Stephen's Untold Stories

Very interesting list.

• 26% store info on their phone and look at it while taking a test
• 25% send text messages to friends, asking for answers
• 17% take pictures of a test – and then send it to their friends
• 20% use their phones to search for answers on the Internet
• 48% warn friends about a pop quiz with a phone call or text message

There has been some serious discussion in the edtech blogosphere about these. Is letting your friends know that you had a pop quiz really cheating? When I was a teacher I wouldn’t always give pop quizzes to each class on the same day. I might have given one early in the day, and by the afternoon classes all the students were expecting one. They were so miffed when I didn’t give them one. I even had some of them complain about it. “Why didn’t you give us a pop quiz like you gave 1st period?” I would explain to them that since they knew about it that it really wouldn’t be a “pop quiz” for them, and that they would get theirs on a different day and they wouldn’t know when it was coming. I rarely gave pop quizzes anyway, but the possibility was always there.

Anyway, here is a link to the complete article.

Outstanding song and video!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxHb5QVD7fo

Nice work by our state school superintendent.

High school students in Georgia have long feared the science and social studies portions of the High School Graduation Test. This new program has helped a lot more of them pass this year.

Nearly 1,400 students are a big step closer to graduation thanks to an innovative partnership between the state and local school districts.

The Exam Preparation for Science and Social Studies (ExPreSS) program was a state-funded effort aimed at students who had not passed the Georgia High School Graduation Tests (GHSGT) in Science or Social Studies. More than 2,000 students received two weeks of intensive instruction June 8-18 and then had the opportunity to retest on June 19.

The overall pass rate on this retest was 68 percent; more than double last year’s pass rate on GHSGT retests in science and social studies.

There were 2,043 students from over 100 school districts that attended the ExPreSS program – 1,072 for social studies and 971 for science. The instruction took place at 29 sites around the state. The classes were led by 180 educators: 89 science teachers and 91 social studies teachers.

In social studies, 73 percent of the ExPreSS participants passed the retest. By comparison, the 2008 summer retest pass rate on the Social Studies GHSGT was 27 percent.

In science, 63 percent of the ExPreSS participants passed the retest. By comparison, the 2008 summer retest pass rate on the Science GHSGT was 29 percent.

Read the rest here.

I would LOVE to work with one of these schools.

The Independent Curriculum Group is an organization of schools that has declared its independence from standardized tests that dictate curriculum. We are part of a growing movement of nationally recognized college preparatory schools that have either dropped or de-emphasized test-driven programs that marginalize authentic learning.

Students retain more knowledge, probe more deeply, and have more motivation when learning is not subordinated to test preparation. Students who graduate from ICG schools attend the nation’s best colleges and excel by every measure of academic achievement, including standardized tests. But each school’s curriculum reflects the passions of its faculty and students.

Find out more here.

In Georgia, grades 1-8 take the CRCT every spring. It is our state standardized test for those grade levels. Here is some good news about this year’s results.

Test scores for Georgia’s elementary and middle school students improved in all areas this year, but most dramatically in the crucial subjects of mathematics and science.

Students posted gains on all 14 of the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT) in mathematics and science, all of which are aligned to Georgia’s more rigorous curriculum.

“The 2009 CRCT results are very encouraging and show that our students are learning more advanced concepts and are able to apply that knowledge properly,” said State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox. “Our elementary and middle school teachers should feel very proud today – they are getting the job done!”

The biggest one-year gain on any of the CRCTs was in eighth-grade math: The pass rate was 70 percent, an increase of eight percentage points.

“Our new grade 8 math curriculum is very rigorous, but our teachers and students are embracing the rigor and are making tremendous progress,” Superintendent Cox said. “Even more encouraging is the rise in the number of students who are scoring at higher levels on the exam.” The percentage of grade 8 students scoring in the “exceeds” category also jumped eight points to 23 percent.

The CRCTs are curriculum-based tests given to students in grades 1-8 in the subjects of reading, English language arts, mathematics and – in grades 3-8 – science and social studies. As Georgia has rolled out its new curriculum, the Georgia Performance Standards, more rigorous tests have been created and administered. This year, for the first time, all the CRCTs are aligned to the new curriculum. The statewide results are reported in three categories – the percentage of students that did not meet standards, met standards or exceeded standards.

Read the rest here.

Outstanding piece in Monday’s Atlanta Journal/Constitution.

The country’s daily economic standing is inked on every major newspaper’s front page. Since we are in a recession, I think this is a good time to be knowledgeable in history and economics. But I have little knowledge in either.

I am a 22-year-old product of Ben Hill County schools and now am a senior at the University of Georgia. Instead of learning the details of supply and demand in school, I have learned mostly the success game —-how to pass tests so I could move ahead a grade. I play the game well.

I don’t blame my teachers, parents or community. I know they wish Georgia’s young the best education.

I blame standardized tests.

Once I got to high school, I quickly figured out how to predict test questions and study only those. I learned to mimic my teacher’s style of writing, not to develop my own style. Both resulted in good grades.

This is a game played by most students because it works. Our school systems give students only one option: pass the test dictated by the state and you can pass the course and move to the next grade. If you don’t pass —- sorry.

