Monday, April 23, 2007

Stats for idiots

We all know that one of the "new" goals of the education system was to wind up with 80% of kids at or above grade level. What I hadn't realized until my class this evening was that the kids are rated based on their placement within the bell curve of a normalized test. Only 50% can ever be at or above grade level, no matter how well the students know the subject matter. We're chasing our own tails here! The people setting policy are idiots.
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3 comments:

  1. Anonymous3:24 AM, April 24, 2007

    UGH. I remember the day I learned that. I came home and raged at my roommates for a good half hour before I felt even close to normal.

    How appropriate to be reminded of this, especially on a day when I'll be proctoring (yet another!) standardized test.

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  2. Anonymous5:15 AM, April 24, 2007

    I agree with you. And even though our education systems are miles apart and probably completely different, I'm going to take a wild guess and say that ANY form of standardised testing can kiss my teacher arse. :K

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  3. Teacher Anonymous10:19 PM, April 25, 2007

    Well, I'd say standardized tests have their uses, however they're just not being used properly in the majority of cases.

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