Comments on: American teenagers aren’t stupid…

By: Corey

Corey — Tue, 09 Aug 2005 12:49:27 +0000

does this go with the articals that were around a while back on how teachers, in areas with those required tests, were cuting most of their content. instead they were teaching how to pass the and concentrating very narrowly on things they knew would be on the test.

By: John

John — Tue, 09 Aug 2005 05:18:45 +0000

Well, he said that the pass rates raised 20 points; I assumed those were percentage points.

By: Keir

Keir — Tue, 09 Aug 2005 03:15:43 +0000

Um, he said 20 points. If it’s a high point value test, 20 points isn’t much.

By: Jon D

Jon D — Tue, 09 Aug 2005 01:35:03 +0000

Also, it might be due to teachers more extensively prepping the students for a test that mattered more. I remember taking a statewide standardized
test in HS (I think our school was up for accredidation or something that made this round of tests extra important), and our teachers spent 3 entire days prepping us for the test by going over old exams. Apparantly, they didn’t change the tests much year to year, because the questions (and all the Multiple choice answers) on the actual test were identical to what we had studied in class. Once I realized this, I didn’t even have to read the question, I could recognize the right answer from the multiple choice options. I imagine our statistics that year spiked a bit