Standardized Testing

After our discussion on standardized testing on Friday, I did some research and spoke with a teacher that I know did a large study on students and the GEPA. Unfortunately she is in the process of having her study published so I can not post it on here for everyone to read, but I'll sum it up for you. Through reading her study based on 500 eighth graders preparing to take last year's GEPA. The test is generally set up in a matter that makes students focus on the not so important things. This sets students up to fail. The test is also written for higher level students.

The setup of the reading section of the test was put into the study. This teacher had each of the 500 students read the same article, but half of the class was to answer the multiple choice first while the other half the group was to answer the open ended questions first. Then a month or so later she had that same group of students read the same article again. This time she had the groups switch what they did first. This was done multiple time with multiple different reading passages throughout the year. In 77% of the cases the students did better if they read the passage, completed the open ended questions, and answered the multiple choice questions last. It was later determined that this is the best strategy for taking the test because once a student writes the answers to the open ended question, even if they are short on time they could still guess on the multiple choice and possibly get a few right. This definitely beats doing the multiple choice first and running low on time causing the student to either leave and open ended question blank or to get and inadequate answer.

Granted this is just one study on the way students can take this portion of the test and every students is different, but the numbers and logic behind this study seem like they have discovered a good idea.

Keeping Creativity in Schools

I want everyone to watch this video. I was searching for ideas to blog about late last night when I came across this video. Ken Robinson is discussing the topic of whether or not schools kill students creativity. I agree with many of his points. The biggest thing that I take from this video is rather then writing off the student who can't sit still or pay attention as a failure, embrace those qualities and they will be more successful. Those students may only be bored because the what they are learning is just suppressing their creativity. As Mr. Robinson put it creativity is taking a chance at being wrong. Children do this all the time and are very creative, but over time that creativity is lost and the fear of being wrong takes its place. Just take a look at this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY