Obama says too much testing makes education boring

[sadaist]

At the time, I hated school. I would ditch, play sick, or anything to miss a day. Looking back, I wish I was still there. The only place all my friends were hanging out every day and the best place on Earth to meet girls.

[hambon4lif]

I never missed a single day of Economics. That class helped me strengthen my skills at slinging weed afterschool in the parking lot.

[kwame k]

I never missed a single day of Economics. That class helped me strengthen my skills at slinging weed afterschool in the parking lot.

Man, the amount of weed I could sell before 1st hour was legendary at my school!

[chefcraig]

And naturally, Florida governor Rick Scott has just signed into law a bill that requires teachers here (whom are already the 47th lowest paid in the nation) to be payed according to those same test results.

In Florida, teacher pay now tied to performance
Florida Gov. Rick Scott signs a far-reaching bill that has raised the ire of state and national unions.

ORLANDO SENTINEL/LA TIMES/rickscottsucks.us

By Leslie Postal, Orlando Sentinel March 26, 2011

Jacksonville, Fla.—
Florida Gov. Rick Scott has signed a far-reaching teacher merit-pay bill that will overhaul how teachers across the state will be evaluated and paid.

The law creates an evaluation system that relies heavily on student test score data to judge teacher quality. For new teachers, it also creates a performance-based pay system and ends tenure-like job protections.

Florida's merit-pay push is part of a national effort to improve education by tying teachers' pay to their overall effectiveness.

"We are absolutely changing this country," Scott said during the signing ceremony Thursday at a charter school in Jacksonville that aims to boost academic performance among low-income students. He was flanked by students as he put his name on the controversial measure.

Advocates say the law will help Florida schools identify top teachers, reward them financially and assign them to work with their neediest students.

But many teachers along with their statewide union, the Florida Education Assn., are opposed. They say the law will be expensive, will rely on an unproven system and won't fairly evaluate teacher performance. The union has threatened to sue, arguing the plan tramples on teachers' rights to collective bargaining on salaries and work conditions, among other issues.

It was quickly praised as "breakthrough legislation" and a "model of bold reform" by the foundations run by education reformer Michelle Rhee and former Gov. Jeb Bush, respectively.

But the American Federation of Teachers, a national teachers union, said it "took a wrecking ball to the dreams" of Florida's public school students.

The merit-pay bill was pushed by state education leaders and Florida's Republican leadership.

The law will have the most impact on teachers hired after July. Teachers already on the job can retain their current contracts and be paid based on current pay plans — which largely use seniority and advanced degrees to set salaries. But all teachers will be judged by the new test-based evaluation system and can lose their jobs after several years of poor performance.

The state plans to develop a "value-added" system to judge teacher quality with test-score data but take into account factors outside a teacher's control, such as a student's absentee rate.

[ELVIS]

I like that idea...

[kwame k]

I like that idea...

Really? How can a teacher enforce kids do their homework or study for the tests? How can a teacher enforce that a parent takes an active role in a child's development or that a parent will do the extra work required to bring a child's grades up?

They can't and it seems like a growing number of parents use school as daycare rather than a place where a child's development and education comes first.

Teachers are underpaid and if you want to tie their wages to test performance than it stands to reason some teachers will skew test results to benefit themselves rather than doing what's right.....giving a kid a decent education.

[hambon4lif]

I have to wonder how the parents would feel if they were treated like just another dickhead-on-commission.....

If Junior is fourteen and still counts with his toes, then you can't claim him on your taxes.

I'm guessing they'd be none too pleased.

But once again, they're off the fucking hook and it's someone elses responsibility as to how their own kids will turn out.

[sadaist]

Really? How can a teacher enforce kids do their homework or study for the tests? How can a teacher enforce that a parent takes an active role in a child's development or that a parent will do the extra work required to bring a child's grades up?

.

Really? Flunk the damn kid. Hold them back a grade. DON'T PASS THEM!

Kids don't want the embarrassment of being held back, and parents don't want to add an extra year on to how long their kids stay in school and in the house.

It's amazing what people can accomplish when they realize the consequences will be real.

[kwame k]

Really? Flunk the damn kid. Hold them back a grade. DON'T PASS THEM!

Kids don't want the embarrassment of being held back, and parents don't want to add an extra year on to how long their kids stay in school and in the house.

It's amazing what people can accomplish when they realize the consequences will be real.

The reason that doesn't work is because schools would lose x-amount of Federal money if......... they don't pass x-amount of kids, have an acceptable attendance rate, score average on the standardized tests, and graduate x-amount of kids. So in a sense this has already been implement and has been an abject failure.

How many times have you read/heard about kids graduating and they have a third grade reading level? Kids won't be held back unless it's absolutely necessary, it's way easier for all involved if you just pass the problem on rather than address the failure of Principle, Teachers, Parents and, at a certain age, the Students themselves.

We rank somewhere between 17th + or - among industrialized Nations.......we're doing something wrong and the solutions they're coming up with don't fucking work

[binnie]

I can only speak from the UK perspective here.

As someone who teaches at a University, I can tell you that the rise of constant testing in UK schools does not make for effective learning. More often than not, students ask me 'what do I need to do to get this mark.' That's fine, but the achievement is placed far and above the importance of learning for its own sake. Knowledge doesn't seem to be its own merit anymore: they have an very utilitarian view of education.

A more significant impact of constant testing is the declining ability of students to think for themselves. I understand why this has happened. If I was a High School teacher with a set of exams to get a class through every three months, I am going to have to teach them how to pass the exam rather than how to do the subject (if you get the distinction.)

[ELVIS]

In nursing school the testing was such that knowledge in the individual subjects was required to pass the tests...

Those who tried to fake it failed and were kicked out...

[kwame k]

In nursing school the testing was such that knowledge in the individual subjects was required to pass the tests...

Those who tried to fake it failed and were kicked out...

That's on a University level.........not at a High School, level.

Our Universities are World class, our Grade Schools and High Schools are way beyond sub par.