Yes. That extra few days of Scantron practice and test rehearsal is critical to the future of children.

Any real learning that might actually have the chance to still be happening in classrooms takes place in the months leading up to March. Once March hits, everything stops so that the sheer, utter mindlessness that is standardized testing in the United States can take hold and we can all do our part to continue feeding the ever-bloating test-making, test-tutoring, and test-scoring industries.

Not being an American, but what the hell is on those tests that they need to study for? It took me till university to finally write a test that actually involved studying longer than an hour the night before.

/your mileage may vary

Pocket Ninja: Yes. That extra few days of Scantron practice and test rehearsal is critical to the future of children.

Couldn't have stated it any better myself. This is a worthless change to accomodate the already worthless No Child Left Behind act.

Stinky McButt: Pocket Ninja: Yes. That extra few days of Scantron practice and test rehearsal is critical to the future of children.

Couldn't have stated it any better myself. This is a worthless change to accomodate the already worthless No Child Left Behind act.

But it's 'for the chidrun'!

Around here Spring Break is known as "Snow Day Make-up Week".

Don't these schools get extra federal money fs the kids get higher test scores?

fs = if

Weaver95: Stinky McButt: Pocket Ninja: Yes. That extra few days of Scantron practice and test rehearsal is critical to the future of children.

Couldn't have stated it any better myself. This is a worthless change to accommodate the already worthless No Child Left Behind act.

But it's 'for the chidrun'!

Which would be great if we weren't dumbing the schools down to Texas levels.

I like how they worked around the religious holiday to make the nuts satisfied...

Proctor exams the day immediately following the final day of the holiday, that'll teach 'em, so to speak.

I have an idea. Why don't we poll the teachers using a standardized scoring system on the effectiveness of testing? We can then use the results to compile data on the most testing-effective districts. After that, we'd increase funding for practice evaluations so the teachers know how to respond when the time comes. In fact, we should have a biannual standardized evaluation to coincide with the month after the biannual tests for students. We then fire all teachers who rate the tests ineffective while adding a more comprehensive corriculum to the students.

/hotlinked for relevance

Is educating ignorant parents who have kids that do no wrong coming down the pipe?

That would be the most helpful.

When I was in High School they always did standardized testing right after we got back from Spring Break.

We thought they tried to get extra money for special ed by giving us the test when we were residual retarded.

Canadian Canuck: Not being an American, but what the hell is on those tests that they need to study for? It took me till university to finally write a test that actually involved studying longer than an hour the night before.

/your mileage may vary

The tests test the ability to read for understanding and whether the concept of symbols representing an amount of something means anything to the test taker. I've never been to Canada but here in the US the majority of the population can't read text for understanding and numbers are meaningless symbols so the schools try to boost scores by having the kids cram for the tests.

TFA stated that there's a law on Virginia's books that says students can't start school before Labor Day.

Any Virginians around to explain why that is? Just curious....

Wow, what about just more quality time teaching, than quantity?

Canadian Canuck: Not being an American, but what the hell is on those tests that they need to study for? It took me till university to finally write a test that actually involved studying longer than an hour the night before.

/your mileage may vary

Beats me. The test I had to take to pass high school took place in my 2nd year and covered material from at least 4 or 5 years prior. If you failed, you had two more years to do it. I cannot understand how someone could fail, but plenty did.

Pocket Ninja: Yes. That extra few days of Scantron practice and test rehearsal is critical to the future of children.

PSAT, SAT, MCAT, LSAT, GRE, all sorts of professional licensing, etc etc. If anything, there should be a mandatory course of standardized testing given its prevalence in professional and academic advancement.

When they first started these tests at my high school it didn't mean anything for the students. Essentially, it was just like "here take these tests they have absolutely no impact on your life at all, by the way when you finish you can leave early". Obviously, like 60% of the kids didn't try at all and failed. So, after two years of that they made it so that if you didn't pass you had to take the tests again until you did. Still, a whole bunch of kids failed because I went to a pretty shiatty school. Finally, they started having the teachers leave during the tests making it really really easy to cheat. Unsurprisingly, everyone started passing and our school got more funding. Meanwhile, a huge number of veteran teachers quit/retired because of having to retool all their curriculum to teach towards the test. Mission Accomplished.

/I should ask my brother what it's like now.

moothemagiccow: Canadian Canuck: Not being an American, but what the hell is on those tests that they need to study for? It took me till university to finally write a test that actually involved studying longer than an hour the night before.

