Hagopain
The number of tests the average American student takes from pre k- 12.
What are 112 standardized tests?
"By the end of the school year, I felt like I had learned nothing and had so much stress about passing a standardized test." -Grace
Discuss:
How do tests effect the mental health and well being of students?
The reason why National Civil Rights groups were in favor of standardized testing.
What is a way to ensure that disadvantaged students aren't neglected?
The state and test that McNeil wrote about.
What is Texas and TAAS?
Discuss:
What were the effects seen in the reading and real life on the classroom and learning seen from standardized testing?
The made up term that Hagopain uses to describe the billionaires that own testing companies, the politicians that write them into law, and the schools that administer them.
What is the "testocracy"?
The result of NCLBA "highlighting" the achievement gaps of subgroups in schools
What is forced states to correct this leading to interventions and eventually penalties on schools with no progress?
"I learned that the original purpose of No Child Left Behind was to 'highlight and then close historic achievement gaps' (Nelson 3). Somehow throughout my years of education I missed this key goal, perhaps because I never attended a school that the test was meant to highlight." -Cosma
Discuss:
Was it ever clear to you that standardized testing was for the purpose of highlighting achievement gaps? Would it had made a difference in your wanting/not wanting to take it?
"Schools that do put a lot of emphasis on standardized testing spend most of the year learning how to fill in bubbles and how to tell which answers are 'distraction answers,'" -Sheyla
The amount of time and money spent to teach the test per year.
How much is $20,000 and 3 months?
"Without standards, how do we hold schools accountable for truly educating the students with which they’re entrusted?" - Marin
The example that Hagopain gives to show how we can hold schools accountable for educating students.
What are New York Consortium Schools?
Discuss:
What are non traditional (not standardized tests) assessments you have experienced or seen?
The reputation of No Child Left Behind changed.
What is bridging inequality to testing?
TAAS is not consistent with traditional learning in two ways.
What are multiple choice and the ability to accurately fill in a circle.
Standardized tests are a result of these three things.
What is the race to the top, no child left behind, and the common core?
Discuss:
How have standardized tests change the nature of the race to the top?
The type of School Districts that changed their curriculum to focus strongly on reading and math.
What is at low-performing schools that tend to enroll a disproportionate number of poor and minority students?
"While I remember that the intent of this program was to help bring struggling students up to par with their peers, I can see how it actually created an academic chasm between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots.'"-Jason
Discuss:
What would be an alternative to standardized testing that would ensure that every student has an equal opportunity in education?
Two things students were losing by focusing on TAAS grammar.
What is opportunity to develop their sense of color and design in art and correctness through multiple choice format instead of fluency in their own writing?
Discuss:
How does art and other non-standardized test subjects benefit students in their learning and, in general, in their lives?
4 problems that Hagopain claims cannot be solved by multiple choice
What are: High income inequality in the US, Mass incarceration in the US, Wars/ US intervention, and passing the tipping point of climate change
Discuss:
How does multiple choice harm problem solving abilities?
Are there any redeemable qualities to testing? Could some of those skills translate into the real world?
Standardized testing not only affects the students.
What are teachers, big and small civil rights groups, parents.
Discuss:
What benefits does standardized testing have for the future of the children and society who learn through it?
Teachers may revert to the "regular" curriculum.
What is after the TAAS test; practice for the test can last from September to March.
Discuss:
What are the long term implications on the students when teachers are forced to teach TAAS prep for the majority of the school year?