State Test's

[stevef]

I took ten--Math A' date=' Math B, Earth Science, Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Comprehensive English, U.S. History, Global History and French.

 

I did pretty well on most of them--surprisingly enough, my highest grade was on French.[/quote']

 

Does NYC still give "citywide" tests? They were usually give for things like Spanish/French/Italian/ second year , Sophomore English and other non-Regents level classes.

[badbluesplayer]

We need more nerds in todays world.

 

Nerds are fine, but what the world needs is more engineers. Engineers are not the guys that sit around playing video games and hacking computers. Engineers start out playing in the dirt, taking stuff apart, breaking stuff and making stuff.

[Bender 4 Life]

These things are so hard!

I mean i aced the one last year but the one i just had a hour ago was ****ing hard...i cant imagine how those other kids are doing on this test.

 

Be happy you old dudes dont have to take like 10 of these a year.

 

Yeahhhh Man, thank God I don't have to take tests!!!

I'd MUCH rather be expelled from school, and (luckily) get a job that over the last 25 yrs. has broken EVERY finger I have (most more than once) dislocated a wrist (permanently) ruptured 3 discs in my back, broken bones in both my feet, broken almost all my toes, caused burns on/in my: eyes (actual burns, not welders burn) an eardrum, covered my body with dime to quarter sized burn scars, burned 1/3 of the bottom OFF my left foot, down to gristle & bone (Dr. wanted to amputate my 2 outer toes, but I wouldn't let him), and caused me several closed head injuries......as well as splitting my forehead open once.........oh yeah, I also crushed the head of my penis at work (don't ask).

 

The money is really good, but the job is tough..............

 

I'm SO glad i'm not taking tests instead!!

 

BTW....best of luck on your tests, from an "old dude" (i'm 46)

[Hector Arcadius]

The schools are putting out students who can pass a "test" yet they also put out students who don't know how to think. These "tests" are window dressing to make the schools look like they are effective.

 

 

Same thing all over the planet grampa. Not accidentally...

[DanvillRob]

Yeahhhh Man' date=' thank God I don't have to take tests!!!

I'd MUCH rather be expelled from school, and (luckily) get a job that over the last 25 yrs. has broken EVERY finger I have (most more than once) dislocated a wrist (permanently) ruptured 3 discs in my back, broken bones in both my feet, broken almost all my toes, caused burns on/in my: eyes (actual burns, not welders burn) an eardrum, covered my body with dime to quarter sized burn scars, burned 1/3 of the bottom OFF my left foot, down to gristle & bone (Dr. wanted to amputate my 2 outer toes, but I wouldn't let him), and caused me several closed head injuries......as well as splitting my forehead open once.........oh yeah, I also crushed the head of my penis at work (don't ask).

 

The money is really good, but the job is tough..............

 

I'm SO glad i'm not taking tests instead!!

 

BTW....best of luck on your tests, from an "old dude" (i'm 46)

 

 

[/quote']

 

MAN!! I don't know what you do for a living...but I'm sure glad I went back to college after I got out of the Army!! (Although I've had the peck of my header in a pinch several times!)

[TommyK]

If not 'Teach to the test', then what should the teachers teach to?

 

Bottom line, in this country, as a whole we do a urine poor job teaching our children. That is absolutely criminal.

 

 

What are you, teachers, going to do about it?

 

What are you, Parents, going to do about it?

 

 

 

This next generation coming up will be living like a third world country if they don't pick themselves up by their own boot straps and learn something.

[rocketman]

Here are some examples.

 

On standardized exams they are given a short story and they are asked to answer questions on the short story. So now teachers are spending much more time giving assignments on short stories rather than reading whole books. That to me is a very bad idea.

 

Teachers are forced to help students solve math problems that appear on standardized exams, but do the students really know the theory behind that problem? For example, if I ask a student to plot a log function then I'd find out that 99% of them couldn't do it! They in essence become computers cranking out formulated solutions rather than being taught the fundamentals.

 

Again, this is not how we teach at the university level. We stress the fundamentals and expect them to use them to solve the problems. The two examples I give here are "problem mapping" approaches rather than truly learning approaches.

 

This is finally being recognized as a problem in New York State. So hopefully teachers and parents won't have to do anything. I hope they get it right. Time will tell though.

[Bender 4 Life]

If not 'Teach to the test'' date=' then what should the teachers teach to?

 

Bottom line, in this country, as a whole we do a urine poor job teaching our children. That is absolutely criminal.

 

 

What are you, teachers, going to do about it?

 

What are you, Parents, going to do about it?