/your mileage may vary

Beats me. The test I had to take to pass high school took place in my 2nd year and covered material from at least 4 or 5 years prior. If you failed, you had two more years to do it. I cannot understand how someone could fail, but plenty did.

Sounds like the California High School Exit Exam. They give a test of the same difficulty level to teachers. Some have to take it 4-5 times before they pass.

Good to see all those education majors bringing the lessons they learned at university to the classroom. In this case, the lesson is that the most important way to succeed is to cram right before the test.

Good. I think they should drop the whole summer vacaction bullshiat and have school year-round, too.

Yes, I'm serious. When the average high school graduate is a worthless farkoff (and you are) whose spelling and grammer are so poor they're barely literate (and they are) and who has absolutely no concept of geography or history (and you don't) and we still have 16th-century torch mobs trying to banish TEH EVIL SIENCE WHAT MAKES BABY JEESUS CRY!!! (and we do), it's time to stop coddling and start making the little brats earn their way out of school.

Looking back on my time in school, I have no recollection whatsoever of any of the material on any standardized test. The memories I value most are of the teachers that allowed us to participate in the lesson, and taught us to always question everything.

Lovie33: Don't these schools get extra federal money fs the kids get higher test scores?

No, but if the children don't do well they get their funding cut. 'No Child Left Behind' was an unfunded mandate, and a stupid one at that. It only punishes schools, and offers no actual program to help any troubled schools.

/hope they get rid of it soon

earlm: ... so the schools try to boost scores by having the kids cram for the tests.

And, at least according to the letter I got from the school district when my son's school failed to make NCLB standards for 3 years, by transferring the students who fail the tests to better-performing schools in the district. Instead of increasing the education level at the failing school they push out the kids who need help so the smart kids can bring up the average and once the school makes its scores they bring everyone back and the cycle continues.

Maybe it's time that the kids go to school all year long. It's not like they have to be home in the summer to help work on the family farm. It's time for summer vacation to go the way of the buggy whip, but it wont happen because the teachers union will fight it.

safety scissors: earlm: ... so the schools try to boost scores by having the kids cram for the tests.

And, at least according to the letter I got from the school district when my son's school failed to make NCLB standards for 3 years, by transferring the students who fail the tests to better-performing schools in the district. Instead of increasing the education level at the failing school they push out the kids who need help so the smart kids can bring up the average and once the school makes its scores they bring everyone back and the cycle continues.

The kids who leave tear their new schools down to the LCD and the parents in the formerly good school's neighborhoods move to places with better schools.

The Virginia Labor day law was put into place so that seasonal employers wouldn't lose their summer help before the season was over.
Also known as the Kings Dominion law. Being as that amusement park raised the biggest stink

The teachers could just suck less. That'd would help tremendously.

Phaid: Good to see all those education majors bringing the lessons they learned at university to the classroom. In this case, the lesson is that the most important way to succeed is to cram right before the test.

The real lesson they learn in ed school is politics. They also learn that academics are less important than self-esteem and feeling good about your ethnic/cultural background.

I invite any taxpayer to sit in on ed courses at your local university.

No_One_Special: I think they should drop the whole summer vacaction bullshiat and have school year-round, too.

I agree. I always thought it was cruel to have three months of vacation for the first 18 years of your life and then BAM you get a lousy two weeks of vacation time in the working world.

attackingpencil: When they first started these tests at my high school it didn't mean anything for the students. Essentially, it was just like "here take these tests they have absolutely no impact on your life at all, by the way when you finish you can leave early". Obviously, like 60% of the kids didn't try at all and failed. So, after two years of that they made it so that if you didn't pass you had to take the tests again until you did. Still, a whole bunch of kids failed because I went to a pretty shiatty school. Finally, they started having the teachers leave during the tests making it really really easy to cheat. Unsurprisingly, everyone started passing and our school got more funding. Meanwhile, a huge number of veteran teachers quit/retired because of having to retool all their curriculum to teach towards the test. Mission Accomplished.

/I should ask my brother what it's like now.

That's depressing.

Spring Break is fine, but I'll agree that Summer break should be abolished. You ever wonder why Japanese students, for example, are so much more educated and disciplined? It may have to do with the fact that they actually GO TO SCHOOL.

