be a problem normally, except they have also tied school funding to the test results. so you end up with students not being taught, but trained for tests.

 

[BocoDragon]

If it's not tied into funding then it's not comparable to the FCAT at all. The FCAT is possibly the biggest determiner in how much funding a school gets from the state. It basically forces the school and teachers to do everything possible to get kids to pass it.

Thus, they do nothing but teach the FCAT all year long.

Then it's not standardized testing that is the problem, so much as standardized testing determining school funding?

Ok now I get it. I just couldn't figure out why some official statewide test was somehow a bad thing.

 

[Tunavi]

Thankfully, Florida is a very insignificant state with little impact on national politics.

I see what you did there

 

[SMT]

Wow that's pretty idiotic.

It's because university professors got tired of reading error-ridden essays and dissertation, after 3 mistakes your grade was reduced significantly, or thrown-out.

That's what they told us in 9th grade, and that's what the professors told us they do.

Usually it's during the first class where the professor says 'zero tolerance', ''no excuse you are all young adults now''.

Some people cower in fear, others suckle their thumbs, I just laugh it off.

 

[Speedymanic]

They can probably read, but they can't answer questions.

Oh. Well that isn't too bad, I guess.

 

[SouthernDragon]

My younger sibling was screwed screwed screwed by the shitty job they did of educating her. I'd have to spend hours tutoring her... no, reteaching all her subjects because they did such a terrible job.

 

[SousedLouse]

When I took it, it was basically reading a bunch of short stories and answering questions about them. There would be also be a little inferring, as in they would see if you could read between the lines.

The most difficult thing about the reading portion is having the attention span to actually pay attention to the boring stories. I, sadly, knew many people who did bad on that portion because they zoned out on it.

Yeah, zoning out was a pretty big problem recently, although I don't know if it's gotten better or worse over time. I remember hearing that a few middle schools in Broward County bombed the FCAT back in 2003 because students would lose focus until the last 15 minutes or so of the test and just fill in bubbles, or because they left huge sections of their answer sheets blank. My old middle school's administration decided that the best way to deal with the issue was to call assemblies from time to time, and stress to the students that the FCAT was the most important test they'd take for the year. As you can imagine, some kids started to dread the FCAT; when Spring rolled around again, some kids just broke down during the testing periods.

 

[Mumei]

As someone who has graded standardized tests, I can only say that I am completely unsurprised.

 

[SamVimes]

What does a test like this consist of? Reading and comprehension?

 

[Ponn]

Republican plans working. Get people to think all teachers are bad and just aren't trying hard enough, cut school funding more and more every year, increase class sizes, get every teacher to only teach the tests to save their jobs, create a generation of dummies, blame the teachers more and finally get enough people on their side to finally abolish public schools and go full private schools with vouchers.

 

[LightOfTruth]

Republican plans working. Get people to think all teachers are bad and just aren't trying hard enough, cut school funding more and more every year, increase class sizes, get every teacher to only teach the tests to save their jobs, create a generation of dummies, blame the teachers more and finally get enough people on their side to finally abolish public schools and go full private schools with vouchers.

lol

 

[Steelrain]

Keep on voting in people like Rick Scott.

The system wasn't too bad when I was in H.S but now i'm hearing its just gone to shit. No child left behind my ass.

 

[Urban Scholar]

As a future educator this really irks me but having gone through public here all my life I'm not surprised. I couldn't tell you all the kids I went to school with that got a pass, sigh.

 

[SamVimes]

Keep on voting in people like Rick Scott.

The system wasn't too bad when I was in H.S but now i'm hearing its just gone to shit. No child left behind my ass.

It seems they're all behind so it works out.

 

[ShdwDrake]

 

[RatskyWatsky]

What does a test like this consist of? Reading and comprehension?

I think this is it: Link

 

[SousedLouse]

What does a test like this consist of? Reading and comprehension?

What you've mentioned, and it also tests you on context ("Follow the context clues!") and a bit of literary analysis - stuff like "what was the main subject of the article?" Or "what kind of character do you think that _____ was?" Also, the decision to make any given question a multiple choice, short answer or long answer question seemed pretty arbitrary sometimes, which was weird, because the longer answers were usually worth more points.

EDIT:

I think this is it: Link

Heh, beaten. Google is your friend, folks! I think I recognize a few of those questions, too.

 

[chaosblade]

At that session, board members decided to lower the passing score to 3, boosting the percentage of those who passed back up to 81%.

Wow, why wasn't this bolded?

