True. Our local district exploits this. We score among the highest in the state every year. There is no way this is true. But the teachers who are test proctors get together beforehand to divvy up which kids should be in which rooms. They separate troublemakers. They put kids in with teachers who they most want to please, and so give at least some effort.
You can call it gaming the system, but it is also a powerful lesson about how the world works. If we can minimise the damage the lowest tenth of us does, everyone benefits. Getting the kids who score above 70 to up their score by five points is nice. It's what teachers do best, and God bless 'em for it. But you get more bang for your buck as a district if you can get the kid who would have thrown down the pencil cursing and blaming others to hang in and at least try, bringing his score from 10 to 50.
I think this is part of Finland's approach to international test scores as well. Children are told this is a team effort for the prestige of the nation.
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True. Our local district exploits this. We score among the highest in the state every year. There is no way this is true. But the teachers who are test proctors get together beforehand to divvy up which kids should be in which rooms. They separate troublemakers. They put kids in with teachers who they most want to please, and so give at least some effort.
You can call it gaming the system, but it is also a powerful lesson about how the world works. If we can minimise the damage the lowest tenth of us does, everyone benefits. Getting the kids who score above 70 to up their score by five points is nice. It's what teachers do best, and God bless 'em for it. But you get more bang for your buck as a district if you can get the kid who would have thrown down the pencil cursing and blaming others to hang in and at least try, bringing his score from 10 to 50.
I think this is part of Finland's approach to international test scores as well. Children are told this is a team effort for the prestige of the nation.
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