 

 

 

This next generation coming up will be living like a third world country if they don't pick themselves up by their own boot straps and learn something. [/quote']

 

Granted, I've only really known 5 or 6 teachers well enough to be a "sympathetic ear" when needed, BUT every single one of them has said the exact same thing.

" HOW can I be an effective teacher, when literally HALF my time is spent being mommy & daddy & referee for these kids?"

The truth is, that in a class of 25 students, 5 are going to be ill prepared, disruptive, and generally problematic for the teacher ON A REGULAR BASIS.......this robs the other 20 of an incredible amount of "learning time".

The 5 "problem kids" won't be consistently disciplined (fear of harassment complaint from parents) or expelled, because every student in the school means more federal $ in that schools annual budget.

 

Teachers today are spending so much time doing the PARENTS JOB for them..........they barely have time to do their own job.

 

demOOn..........no matter what, give your best effort to your education...........like the commercial says, you can pay now, or pay later.

[dem00n]

Thanks Bender.

There is one advantge....no school for a few days due to the other grades having to take the test.

[daveinspain]

I remember when I was in junior high we also had to do a state test, back then it was called the S. A. T. Maybe it's still the same test today? Anyway I hated them, I was a slow reader and I never had enough time to finish the damn thing and they were always very difficult. I remember on one of those particular test I was over it and couldn't give a sh!t so I didn't even read the damn questions, I just zipped down the column of empty circles and randomly filled them in. It was great I was the first one done... ;)

 

A few days later when the results came back my parents got called into school for a meeting with the Principal. They thought I was retarded or something because I scored less than if a monkey had done the test.... I finally told them what I did and had to take the test over again....

[daveinspain]

I did better the second time but no much....

[TommyK]

The best education I got was from nuns who didn't take no crap off'n nobody. You were there to learn. SHe had two grades in a room 20 - 25 students to a grade. When you were sloughing off, they told your parents, when you were disruptive, you got whacked and they told your parents, then you go whacked at home. When you were doing good, they told your parents.

 

In public school I was in heaven. I sloughed off, was disruptive,... my folks had no clue.

 

When my kids were in school the teachers didn't want to see parents because that just meant more work and I guess they were scared of the parents. I implored them to keep us in the loop when Johnny was in trouble or stepped out of line.

 

Then my daughter became a teacher and I got to see it from another angle. Some parents don't give a rip and figure it's the teacher's fault the kids are unruly. She had a classroom of about 30 kids 27 good kids, two kids who were trouble makers if they had a leader and one ring leader. Some days teaching was impossible. These 5th graders are more sex savvy than I was in college. Of the three trouble makers, their parents were 3rd generation families in the community and no 'outsider' was going to tell their kid to behave. One of the three sets of parents wanted her kid to shape up, but didn't have the stones to confront the ring leader's parents.... such is small town America. What that town of 800 people needs is a Buford Pusser to knock some heads... parents.

 

One incident I am sure points a finger at the root of the problem. One of the 3 trouble makers said I have a headache and need to go to the nurse's office for his medicine. He left, 20 minutes later he was back and better. The next day he came in with a brown paper bag and asked to be excused to take his medicine to the nurse's station. Curious as the bagged medicine appeared to be in a larger container than medicine usually comes in. My daughter, the teacher, asked what kind of medicine it was. He reached in the bag and pulled it out far enough to show that it was a can of Red Bull.

 

I have sneaking suspicion these boys cannot behave, i.e. control their actions because they are hopped up on energy drink. Some parents buy it by the case and let the kiddies chug it down uncontrollably. My son had a 'self control' problem where he'd be bouncing off the wall, wouldn't shut up, got into trouble making the rest of the family nuts. On a hunch, I finally decided to monitor and limit his intake of the, then, children's preferred drink, due mostly to aggressive marketing... Mountain Dew. When he was off the 'Dew, he was an enjoyable kid. Too much caffeine and he was a basket case.

 

The fact that the Nurse was 'dispensing' Red Bull to a kid who was likely having caffeine withdrawals tells me that the school had an administration problem. The administration had a problem because the kid's school board sitting father wouldn't let the school run the way it ought to be run.

 

Before she left the school district I asked her to do a 'science experiment'. I asked her to have the kids keep track of what they drank for a week, then at the end of the week, see what the kids' favorite drink was. I suspect she would find out that the trouble makers were consuming more caffeine than their parents realized. THEN she should show the results to the parents before she shook her shoes of the dust of that town... but she wouldn't do it. rats.

[daveinspain]

Maybe with the obesity problem the way it is someone should monitor what they eat for a week and there parents too... Just sayin'...