Perfect way to solve our problem, just lower the standards! Just like we lower the budgets for education.

 

[Bay Maximus]

I almost felt bad for Florida until I realized that half the state probably couldn't read the report anyway. Fox News tells us everything we need to know anyway so it's not as bad as it seems. Reading is for dirty liberals.

 

[TheSeks]

Frankly, I'm not surprised. The FCAT has always been a semi-joke to the majority of the community around here. The only "important" bit of it is the requirement to pass it by the end of your senior year to graduate. So, basically, you can continue to fail and fail and fail for like two extra years and retake it with no repercussions.

Add in the fact that the area around here is very apathetic about learning/reading and well... those scores aren't surprising.

I dunno about Central and South Florida, though.

 

[Mindlog]

Is the critique of reading comprehension without actually reading the OP symptomatic of mocked failures?

A. Irony
B. Coincidence
C. Metaphor
D. Frankincense

 

[Derrick01]

I'm surprised the FCAT is STILL around. It was by far the most useless test I ever had to do and it actually impeded students from being prepared for college because the teachers had to spend all semester teaching for that dumb ass test, and it was all material that colleges didn't care about.

 

[bengraven]

Frankly, I'm not surprised. The FCAT has always been a semi-joke to the majority of the community around here. The only "important" bit of it is the requirement to pass it by the end of your senior year to graduate. So, basically, you can continue to fail and fail and fail for like two extra years and retake it with no repercussions.

Add in the fact that the area around here is very apathetic about learning/reading and well... those scores aren't surprising.

I dunno about Central and South Florida, though.

Maybe we should all pray for good grades.

I'm surprised the FCAT is STILL around. It was by far the most useless test I ever had to do and it actually impeded students from being prepared for college because the teachers had to spend all semester teaching for that dumb ass test, and it was all material that colleges didn't care about.

One of the biggest idiots I know passed the FCAT a couple years ago. Every time I see him sleeping on his sister's couch and going out drinking with his friends in canoes on the lake, I keep wondering how hard the FCAT must be. One of these days he'll be dead: which means he passed the FCAT but failed in life.

 

[RatskyWatsky]

Is there any hope for these people?

 

[SousedLouse]

Is the critique of reading comprehension without actually reading the OP symptomatic of mocked failures?

A. Irony
B. Coincidence
C. Metaphor
D. Frankincense

Crap, I don't know the answer for this one! And I already picked 'A' twice for the last two questions. Hrm. OK, I'll just put 'D', since it's at the other end. Then I'll switch between 'B' and 'C' for the other answers I don't know until I get 2 'B's or 'C's in a row or something. I've got this.

I mean, we know that student performance fell off when the standards were raised; but what do you expect when you raise the bare minimum and keep teaching kids the same way as before? If the Department of Education needed more time, they should have made a plan during the previous school year. Now, instead of planning ahead, they're stuck backtracking and trying to set things back to the way things were. And now parents will probably balk at the idea of raising the minimum score again.

 

[Vampire Baseball]

Obviously the answer is to cut their funding.

 

[TheSeks]

Is there any hope for these people?

Not without revamping the whole education system in Florida, starting with dropping the FCAT.

I can say with experience of being in grade school when they changed the system to add the FCAT in (before, IIRC, you took the "California Achievement Test" here for 1st grade but it wasn't important) it totally fucked the whole process of learning. Because the curriculum went from "we'll be going outside today and looking for bugs under a tree root to learn about, yay!" (1st grade) to "we are going to learn about subject, noun, verbs because this will be on the FCAT. This is important!" (1st grade)

Well, that, and getting the apathy about reading/learning out of the communities. I know someone that does yearly book drives and asks for donations in cash or books to give books to kids to read over the summer. The sad fact is, I doubt outside of a few of them that they're actually reading them. :/ I know cousins in school right now that gets said donations and doesn't bother reading them because their mom is a druggie and their dad is busy working jobs just to make ends meet to support them. It's sad.

>>Cut funding<<

And what good would that do? NO ONE in the communities in North and North-Central Florida gives two shits about education. What good is cutting the funding and telling them to "try harder" going to do about that?

Maybe we should all pray for good grades.

Check your PM's, duder.

 

[Vyrance]

We don't have time to teach them how to read when there's training for football to do!

 

[knitoe]

I say we throw more money into it. Like, starting at $100, for every point they get above passing, you add $10. Nothing gets people to study / work like free money. Get the money from China. What's another billions in debt...