Up here in BC, Canada, spring break is 2 weeks long. Elementary, middle and high schools get two weeks and two weekends off from school, and then 8 weeks of summer break.

If we can do it, why can't the US?

I agree with year round schools. Keeps the little farkers off the jogging trails in the park with their pilfered booze, which makes them think they are "gangbangers" for some reason, which makes them tag up the trails. That's annoying. When I come across those I have to jog in place and carefully study the calligraphy for a bit to figure out if it's REALLY Bloods/Crips/XStBoyz/MS13 moving into the neighborhood or some dumbfark brats out on a school break.

/also keeps 'em out of my mall
//and off my lawn

Bgnome: The Virginia Labor day law was put into place so that seasonal employers wouldn't lose their summer help before the season was over.
Also known as the Kings Dominion law. Being as that amusement park raised the biggest stink

Ahha! Thanks for the explaination.

A quick google on that gave me the answers: Big business and campaign contributions are obviously more important to the future of Virginia rather than education.

Virginia: We keep 'em stupid!

Good I don't want to see kids on the beach during Spring Break when I'm trashed.

/In college.

Cymbaline: TFA stated that there's a law on Virginia's books that says students can't start school before Labor Day.

Any Virginians around to explain why that is? Just curious....

Because that's not true? They do start prior to labor day. Didn't start before labor day in the past in wv, and probably many places, because there wasn't air conditioning in all schools. My high school wasn't air conditioned and having the fans going sucked.

nanded: Pocket Ninja: Yes. That extra few days of Scantron practice and test rehearsal is critical to the future of children.

PSAT, SAT, MCAT, LSAT, GRE, all sorts of professional licensing, etc etc. If anything, there should be a mandatory course of standardized testing given its prevalence in professional and academic advancement.

Speaking of the PSAT... I took the SAT sophomore year and asked my counselor about the PSAT. The wonderful(ly stupid) biotch told me "there was no reason to take the PSAT. It's just a practice for the SAT. That's what the P is." Thanks to her I was ineligible for a huge number of scholarships...

That being said, I don't recall anything harder than basic a + b = c algebra or "reading comprehension" where you read a paragraph and are asked what the subject of the paragraph was. At the time, it didn't even register that people would not ace it... But looking back, I scored 94%+ on everything... How do people fail this?

No_One_Special: Good. I think they should drop the whole summer vacaction bullshiat and have school year-round, too.

Yes, I'm serious. When the average high school graduate is a worthless farkoff (and you are) whose spelling and grammer.....

Is this Rotsky-worthy, sarcasm or troll?

ilovelucky: attackingpencil: When they first started these tests at my high school it didn't mean anything for the students. Essentially, it was just like "here take these tests they have absolutely no impact on your life at all, by the way when you finish you can leave early". Obviously, like 60% of the kids didn't try at all and failed. So, after two years of that they made it so that if you didn't pass you had to take the tests again until you did. Still, a whole bunch of kids failed because I went to a pretty shiatty school. Finally, they started having the teachers leave during the tests making it really really easy to cheat. Unsurprisingly, everyone started passing and our school got more funding. Meanwhile, a huge number of veteran teachers quit/retired because of having to retool all their curriculum to teach towards the test. Mission Accomplished.

/I should ask my brother what it's like now.

That's depressing.

God, and it doesn't even scratch the surface of the problems with education in that POS town. Like when, because the leader of bureau council didn't want them to build a new elementary school (why? who knows? the leader of the town is actually a crazy person), the town attempted to seize the land owned by the school by eminent domain. Of course, you can't seize land owned by the farking government by eminent domain so they ended up wasting roughly 1 million dollars on legal fees and then re-zoned the land so a school couldn't be build there. So, our elementary school is too small, in a bad location, and out of date and they can't build a new one despite the fact that they have all these acres of land just sitting there that no one can use now.

River Hill parents, including committee head Doug Hostetler, also were instrumental several years ago in a countywide initiative to get stadium lights installed at the 11 Howard County schools without them. River Hill Principal Bill Ryan estimated that 60 to 70 percent of the money for the $1 million-plus project came from the River Hill community.

Last fall, River Hill was named a No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon School, a reflection of it being among the state's top scorers on the High School Assessment tests. Churchill High, in Montgomery County, was the only other Maryland high school to earn that national Blue Ribbon distinction. According to Howard County schools data, 96.9 percent of the Class of 2007 River Hill graduates went on to attend two- or four-year colleges.
/I clicked on the Howard county tag.
/It is not that the kids are stupid. It is the drive from the parents that educate the kids.

