The thing that
sticks with me in this article is something that I have written about in my
blog and have spoken about in class and that is testing. I cannot stand state testing or anything like
that for that matter. This poor girl had
to take a state test to see if she was smart enough and according to the test
she was not. How discouraging is that to
a student that the state says you are not smart enough? Especially with so many outside factors like
some people are not good test takers, maybe they had a bad night sleep, skipped
breakfast, were over stressed, and so many other things. This girl probably had enough stress to not
be told she was not smart enough.
One thing I did like about the
article was the fact they followed this girl for a long period of time. Most observers only follow for a short period
of time and you cannot see growth. This
was good to see how this one girl developed from sixth to eleventh grade. However this is only one girl. Every girl and boy are different so it would
have been nice if they did this with a bunch of different people from different
areas to see a bunch of different results and would be able to compare and
contrast the different results. I say
this so we the readers can see what it’s like for the majority instead of just
one person. My mother came here not
speaking any English and had go to similar process but had different
results. I know I am nit picking but
this is something I would like to compare, I do not know if the rest of the
class would have the same question.
Do not ask me why but when they talked about her being separated from her friends at different schools this is the connection i made. This immediately came to mind, I do not know why but I felt since it did I should share the picture and see if others make the same connections.
This video strikes me because of the cut of ESL. Some kids need extra help with their english since it is not their first language. However if they cut the program and the students start to do poorly on the state tests since they do not understand what the test says, the state will just say they are not smart enough, rather money was more of a factor than actually letting students learn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRZ9JcuG4Lc
I agree with you that state testing is not an accurate way to determine whether or not students know the material or are at grade level. This girl made it into honors classes so she was obviously able to comprehend some parts of the lessons, and just because she did not pass the test they were going to put her in lower level classes and possibly not graduate. To me, that is unfair. I believe there should be other methods of testing students. I also liked that they followed this one student for so long, but would have liked to see more than one perspective.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, and I feel like the education system needs to reevaluate a lot of what they require from students, it seems inadequate, unrealistic, and just dumb.
ReplyDeleteState testing has been an issue for a long time and doesn't show the true potential of the student. Many people I know are so intelligent but are not able to take a test, making them appear to be slower on paper and not do as well in school.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that it would have been interesting if they followed a group of students for that period of time to see similarities and differences. I also think that there should be a new way of testing and not weigh state testing so heavily.
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