First it was announced that students at Waianae Intermediate School were coached and given extra time to complete standardized tests which are used to determine whether a school is in compliance with the No Child Left Behind Act.
Now there are additional revelations that some testing improprieties may have occurred at other schools.
Whatever possessed the school administrators into thinking they could get away with tactics like this? What did they think they would gain for their schools? Exemption from being taken over by the State?
The standardized tests are one way to measure the performance of each student and the school which is supposed to be teaching them, but fudging in this way only hurts the students. First, because it means that no one really knows for sure how each student is really doing; second, it's teaching kids that it's OK to bend the rules to suit your needs.
The DOE again needs to stress that the tests need to be administered accurately in order for it to know which schools need additional assistance. And the DOE again needs to stress, just as it did when it announced the list of schools that would be taken over by the State, that the teachers were not going to be punished but given additional assistance so they could help their students.
Standardized tests should not be perceived as punitive tools but rather as a way to track improvements.
Miulang
Now there are additional revelations that some testing improprieties may have occurred at other schools.
Whatever possessed the school administrators into thinking they could get away with tactics like this? What did they think they would gain for their schools? Exemption from being taken over by the State?
The standardized tests are one way to measure the performance of each student and the school which is supposed to be teaching them, but fudging in this way only hurts the students. First, because it means that no one really knows for sure how each student is really doing; second, it's teaching kids that it's OK to bend the rules to suit your needs.
The DOE again needs to stress that the tests need to be administered accurately in order for it to know which schools need additional assistance. And the DOE again needs to stress, just as it did when it announced the list of schools that would be taken over by the State, that the teachers were not going to be punished but given additional assistance so they could help their students.
Standardized tests should not be perceived as punitive tools but rather as a way to track improvements.
Miulang
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