Posted on 07/22/2013 4:02:22 AM PDT by markomalley
Some education issues never appear in political debates, op-ed pages or blue-ribbon commission reports. That doesn’t make them any less irritating. Take, for instance, the widespread reluctance to let students take exams home after they are marked and graded.
My recent column about a Montgomery County father who was denied a chance to see his son’s tests so he could help the boy improve brought a surge of e-mails and blog comments, as happens every time I mention this mostly ignored but frequent parental complaint.
“Any test deserves a critique, otherwise how is the student to learn from his or her mistakes or, even better, build on their strengths,” said Terry Davies, a father and grandfather in Leesburg. “How many times have I heard a teacher say that the biggest problem in education today is not the quality of the teaching but the quality of the parenting. Now here a quality parent is stonewalled in an attempt to aid his struggling students.”
One mother said a well-regarded D.C. charter school returned only the multiple-choice answer sheets, not the corresponding questions, because it wanted to recycle them on future exams. “That made no sense to us,” she said. An elementary school father said he was mystified for more than a year because his son seemed to understand his lessons but did so poorly on standardized tests. Only when a test came home by mistake did he discover his son’s obsessive-compulsive disorder was causing him to avoid marking any B or C answers.
An Urbana father said when he protested a school’s refusal to let him see the graded exams of his autistic son, an administrator said it would be unfair “to let those students with involved parents get the extra help.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Further, I always create two versions of the tests and pass them out in such a way that no two of the same are sitting beside each other.
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I used to do that all of the time with tests and quizzes when I taught, and I frequently used 3 versions. My favorite response was from one of my 16-year-old female students who whined, “How come my quiz doesn’t look like anyone else’s?”
It was very sad for me to see the amount of cheating that went on without any apparent twinge of conscience, in the latter part of my career. When I started out, a few kids would try to cheat, but most did not. And when one was caught, it was a big deal, and they were usually ashamed.
In my final teaching position, I got the impression that even most of the faculty accepted cheating as a part of life and not that big a deal. I am sure I was seen by several as an old fuddy duddy.
I used to say that the kids were too lazy to even cheat well.
I* agree.
And, if the WaPo is covering this story, there has got to be some regime program in the pipeline regarding this issue.
*retired teacher
I actually had the same thing happen to me while the students were taking a test.
One of the students said, "I think something is wrong. MY test isn't like Tommy's."
In response, I grinned and said, yes, they are different.
I see the adversarial attitude of teachers. Thus it will ever be until teachers work for parents instead of government.
Teachers work for government and therefore do what government tells them. Parents are recalcitrant scape goats.
This is it.
Have any of you read the curriculum in the classes the teachers have to take?
It's ALL one world government, non-competition, multicultural diversity crap - and multicultural means ANTI-white/european.
I'm working on my last Master's and the last class I had was nothing but that crap, clear down to suggesting that students "collaborate" on tests, because that's what their culture expects. Their culture expects cheating? Results for laziness? Really?
Nothing in this article is suprising, given the teachers' curriculum, clear down to not wanting any student to even have help at home because that's a cultural advantage - and we all want the students to be collectively stupid and happy about it.
Bah. You want a good teacher? Find one who's older and hates the system.
And common core is even worse, BTW.
While I agree that not being able to review the tests is a hindrance to learning, I think the fault lies in both the teacher and the student. The problem is that too many teachers are too lazy to create new tests each year, and too many kids would be willing to post the questions from the test to help other students cheat. Just look at how many websites you can find where you can download whole essays on just about any topic.
Another excuse: Biggest problem in education today is not the quality of the teaching but the quality of the parenting.
There just ticked off because the parents don’t teach socialism at home.
They also know how to use their king rule of passing the buck.
If you have never home schooled how do you know?
You see those are common misconceptions put forth by the leftist in the public schools who hate the idea of competition, losing a kid to mom, dad, and Christ, and having a kid actually learn something more than how to put on a condom and give a blow job.
test
The tax change alone pays for most of it. In 1997, I was making $85K as an engineer working 60 hour weeks. After the tax bill, the after school daycare bill, the private school bill, and the extra expenses associated with me being out of the country 25% of the year, I was making $10,000 a year. At the rate we were going, I'd have ended up divorced, and you know what that costs. Then there would have been counseling, teen problems, the college bill...
As it was, teaching my kids at home took LESS of my time than hauling the girls around, helping with stupid homework, and dealing with the idiot teachers even in a private school. I wrote two books, did an unprecedented project, and saved my life. The kids turned out so awesome that the scholarships more than paid for the lack of earnings. So it's not the black and white financial picture so many people think it is.
I guess my daughter's education is lacking, considering she has learned plenty, but not either of the 2 things you mention.
You really do your position little good by your generalizations, but that is so typical of those who have the misconception that parents who have children in public school or conservatives who teach in them do not care about the education of children.
If you say so. I just happen to love my kids to much to give them to a group that supports homosexuality, abortion, communism, and the destruction of the Republic. But, since I made my decision, who am I to criticize yours.
Howdy, howdy.
I have never had an issue about tests no being available for me to see them after my daughter has taken them because they have always been given back to the students - except for the SOL’s - but that is understandable.
But you’ve gotta love how so many take this example and extrapolate it to mean it happens all the time in every school. SMDH
Me too. I wonder if this problem is peculiar to some school districts where the teachers use the same tests every year?
Then why did you? Your insinuation is perfectly clear - I don't love my child as much as yours because you don't believe me with my disagreement with your generalization.
That could be. I've just never encountered it - other than when my daughter would prefer I don't see a particular test - but that's her, not the teacher.
abolish government schools
not an insinuation, a fact. If you loved your daughter as much as I love my kids, you would have done your own research on what is going on and is being taught in the public schools and home schooled your daughter. Never think I am only insinuating. For I have nothing but utter contempt for people who have kids and then stick them in kiddie kennels.
Clear enough?
Perfectly clear - not only are you a sanctimonious know it all - but a liar to boot. And I have nothing but contempt for either, let alone both manifesting itself in one anonymous busybody.
Parents have to make the right educational choices based on a wide range of issues. What is best for your family? That's not for someone else to say.
I've seen homeschooled children earn a college degree by 18 or 19, and I've seen some the same age who can barely read. Of course, anyone who has viewed the Zimmerman trial has plenty to say about the public system's failures... but there are plenty of successes, too.
Parental oversight and engagement, student motivation, and a willing and knowledgeable teacher are the keys to success in any environment.
I'm in a small rural school in Tennessee. My students learn math. The awful things people say are taught in public schools would get a teacher fired (and tarred and feathered) in a heartbeat.
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