To Test or Not To Test
I think we all agree that EOG tests are no fun. Not fun for kids who have a lot of pressure put on them to remember everything they’ve been taught in math all year, and every term from literature and poetry AND grammar as well. And in eighth grade, the science test covers all three middle school years.
So, what would you offer as an alternative? How can teachers and administrators be assured that kids have learned what they were supposed to over the past year? Should there be tests that “count” (towards moving up) given each quarter? semester?
And what about kids who don’t pass EOGs? It is not an automatic “you don’t go to the next grade” if you score level 1 or 2. Is that right? Should 70% passing on class tests be good enough to go on? (ooh, remember that “pretty good might not be good enough” poem?) That means missing about 1/3 of the curriculum means you still pass to the next grade. And then you can pass after that missing 1/3 of that next grade…
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Nobody likes EOG tests, including me, because the questions are just unreasonable–almost nobody can do them if they’re “luckless”. I think that classwork should matter more, not a boring test which nobody can stand, and a C, B, or A would be passing to the next grade.