Jim, It may be true that teacher training doesn’t include enough information about testing, but that’s not the main problem in the US now. The problem is that over-testing is actually disrupting (what is left of) the public education system. Because the tests focus only on reading/writing and math (important topics, to be sure), and because many schools districts have suffered from terrible underfunding for decades now (see “public education funded by local property taxes”), many other essential topics are being squeezed out of the curriculum. Districts and teachers are under such relentless pressure to raise test scores now that many have essentially resorted to teaching their kids how to do well on these particular tests, rather than teaching them a broad and reasonable curriculum. The crowning paradox is that US kids still do worse on these topics than kids from nearly every other economically equivalent country (and they often have nearly no knowledge of other topics — just ask them to, say, point out Germany on a map of the world). One of the results is that the public system is being eroded by various alternatives: "charter" schools, private school “vouchers,” etc.
It seems to be a classic case of fanaticism: faced with a failed strategy, redouble your efforts. If the US wants a decent public school system again (and there seem to be lots of political and economic forces in the US that are actually fighting this), the first thing they have to do to get out of the hole they're in is to stop digging. Important topic not mentioned in article: Until the US is ready to admit that its dreadful income inequality is having a profoundly negative impact on its educational outcomes, it unlikely that top-down pressure on teachers is going to make much difference. (What kid can concentrate on school when s/he comes from a deprived home with highly stressed, unemployed or precariously-employed parents? Something as simple as Maslow’s "hierarchy of needs” tells you pretty much everything you need to know here.) Chris P.S. Let me be the first to say, Canada is no paradise when it comes to public education, but it has managed to avoid some of the greater pitfalls. Funding is spread across whole provinces, and so is more equitable. Teacher pay is (generally) better. More generous anti-poverty programs level the socio-economic playing field somewhat. And, yes, Canadians pay higher taxes: the price of civilization, as Oliver Wendell Holmes once put it. ….. Christopher D Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada 43.773895°, -79.503670° [email protected] http://www.yorku.ca/christo ………………………………... On Apr 24, 2016, at 6:37 AM, Jim Clark <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > Hi > > NY Times reports latest on the testing wars in schools. I think one of the > causal factors, perhaps especially in the negative reactions of many > teachers, may be the lack of education about testing in teacher education. At > least one professor of education in the province bemoaned several years ago > about the lack of such training. > > http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/24/opinion/sunday/race-and-the-standardized-testing-wars.html?emc=edit_th_20160424&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=26933398&_r=0 > > Take care > Jim > > Jim Clark > Professor & Chair of Psychology > University of Winnipeg > 204-786-9757 > Room 4L41A (4th Floor Lockhart) > www.uwinnipeg.ca/~clark > > > --- > > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. > > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=430248.781165b5ef80a3cd2b14721caf62bd92&n=T&l=tips&o=48605 > > (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) > > or send a blank email to > leave-48605-430248.781165b5ef80a3cd2b14721caf62b...@fsulist.frostburg.edu > > > > > --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=48606 or send a blank email to leave-48606-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
