Tuesday, June 26, 2012

What Emphasis On Statistics Means To Kids


Regents are marked.

The teacher with 93% passing is worried because everyone else has 94%.

Her scores could have been better.  She could have dropped the students who weren't passing, but she didn't want to.  She felt the kids deserved a chance and knew they would need the material for college.  Anything they learned was better than nothing.  Now, she will pay.  She will be punished for her good deed.

The teacher with 94% passing also felt bad.  He had kids in his class that should have been moved to honors.  He held on tight to this group as he knew he needed them to help his stats.

Another teacher refused to help students who were not in her class.  Their good grades would reflect poorly on her.  Still another cheered failing grades as long as the kids were not his.  Both teachers are riddled with guilt because of their actions.

Standardized exams and test grades have done nothing to help our kids.  Emphasis on statistics has brought everything down.

1 comment:

mathematicamama said...

Our testing schedule is different, but our attitudes are even more different. After the first round of testing, a "redo" is given to those who did not pass. All the content teachers work together. One will take those who passed and teach new material. One will take those testing and continue reviewing with them for about two weeks until the 2nd chance test is offered. One will take those who did not make the cut and qualify for a redo, and start final exam review with them. (Those who passed the first test are exempt from the final.) On the down side, this entire testing process lasts from the first of May through the second week in June. The schedule for the whole 5 weeks is crazy- changed and the only way to get through it is with a strong department that works together. At the end we still look at results, but not so much with individual teachers unless the scores are wayyyyyyy down for that one person. I feel fortunate to not work in such a hostile environment. However- everything might change with the new evals being put into place next year.