Fano: Cymbaline: TFA stated that there's a law on Virginia's books that says students can't start school before Labor Day.

Any Virginians around to explain why that is? Just curious....

Because that's not true? They do start prior to labor day. Didn't start before labor day in the past in wv, and probably many places, because there wasn't air conditioning in all schools. My high school wasn't air conditioned and having the fans going sucked.

Actually, it's partially true, as Bgnome pointed out, for not quite half of Viriginia. See this article (new window).

WFern: Spring Break is fine, but I'll agree that Summer break should be abolished. You ever wonder why Japanese students, for example, are so much more educated and disciplined? It may have to do with the fact that they actually GO TO SCHOOL.

Because they kick out the kids who can't hack it. Seriously, one of the reasons American kids test so low is that we test EVERYONE, including mentally disabled kids. They don't do that in other countries. Not saying that the American educational system isn't screwed up (I blame local control of educational standards), just that the numbers are misleading.

Doesn't Howard County have some of the highest NCLB scores anyway?

/Graduated two years ago
/Go raiders.

No_One_Special: Good. I think they should drop the whole summer vacaction bullshiat and have school year-round, too.

Yes, I'm serious. When the average high school graduate is a worthless farkoff (and you are) whose spelling and grammer are so poor they're barely literate (and they are) and who has absolutely no concept of geography or history (and you don't) and we still have 16th-century torch mobs trying to banish TEH EVIL SIENCE WHAT MAKES BABY JEESUS CRY!!! (and we do), it's time to stop coddling and start making the little brats earn their way out of school.

Oh do shut up. The religious groups have nothing to do with the lack of science education in this country. It comes down to lousy teachers, unmotivated students, and worthless curricula.

Tachikoma
Lovie33: Don't these schools get extra federal money fs the kids get higher test scores?

No, but if the children don't do well they get their funding cut. 'No Child Left Behind' was an unfunded mandate, and a stupid one at that. It only punishes schools, and offers no actual program to help any troubled schools.

/hope they get rid of it soon

I have never understood why student performance on standardized tests should effect the school's funding. It would make sense if the students were rewarded or tracked based on their scores, so that they individually have a reason to try and a consequence for their performance (even if the consequence was tempered by other factors to make it fair). The way students perform on test should effect the students.

If they want to make funding dependent on some sort of objective measures, test the teachers and the administration. Also check where textbooks go, how money is spent, and how many students are in a classroom. Give funding to schools that prove they can put it in the classroom and give less for administration. That is something that the schools can control. If a district wants to compare individual teacher's classes performance to other classes at the same level (not counting special ed) as one factor that goes into that teacher's rating and review, fine. Tying student performance on one test to school funding is stupid and takes responsibility for their own learning away from students.

Our technology has outpaced our ability to be intelligent. Back when only a handful of children went to school past basic reading(if that) and worked on the farm or in the factory for the rest of their lives, schools were great. That's because they were full of kids who could actually learn and wanted to(or at least the had the weight of family expectations on their shoulders). The fact is, only a small percentage of humans are really cut out to understand advanced math, science, philosophy, etc. We have mandatory public schools for nearly all children, yet the same handful that was successful in the past is successful now. The rest skip school, smoke weed, work at McDonalds, and get into crime. Forcing them to sit in a building for the majority of their early lives doesn't turn them into people who want to learn. In the end, they're still the farm and factory workers they have been for generations. Except now, robots do most of the physical work for them, so they sit around, collect government handouts, breed, and commit crimes.

WFern: Spring Break is fine, but I'll agree that Summer break should be abolished. You ever wonder why Japanese students, for example, are so much more educated and disciplined? It may have to do with the fact that they actually GO TO SCHOOL.

There are more differences between the two systems than that. A program that promises that no child will be left behind means that the focus of education is on the slowest, stupidest kids and the kids at the other end of the spectrum get ignored and are not challenged.

Another BIG difference is parent participation. Japanese parents instill the value of a good education in their children.

AND the entire Japanese system is different than the US. In the USA, we are lucky to have one school per district for the more intelligent students. Japan has many more and in every district.

In the US, a parent will sue if Johnny is held back or even if he is put into a slow class.