Re: This IS a Test

[aburke5054@aol.com]

Sure.  Just tell Texans that the Lone Star State should be more like 
Finland.  They'll just be flocking to your banner.

Art

To: arn-l@interversity.org; ARN State <ARN-state@yahoogroups.com>; 
arn2-strategy <arn2-strategy@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Mon, 31 Mar 2008 11:58
Subject: Re: [arn-l] This IS a Test

The long history of tracking in the US also suggests that students who 
enter
pre-K or K "behind" will be assumed to be less capable of learning and 
thus
put in "slower" classes through which the gap in learning outcomes will
expand. "Intelligence" tests have long played that pernicious role,
complemented by "achievement" tests. Through these instruments, race 
and
class effects are instrumentalized as "scientific" or "objective."


What Finland suggests is that there is simply no need to cram 
pre-reading
"skills" down the throats of unready little children, or to turn
kindergartens into drill sites. Deb Meier has been traveling around the
country, sadly noting the disappearance of 'play' in kindergartens. But 
the
tracking effect will compound early differences. Parents often grasp 
these
realities, and so see the "need" to push their children into these
academicized programs - a need based not in real learning or in whether 
kids
could rapdly 'catch up' at say age 7 (as in effect Finnish youth do), 
but in
the tracking that will make it ever more difficult for those deemed 
behind
to catch up.


Of course, NCLB was going to end that. For those still willing to 
purchase
that illusion, read the consequences of high stakes testing in Texas, 
Linda
McNeil et al's probing analysis http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v16n3/ . Yes, 
it is
high school they focus on, but voluminous literature shows the effects 
of
high stakes testing and tracking.


Monty



----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Campbell" <campbellp@mail.montclair.edu>

To: "ARN State" <ARN-state@yahoogroups.com>; "ARN Main List"
<arn-l@interversity.org>; "arn2-strategy" 
<arn2-strategy@yahoogroups.com>

Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 2:18 PM

Subject: [arn-l] This IS a Test



> The test that my daughter was asked to take in the week before she
> started pre-Kindergarten was a recognition of the huge gulf that
> separates the haves from the have nots in this country. The district
> would argue that this wasn't a test per se, but rather a "benchmark," 
a
> means by which the teacher could identify what students' strengths  
and
> weaknesses were.

>

> But what 4-year-old enters pre-Kindergarten knowing how to write his  
or
> her name?

>

> The answer: probably not many, but there's an increasing likelihood  
that
> some will. And, given the trends, more and more will.

>

> So what will the socioeconomic profile be for these extremely  
precocious
> children?

>

> The answer: not hard to guess. Parents that can afford to send their  
kids
> to academically-oriented preschool will have "the upper hand,"  
they'll
> have "the edge" over the other kids. Their kids will have  been given 
"a
> head start."

>

> What are the implications of this?

>

> The answer: also not hard to guess. Parents will be expected to to  
teach
> their children to acquire these precocious skills themselves or  they 
will
> be expected to pay others to do it for them. Those parents  that 
cannot do
> this themselves or that cannot afford to pay someone  to do it for 
them
> will be regarded as deficient if not negligent.

>

> Low-income parents are already sufficiently vilified in our society.  
Now
> they are being cudgeled even further. As the saying goes, "The  
beatings
> will continue until morale improves."

>

> --

> Posted By Peter Campbell to Transform Education