Ashley Housel wrote @ April 23, 2008 at 5:54 pm

I feel that if school systems would make their lessons more broad and not just teach what will be on the standardized tests throughout the years, students will learn and grow more from it. It gets harder and harder each year to get into college, which makes scence. With as much technology and opportunities that we have as high school students we should be more knowledgable in “book smarts” than the generation before us. However, when all we learn in school is how to pass a test that every student (and every students is and learns different) takes and is expected to pass. That really isn’t fair, is it? I think schools need to teach more than what is needed to “pass the test” at the end of the year and more students will be accepted to good colleges and learn more usefull information, like being good writers.

  Jessica Falcon wrote @ April 24, 2008 at 12:36 pm

First I have to disagree with Kevin. Just because his comment really got to me. It’s true, not everyone is going to get some sort of foreign relations job. But the fact still remains that our country is among the twenty spanish speaking countries, and most people here know quite a bit of it. And whether or not we want to admit it, there are a lot of latinos here, mainly Mexican, and even though we’re extremely convinced that “This is America, so speak english” it’s still imperative to speak other languages. WE DON’T HAVE A NATIONAL LANGUAGE. English isn’t the main language, we’re just a big mixing bowl. So that’s why we learn spanish, french, german, or any other language available. Okay. Moving on.
Either way, it’s obvious that we need to spend more time in English. But the way we learn is failing us in general. We’re expected to sit in desks for 45 minutes every period, listening to a teach talk and try to stimulate some sort of excitement in us so that we might be able to learn and retain some sort of information. But the truth is that most of this stuff we forget, and I think that calls for a reform in the way we’re taught. Most of English classes, as Kyle knows, are spent reading books, writing essays. We hardly have time for much else. But if we could read less books, and spend more time developing writing instead of trying to cram all this curriculum into our brains before the end of the school year, we might stand a better chance at getting into better colleges. Even though the BoE finds it necessary to give us all these books to read, most of them are dry and most of US can’t stand them. That brings our grades down enough because while we like to think that all students have the ability to apply ourselves, that doesn’t mean we do. Then we spend a week on writing an essay, that’s turned in for 100 points. I’m sorry, but not all of us can feel the motivation after a whole school year like that. Too much stuff is pressed on us, and the standards are getting way too high. Although we may be able to get into these colleges if we work so hard our brains fry, it shouldn’t have to be so difficult. So many motivations are pushed down into the dirt because they know that college expectations are so high. Things need to tone down, and make it just a slight bit easier for us. We’re doing too much.

  Vanasia B. Do wrote @ April 24, 2008 at 12:40 pm

I need to now respond to the article. The Ivy League now admitting few students every year is pretty scary. A lot of people have their heart set on those colleges. I for one want to go to The Unversity of Maryland. But I’ll still apply to those Ivy League schools, just for chance.

  Megan Baker wrote @ April 24, 2008 at 1:01 pm

I really don’t see how the state educators can just choose how to measure someones writing ability. Do people sit around and pick what grades will represent students knowledge and acheviement for that year? One minute the nations third graders are showing how literacy has gone down, and then seniors represent how well students can write. Personally I think 9 year olds and 18 year olds don’t cover all aspects of education, certaintly not enough to represent the rate of learning as a whole. If standard tests must represent students ability then narrow it down. It should be based on by county or even by school, every curriculum is different. Simply saying that IQ’s and writing skills have gone down based on tests isn’t fair to the numerous schools and states that have improved. Intelligence shouldn’t be represented by a percentage, or a title such as basic, proficient, or above grade level.

  Mrs. Voelker wrote @ April 25, 2008 at 12:06 pm

http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2008/04/is-this-what-k.html
This is a link to a cartoon in my favorite blog: Scott McLeod’s Dangerously Irrelevant.
I think it mirrors what so many of you are thinking.

  Lauren White wrote @ April 25, 2008 at 12:56 pm

I will be the first to admit that I am a horrible (multiple-choice) test taker. I get good grades and I usually know and can explain the material, but tests are often difficult for me. The way questions are worded sometimes confuses me and more than often I overthink the answer choices. The SATs play a major part in which colleges will accept you, and since most of the test is multiple-choice, this could be a potentially big problem for me and others who share my problem. It is for this reason that I am glad a writing section was added to the SATs. It will allow me, and others like me, to have a chance to answer a question without having to worry about the difficult wordings of questions or tricky answer choices.

