Seven ways tests mislead us, and more
In 1972 I spent considerable time interviewing individuals and groups of young children in order to learn more about how they went about solving test questions on standardized tests. My interest was spurred by the discovery that my fluent bookworm son did badly on a 3rd grade test, and that the students who left our cozy 4-room Pre-K to 3rd grade mini-program at PS 144 were scoring poorly in 3rd grade. I knew virtually nothing about tests until that experience. I was a good test-taker and assumed such tests were good at detecting my talents.
I was stunned by what I learned. I wrote a publication, published as an Occasional Paper by City College, 1973, called Reading Failure and the Tests. If you go to my website (deorahmeier.com) and then to “my writings” you’ll find the whole essay–with anecdotes. It holds up well. I documented the work, based on tape recordings done during the interviews.
I found 7 types of biases that favored children—
1. whose home and neighborhood used
I was stunned by what I learned. I wrote a publication, published as an Occasional Paper by City College, 1973, called Reading Failure and the Tests. If you go to my website (deorahmeier.com) and then to “my writings” you’ll find the whole essay–with anecdotes. It holds up well. I documented the work, based on tape recordings done during the interviews.
I found 7 types of biases that favored children—
1. whose home and neighborhood used
