Re: Gender Impact of High-Stakes Tests

[Erwin Morton <e-morton@WORLDNET.ATT.NET>]

George--

On a strict body-count basis, 400 teachers
and 2 dozen principals may pale next to
70K students.  But in terms of the impact
on education, on lives, and on society, I'm
not sure which is worse.

Holding a student back one year is, I am told,
(generally) bad for the student; but punishing
teachers and principals doesn't do a whole lot
to improve the morale of those remaining, and
it doesn't exactly encourage bright, dedicated,
energetic people to enter these professions.

But perhaps in Illinois you have such a
surplus of aspiring teachers that it really
doesn't matter.  People are just queuing
up for those positions.  (Yeah, right.)

On another note, it's depressing that we even
have to think of this in comparative terms.

--Erwin
Palo Alto
"In the dark shadow
of the Hoover Institution"

---

"George N. Schmidt" wrote:

> In a message dated 1/10/01 8:11:39 PM, kscanty@PACBELL.NET writes:
>
> << Even though STAR is not "officially" a high stakes test, the API which is
> derived solely from STAR is used to determine rewards/punishments for
> schools/districts so although it's not high stakes yet for kids, it
> certainly is for schools. >>
>
> Thanks for this clarification.
>
> For the past four years, in Chicago the high schools have had high stakes
> (based on the TAP) to teachers and principals, but only elementary kids have
> suffered the stakes based on the Iowa Test promotion and graduation criteria.
>
> Let's make sure we include both sets of victims when people are being burned
> at these stakes. By my count, more than 400 teachers and more than two dozen
> principals have had their careers ruined since high stakes came to Chicago's
> high schools in the form of the TAP reading tests.
>
> This pales by comparison with the 70,000 kids retained since the ITBS
> "standards" went into place.
>
> George Schmidt

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