  Mika wrote @ April 27, 2008 at 6:53 pm

NOT THAT I’M STANDING UP FOR KEVIN**
(because I’m not..)

BUT, I think that the whole “no one needs spanish” thing was nothing more than an innocent example. I understand what he’s saying and I sort of agree, not with the fact that we don’t need spanish though, that’s not what I’m saying. Perhaps the math reference (kevin) used in the last comment was a better example. Ha.

It seems that the main focus of education has been lost. The goals of the board have changed, maybe? Each year the purpose of school focuses in more and more on testing and test scores. We’ve always had the SAT’s, which are ridiculous because they couldn’t possibly cover the range of facts you’ve attained throughout your student life. In addition to the SAT’s, which only represent approximately a year’s accumulation of knowledge, our generation has picked up the HSA’s and many other standardized tests. Aside from the SATs, HSAs, Benchmarks, Performance Assesments, Mid-Terms, and Final exams- students take chapter tests merely every week in school. Because of all of the tests, teachers are forced to cram. We learn only “what’s going to be on the test tomorrow,” take the test, and forget the material so that we have room in our brains to cram for “the following day’s test.”

As a result, unfortunately, unless a student is planning to major in that particular field, they generally will NOT retain most of what they are forced to test on.

Now I’m blabbing again, and this time I’m not even positive that I’m getting my point across.
I’ve gone in circles enough. We test too much. We retain too little. Our system of education needs to “get its act together” before it produces a nation of idiots, which, up until now, it’s doing a fine job of acheiving.

The End.

  Kevin McGuire wrote @ April 28, 2008 at 12:48 pm

My apologies to everyone. After reading most of your comments, I think that the math example was better. If you all don’t know it yet, my mom is running for the BoE in Calvert County, and one of her beliefs is that testing in and of itself does not make you smarter. I guess I should have made my point clearer than I actually did. Sorry to everyone I offended. I guess I got too caught up in what my mom and I beleive in and got carried away.

Anyway, I agree with Mika. You should be my mom’s campaign manager.

In 2005, the BoE changed the law that starting with the class of 2010, we would have to achieve 23 and 1/2 credits in order to graduate. This means more classes, more finals, MORE TESTING!! If, like Mika said, we test too much and retain to little, then what are more classes going to do to us? ANOTHER GENERATION OF IDIOTS! We will be so focused on cramming for “tommorow’s test” that we will just learn what we need to pass. Do you think that your boss in your job is going to say in you job interview, “Oh, you only need to know just enough”. Knowing “just enough” is going to get you “just enough” money to pay your bills. Did’nt you all want to be rich with two manisons, fast cars, and money to spare? I know I did. If you want to be that person you envisioned when you were growing up, you have to know not “just enough”, but you need to grasp “the whole concept”.

Wow, I talk too much. I hope you get my point, and sorry to everyone.

  Mr. McCandless wrote @ July 30, 2008 at 11:46 pm

Well, I’m a bit late to the party here, but I just found this dealie so I figured I’d weigh in with my thoughts on this midsummer’s eve:

This is a Devil’s Advocate’s position and not necessarily my own- Isn’t teaching to the test in a way analogous to on the job training? Talk to just about anyone out there in the workforce today, and they will probably tell you that most everything (knowledge-wise) that they use on a day-to-day basis they learned on the job. Isn’t learning by doing similar to cramming for a test in that you learn what you need to know for the immediate task at hand; general knowledge be damned?

So maybe being taught “to the test” and facing HSA’s and SAT’s and GRE’s and LSAT’s etc. etc. are actually a great preparation for the working world. After all, I could care less if my auto mechanic knows who Marcel Proust was, but he darned well better have crammed last night on how to replace a head gasket in a 1999 Saab, because I’m testing him on that today, and if he passes he gets paid, if he fails, we are both screwed.

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer; which by the way…some propose deleting from the lives of kids and replacing with year round school as it has been shown to help with academics. Anyone want to jump on that bandwagon?

Mr. McCandless