Posted on 05/08/2002 4:35:11 AM PDT by rw4site
Only 10 percent of Texas teachers believe a test should decide whether students are promoted or held back a grade, a recent survey found.
David Henderson, who has conducted the biennial teacher survey since 1980, said this is the first time he has asked teachers their opinion about the state's new testing policy.
Next year's third-grade class will be the first required to pass a state-required test in the third, fifth and eighth grades before they are promoted to the next grade.
As an education professor at Sam Houston State University, Henderson said he has trained prospective teachers to consider multiple factors when deciding if a child should be promoted.
"Being a test and measurement person, and teaching that for many, many years," Henderson said, "I always tell my class, `don't count on one test.' "
Henderson's survey was sent to about 700 teachers selected randomly from the Texas State Teachers Association membership list. About 50 percent responded.
The teachers overwhelmingly answered "no" to the question, "Should a single standardized exam determine whether a student gets promoted?"
However, in the same survey, 42 percent of the teachers said that social promotion -- or the practice of promoting students who do not have adequate academic skills -- is a problem. Two years ago, 91 percent of the teachers surveyed said it was a problem.
Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, took issue with the way the testing question was worded, saying it does not fairly reflect the state's new policy.
"This is not a one-shot test," she said. "The whole idea of the social promotion bill was, `if they haven't mastered the skills, let's stop them, fix it, retest them and move them on.' His question doesn't reflect that."
Under state guidelines, students will be given three opportunities to pass the test before they are held back. Students who initially fail the test also will receive remedial help and free summer school instruction.
The survey, called Texas Teachers, Moonlighting and Morale: 1980-2002, also found that teachers on average spend $477 out of their pocket for classroom expenses.
The average teacher in this year's survey is 40, has 8.5 years of experience and earns $36,367 a year.
Twenty-two years ago, the average teacher was 37, had 11.8 years of experience and earned $14,113.
Henderson said the older teachers with less experience typify how a growing number of teachers are entering the profession after pursuing another career.
About 38 percent of the teachers in this year's survey said they are considering leaving the profession. That's the same percentage that considered leaving in 1980.
However in 1980, the biggest reason cited for leaving the profession was money. This year, most teachers say they are leaving because of working conditions, including stress, burnout, excess paperwork and hassles.
Henderson compiled the survey with his son, Travis Henderson of the Windham School District in Huntsville.
Do we have a 17 year old in third grade? That should be a mess. But the bottom line is, if one has a standard - any standard at all - a portion of the total won't be able to make the hurdle. So, what do we do with those who can't?
"Confucius say: Politics and Education don't mix!"
Secondly, I think we could take a lesson or two from Japan. Open high schools for competition, just they are open for colleges. Allow high schools to accept or deny students--allow students to go through intense testing and to apply for their desired (local) high school.
This will allow the cream to float to the top and to get a quality college prep education at the best nearby high school--while the more remedial students can go to high school if they so choose and learn basic topics that will enable them to have a non-college career (perhaps masonry, plumbing, basic computer operations).
Um ... George Harrison?
.. and when was the Cival War fought?
Um ... 1976?
One more, Johnny ...
How do you feel about homosexuals?
They're OK.
Congratulations Johnnie ... here's your college degree and an appointment for a job interview with the Welfare Dept.
"Bust size should determine when a young girl gets promoted," said 56% of the teachers.
"If he is a good point guard and we need him to win the District Championship, Johnny STAYS and I don't want to hear another word about his successful cold fusion test," said 98% of the teachers.
Japan does have some interesting approaches. For one thing, compulsory school attendance in Japan ends at age 14, not 16-18 as it does in the US. Even so, far more Japanese students are in high school than American students.
You are right about the "specialization" in Japanese high schools. Students compete very hard to get into "the best" high schools, because those high schools have a reputation for increasing your chances to get into the small # of universities considered "desirable."
The problem with Japanese education is that it is *so* test driven, and *so* driven by conformity that it is producing students that don't think creatively, can't function independently, and are "organization men" rather than enterpreneurial.
Let me give you an example. In the US when an engineer or computer guy is laid off, he often will start his own business or consulting firm. In Japan, many of these men go to the libraries every day and conceal from their families as long as they can that they're not working. (I suppose they have generous enough unemployment benefits that they can do this at least for awhile.) They do this because they are *ashamed.* This "shame culture" is driven into them by the schools (where public shaming for nonconformity, and widespread bullying are common.)
Another example: some of the most innovative Japanese companies (like video-game developer Square Soft) try to locate in Hawaii because the Japanese-American workforce there is far more creative (having been schooled by American methods) than the Japanese. The late head of the Sony Corporation threatened several times to relocate Sony to the US because he felt he could not get enough *creative* engineering talent. He found people who would do what he told them to, but not enough people to come up with new ideas, by his standards. He explicitly blamed this on Japanese education methods.
It's food for thought, anyway. Our *good* public schools still produce the lion's share of inventors, enterpreneurs, US Nobel prize winners, etc. We have some public schools that are abysmal and produce nothing but trouble. The problem with education reform is that it punishes the good schools for the sins of the bad ones.
We had to teach this "high school graduate" how to use a ruler (something that should have been learned by 3rd grade).
Now I don't fault this individual. He is just a product of the public school system. We gave this person every chance to learn, but we just didn't have the time to make up for 12 years of education system failure. Even after we spent much time training him, we never could make him understand fractions. In the 3 weeks that he worked for us, we had to redo, at our cost, many mismade products, because right up to the last day, he thought that 5/8 was larger than 3/4.
In fact, after 3 weeks of patient explanations, on the day that we let him go, we gave him one more chance and asked him to tell us which of each of the following pairs was the larger length (inches). Here are the fractions and the answers that this high school graduate gave:
| 5/8 | 3/4 | ans. 5/8 |
| 1/2 | 5/8 | ans. 5/8 |
| 1/2 | 5/16 | ans. 5/16 |
| 5/8 | 7/16 | ans. 7/16 |
It took this high school graduate over 2 minutes to come up with those answers.
It's no wonder that teachers don't want to base grade promotion upon standardized tests. The results of those tests would reveal that in their zeal to teach students about the dangers of CFC's and those evil SUV's, they have totally failed to teach those students basic skills.
On second thought, probably an affirmative action teacher.
Regardless of what the standard is, be it high or low, there will be a % that fails. I strongly suggest that vocational schools be brought back in full force. It appears to me that the government schools education establishment is operating under a premise that every child is college material and is destined for college. We know that is not the case. Vocational schools will provide a quality basic education, along with the skills and knowledge needed to make a decent, if not outstanding living in the choosen trade.
One of my wifes best friends that she grew up with is dumb as a decomposing stump. But he is one of the best carpenters out there. Wins 'carpenter competitions' all over the place. I didnt even know such things existed. And make big money as a carpenter. Obviously he needs great math skills for such a job. But he never went to college, excells at what he does, and makes a great living.
Plumbers make big money, and is a trade that can be learned easily at a vocational school. The list of opportunity is almost endless when this route is taken.
That's why I think it's important we not slavishly follow them here in the US when it comes to "education reform." It's also why I personally oppose national curriculum, national testing, etc. and don't agree with President Bush's education reform bill *at all.*
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.