Read the rest here.

Great article if you’re looking into purchasing student assessment devices.

Current research describes the benefits of active learning approaches. Clickers, or student response systems, are a technology used to promote active learning. Most research on the benefits of using clickers in the classroom has shown that students become engaged and enjoy using them. However, research on learning outcomes has only compared the use of clickers to traditional lecture methods. Although learning outcomes are higher when using clickers, the question is whether the clickers or the active learning pedagogies are the cause. For this reason, I conducted a study that compared learning outcomes resulting from the use of clickers versus another active learning method—class discussion. Even though both techniques employ active learning, would using clickers increase learning outcomes more than another active learning approach? Two key features distinguish clicker use:

• Clickers provide a mechanism for students to participate anonymously.
• Clickers integrate a “game approach” that may engage students more than traditional class discussion.

The study also investigated students’ perceptions of their learning using clickers versus classroom discussion.

Clickers can provide added value, however, when compared to some active learning methods such as class discussion. In a normal class discussion situation, only one or two students have the opportunity to answer a question. Even if the answer is correct, the instructor has no way to gauge if the other students knew the correct answer. A student who is unsure of the correct answer may be unwilling to take the public risk of being incorrect. One of the best features of an SRS is that it allows students to provide input without fear of public humiliation and without having to worry about more vocal students dominating the discussion. Even in small-enrollment classes, many students are reluctant to respond to faculty questions; the anonymity of responding with a clicker guarantees near or total participation.

Read the rest here.

Do we really need more tests? It seems like we have enough already, but it looks like there are more on the way.

Amid growing challenges to its role as the pre-eminent force in college admissions, the College Board on Wednesday unveiled a new test that it said would help prepare eighth graders for rigorous high school courses and college.

The test, which will be available to schools next fall, is intended only for assessment and instructional purposes and has nothing to do with college admissions, College Board officials said.

“This is not at all a pre-pre-pre SAT,” Lee Jones, a College Board vice president, said at a news conference. “It’s a diagnostic tool to provide information about students’ strengths and weaknesses.”

The College Board, which owns the SAT and PSAT, made its announcement when an increasing percentage of high school students are taking the rival ACT and amid mounting concern over what critics call the misuses of the SAT and ACT and other standardized tests in college admissions.

Those critics dismissed the new test for eighth graders as just what Dr. Jones said it was not: “a pre-pre-pre SAT.”

“Who needs yet another pre-college standardized exam when there is already a pre-SAT and the SAT test itself?” said Robert Schaeffer, the public education director of FairTest, a nonpartisan group that has called for colleges and universities to make standardized tests optional for admissions. “The new test will only accelerate the college admissions arms race and push it down onto ever younger children.”

The new test, called ReadiStep, can be completed within two hours and is divided into three multiple-choice sections of critical reading, writing skills and mathematics.

It will cost less than $10 per student, College Board officials said, and schools and districts will pay for it. College Board officials described the test as voluntary and “low-stakes,” and said the results would be shared only with teachers, parents, students and schools.

Link to article

I can’t say I would miss them if they were gone. The revolution continues!

College students communicate with text messages clicked out on cell phones. They take class notes on their laptops. Yet, when they take an American history exam, they do what students a generation earlier did:

They scribble in a blue book, pausing only to grimace and shake a cramping hand.

The blue book is widely loathed by students, who must write coherently without the benefit of a backspace key, and by professors, who must fight through a jungle of bad cursive. But no technology has managed to displace it.

Now UNC-Chapel Hill is trying to relegate the venerable school supply to the academic dustbin with a computer program.

So far, the blue book retains the upper hand.

A couple of dozen UNC professors are using word-processing software called Securexam, which locks all other applications on a student’s computer so there’s no way to cheat. Each exam is encrypted and cannot be reopened once the student completes it, unless the professor OKs it.

“They can’t surf the Web,” said Andy Lang, director of information services in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences. “All wired and wireless connections are shut off.”

The college is spending about $30,000 a year on the software, and last semester about 1,000 students took exams with it, Lang said.

Joseph Wittig, who teaches medieval British literature at UNC, is using the software and loves it.

“I can read and grade 40 exams in one full day,” he said, adding that with blue books that task takes two to three times as long. “At a certain point, you’d start skimming because you’re worn out. It’s a huge advantage for students and teachers.”

Link to article

I’ve always thought that the NAEP exam was one of the best ones out there, and I’m glad to see this development.

For the first time ever, technological literacy will become part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation’s Report Card, the test’s governing board has announced.

Beginning in 2012, the test will measure students’ proficiency with technology in addition to reading, math, science, history, writing, and other subjects. The new test will mark the first time students’ technology literacy has been assessed on a national level.

NAEP’s Technological Literacy Assessment comes at a time when there are no nationwide requirements or common definitions for technological literacy.

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has developed a set of National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) for students, and the No Child Left Behind Act requires that students demonstrate technological literacy by the end of the eighth grade.

Yet only a handful of states have adopted separate tests in this area, even as a growing chorus of business representatives and policy makers voices concern about the ability of American students to compete in a global marketplace and keep up with quickly evolving technology.

Link to article