#1736 - 02/14/10 09:01 AM
FSAs successfully kiboshed
|
Heather
Administrator
old hand
Registered: 07/20/07
Posts: 897
|
Here's a piece from my local paper.
Cornelia is a new reporter to the Chilliwack Times. I'd say she's off with a bang! 
Here's a quote:
The loss of the information is worth it, according to CTA president, Katharin Midzain, if it prevents the Fraser Institute from ranking schools, a practice she says is unfair, misleading and demoralizing.
"We don't think it's a huge expense because we have other methods of evaluation," she said.
Some of those other methods, however, show that too many students in the intermediate grades are failing to meet expectations in reading and numeracy.
Last year, for example, only 44 per cent of students who wrote last year's Grade 6 reading assessment fully met expectations.
It's an ongoing problem the district has focused a lot of effort on for the past two years, according to McCabe, since the transition from Grades 6 to 7 is a linchpin in determining how many kids will stay in school long enough to graduate.
And just in case you missed it, the data showing the 44% of students who are not meeting expectations was found with the school districts own testing, not the FSAs. Not wanting to state the obvious, but just so we're clear, that means all the students participated and none were pulled from the test.
_________________________
SCIENTIA EST POTENTIA
Knowledge is power
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
#1740 - 02/22/10 09:05 PM
Re: FSAs successfully kiboshed
[Re: Heather]
|
Ted Hewlett
stranger
Registered: 04/17/08
Posts: 15
|
If I may, I would like to reproduce part of an editorial I wrote for the BCPTL website at http://www.BCPTL.org . I should emphasize that British Columbia Parents and Teachers for Life has not taken a stand on the value or otherwise of the FSA tests, though we are strongly supportive of the concept that parents are the prime educators of their children:
The BCTF response to Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) tests raises some foundational questions. The BCTF has targeted parents, particularly parents whose first language is not English, with ads that say in part:
If you want your child to succeed, this test isn’t going to help them. Every year, your child’s valuable time in the classroom is wasted on preparing for a test that won’t help them learn—and won’t improve their mark. . . . .
These FSA tests are required every year for Grades 4 and 7, but they won’t help your child succeed—and are only used to unfairly rank schools. They’re wasting tax dollars and valuable learning time. Join the growing number of parents who are withdrawing their child from these meaningless tests. . . .
[From the BCTF website]
The statement that children's time is wasted preparing for a test is dubious on two counts: (1) A skills test is one that is basically prepared for by the regular teaching of skills in the classroom, and (2) Time is not wasted if a little time is spent learning how to face test questions.
The statement that the tests won't help a child succeed certainly needs to be challenged. If a test uncovers weaknesses that need to be addressed in teaching a child, and those matters are addressed, the child can certainly be helped.
The BCTF, then, could do with a course on truth in advertising.
Does the BCTF have the moral right to sabotage the tests? If a parent withdraws his child from participation in the tests, the parent denies himself or herself a potential source of knowledge about the child's skills, and if enough parents do this, the over-all picture of how well students have learned skills will not be accurate.
The BCTF's act of using students to send its anti-FSA material to parents is another controversial part of the union's opposition. The fact is that only certain messages are allowed to be sent home with students. The BCTF,
The issue of ranking schools using FSA scores is a separate one that needs to be addressed separately. Of course it is true that there is much in a school's program that cannot be measured by such test scores, but it is certainly false to say that the tests are used only for ranking schools. They can be valuable indications of a student's basic skills and of remedial action that needs to be taken to help him.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Schools We Need
