AP Classes, Homework, and Standardized Tests, oh my!

There aren't really any of my own thoughts in today's entry; instead, I wanted to post three articles about various (and large and important) controversies in education today.

Exhibit A discusses that AP classes, despite their labels, do not actually prepare kids for college. I would agree, because I have seen this first hand. Students in AP classes often do not have the requisite skills to succeed in those classes, let alone in college. This well-written article discusses additional flaws with the AP testing system.

Exhibit B is a short piece by Alfie Kohn, who argues that homework does more harm than good. I'm a proponent of the flipped classroom, which is not exactly homework, since homework basically serves to reinforce skills students have just learned. So I guess on this subject, Kohn and I agree.

Finally, Exhibit C is yet another example of educators attacking standardized tests. You'd think with all this backlash, the standardized testing movement would go away. Sadly, these policy reformers seem to be stubborn and ignorant of data.

Standardization baaaaaad... Curiosity goooooooood

Every month, the English department (like every other discipline) has a dept. meeting. Invariably, the meeting entails reiteration of what the county and/or principal wants us to implement, and then there is the requisite whining. This week, there was a raucous ruckus (see what I did there?) about the new grading policies that will most likely begin next September. Currently, we can basically weight the grades however we want, as long as homework is not a ridiculous amount (I think 15% is the max). However, the administrators on high in their infinite "wisdom" have declared that now, homework and classwork together can now not count for more than 20% of a student's grade. Which means that 80% comes from tests. What happened to all their bitching about not wanting us to "teach to the test"?

On the one hand, I can see where having a student's grade based primarily on their knowledge makes sense, and the practice with which to master this knowledge counts much less. However, students will quickly realize with this system that they can do little to no work in class and at home and they can still most likely earn a passing grade. But what they will fail to realize is that they can only master the information on tests if they spend enough time practicing. Therefore, students who just care about grades and not learning skill sets (which, let's face it, is how most of them think, as do their parents) will not be motivated to ever attend class unless there is a test. (Just like many college students... but that's another subject.)

Furthermore, as one colleague pointed out, this will mean we have to "test the shit out of these kids" in order to get enough data for sufficient grading, which will make them even less engaged in school and more apathetic toward learning in general. Another teacher pointed out that in the city in which he taught before he came here, these standards were implemented, and because of them, teachers had to have a specific number of homework assignments, tests, seminars, etc., and because it was almost impossible to fit all this in and not make themselves (or the students) crazy, teachers ended up randomly calling a classroom activity a test or project, and thus the categories lost all meaning.

Yikes.... I could go on, but I won't. Sooooo glad it's the weekend and there are only four more days of school before Winter Break. Before I sign off, I thought I would share this, with which I agree 100%. That's where we should be headed, not prescribing random percentages to classroom procedures.

Sometimes People Do Things That... Well, Just Don't Make No Sense

So this weekend I went to a holiday party at an apartment of a math teacher I worked with while I was interning. There were several other teachers from that school there, and at some point they brought up the fact that they were all having trouble implementing the new "No Homework" policy. At that point, I inserted myself into the conversation with a type of WTF look on my face. We all seemed to be on the same page-- we didn't see the point of the policy and thought it was completely counter-intuitive. The math teacher said she could encourage students to practice their skills, but since the new policy disallows teachers to grade homework, students won't practice and thus will fail the tests. The English teacher said the students couldn't discuss the books in class since they are not motivated to read them at home. Evidently, this trend is only spreading. In a middle school, it is especially harmful since kids at that age don't understand that in order to master a skill they must practice it consistently, not just for the 40 minutes they are in class. I really hope this trend is incredibly short-lived. Yikes.