OK. Obama/Duncan/Gates School "Reform" Model: The results Are IN !!! Today's NYT: P. A1

[jeff47]

113. Apparently, you needed more tests in reading comprehension

RE: You system calls them dumb instead of calling them hungry

Absolutely not true. A test tells us whether or not a student has learned a particular body of knowledge, it does not tell us why or why not without further investigation and study.

Still wrong.

The kid could have utterly mastered the subject - Mom had a job until recently, and they had food until recently. They did poorly because they can't concentrate - their family is in crisis and they're hungry now.

Tests don't work.

RE: Any test evaluates far more than the subject area of the test.

I don't think that's true.

So....completely glossed over that Ethernet example, huh?

How 'bout this:

The kid isn't fluent in English. The kid was taught the subject matter in their native language, Korean. The test is in English. You claim that you can still measure their proficiency in the test's subject, because "external factors" such as fluency can be ignored.

I think that asking kids questions concerning a body of knowledge and evaluating their answers is definitely an effective way to understand how much they have or haven't learned about a particular subject.

Sure. The problem is this is a subject in which you've received no training. You know as much about teaching English as an English teacher knows about programming computers.

Would you defer to an English teacher telling you how to write your next computer program? No? Then why should that English teacher defer to your lack of expertise in teaching?

I can't think of any other way to do it.

That English teacher can't think of a way to get data from a database. Does that make it impossible to write an SQL statement?

Nope. It means they have no training in SQL.

Teachers can evaluate students on a wide variety of metrics. Those metrics include tests, but are not limited to tests.

Just like your boss evaluates you on more than lines of code written.

Do you seriously believe that evaluation of educational attainment isn't at all possible?

No. And I've explained it to you many times now. So you have just utterly failed your reading comprehension test.

Clearly, we need to yank any degrees you have and fire you from any job that requires doing more than asking "You want fries with that?". Because that's the standard you are applying to children. If your standard made any sense at all, you would have to be held to that standard.

Or just maybe tests don't work.