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Subject: Test Questions=
Date: Mon, 2 Nov 92 04:35:15 EST
Message-ID: <38.1992Nov2.043515@AmeriCast.com>

Test Questions=

 "TEACHING TO the test" is a time-honored if not always honorable
practice. Since the days of the one-room schoolhouse, teachers
have drilled students on material known to appear on subsequent
examinations. If teachers come to rely on test preparation, then
tests come to determine the curriculum. That's happening more and
more, according to a new study funded by the National Science
Foundation. The investigators focused on the most commonly used
math and science tests, both standardized and textbook exams.
They discovered that the tests are perpetuating a dumbed-down,
basic-skills curriculum. That's not exactly what the reformers,
the math and science teachers foremost among them, have in mind.

 Most of the teachers surveyed say testing programs, most of
which emphasize rote memorization and recall, rob them of pre-
cious instructional time that could be spent on problem solving
and higher-order thinking skills. A frustrated teacher from an
urban district put it this way: "Teaching to the test leaves lit-
tle time to bring in things - connect things. I can't branch out
in the way I would like. I am working on a strict timetable to
cover all the objectives."

The most frequently tested students tend to be minorities and
poor. Seventy-five percent of elementary schools use standardized
tests to rank and sort children for the federal Chapter I compen-
satory education program. Chapter I is a testing program as much
as a remediation and enrichment program. The inadequacy of the
tests reinforces the inadequacy of basic-skills curriculum. The
test-guided Chapter I course work, and whether it is truly help-
ing children, is sure to be the subject of vigorous discussion as
Congress renews the elementary and secondary education act next
year.

 Testing has become a high-stakes business. The increasing push
for accountability - of students, teachers, school districts and
entire states - means there's tremendous pressure to raise test
scores.  Overreliance on meaningless tests has spawned what's
called "test score pollution." One way to clear the air is to get
ahold of thought-provoking texts and tests tied to the curriculum
standards already established to much acclaim by the math teach-
ers and soon to be determined by the science teachers. Some
states, including Maryland and a handful of others, have already
seized on something better than the ubiquitous commercial tests.

The textbook publishers complain that the NSF researchers didn't
look at the most recent material coming off the presses. But they
did look at the ones most in use. Until the texts and tests
change for the better, the curriculum isn't likely to.<02:32 11-
02C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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