Amid Anti-Testing Furor, a Focus on High School Courses
Following backlash over the rocky institution of a new student assessment program last spring, Texas lawmakers are scrambling to scale back the testing system they passed four years ago. As the Legislature tackles such reform, attention has also focused on another area of education policy: high school graduation requirements.
Wrapped up in legislation that reduces the number of state-mandated standardized exams are several measures that redefine the curriculum prescribed for a high school diploma in favor of loosening the required courses for graduation.
The plans have received the endorsement of superintendents and public school educators, who say the new flexibility ...
Comments (8)
Thomas Ratliff
We need more attention on the length of the standards being imposed on our schools and the impact that has on remediation. Our standards are too long and our teachers and students don't have enough time to MASTER the concepts. We are merely teaching kids to remember something long enough to pass a test.
Flexibility in course offerings is a great thing and will keep kids engaged in their education because they will see it as relevant. I applaud the Legislature for their efforts to reform the testing regime, the accountability system and the degree plans.
Now, lets focus on how much information should be covered in a school year to provide content mastery not just regurgitation of factoids on a bubble sheet.
Shawn AndMichelle Wehmeyer via Texas Tribune on Facebook
"progress in improving students’ preparation for college and careers" ?? Where and when has this been happening?? I say good riddance to the decades of narrowing curricula, program cuts, growing classroom sizes, shrinking numbers of classroom teachers, test driven agendas, shrinking budgets, political and corporate interference and reductions in teacher autonomy!
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Who decides to test? It sure isn't the teachers because they say they are worthless and hate them.. Follow the money.
Rebecca Book Warnick via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I've heard Bill Hammond testify multiple times and I've read his op ed pieces. On the surface, it appears that he has no idea what he's talking about and has no knowledge of what is currently taking place in Texas public schools in the name of an "educated workforce" and accountability. However, he's not paid to be ignorant so something pretty insidious is taking place. I doubt most of his association members are aware of how he represents their interests in education.
John Johnson
There are those in high school who have no desire to be a doctor, lawyer, engineer or accountant, nor, quite frankly, the capacity to do so. For some reason, we still force them to take the same high school courses of those who do.
These kids get out of high school, can't, or choose not to try college, can't find a job, go on the dole, learn to live with it, and stay on it, on and off, for the rest of their lives. Good paying technical jobs remain unfilled in machine shops, electrical, and plumbing fields. Why not segregate them early on in high school and give them technical training that will have them ready to operate a computer controlled piece of manufacturing equipment when they graduate?
Carol Morgan
The new high school requirements are merely old wine in new skins. We're going backward to a tracking system, but only giving it a new name.
http://lubbockonline.com/interact/blog-post/carol-morgan/2013-02-21/new-hs-graduation-plans-serve-systems-not-students#.USeRLjcyfKd
Carina A. Wyant Brunson via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The problem is... high stakes testing is not preparing our children for college or a career. It is making them stupid. They don't know anything about the real world, because their world is based on a test and studying for that test. There is no learning, there is no swaying from the curriculum to get down to the nitty gritty of a topic that might need to be discussed more. I could go on and on....
Richmond Frasier
News Headline: "Higher Education Mouthpieces Panic as Bubble Inflation Sources Dwindle"
“The concern about too much testing has been conflated with the curriculum itself, and I think those two issues need to be just disaggregated,” said Raymund Paredes, the commissioner of the state’s Higher Education Coordinating Board.
Interpretation: Let's keep gelding our high school students with the 4x4 plan so they have no other choice but to earn salvation at our institutions of higher learning, take out loans to fund attendance, work at Starbucks to service said loans, drop out of college...rinse...repeat.