CURMUDGUCATION: Bell Curve Beatdown

CURMUDGUCATION: Bell Curve Beatdown:

Bell Curve Beatdown

If you are only going to read one blog post this month, it should be this post by Jersey Jazzman about standardized testing. Come for sentences like this one:

This can't be stressed enough in the testing debates: we design tests not based on objective criteria, but on socially constructed frameworks that assume some of us are above average, some of us are below, and most of us are in the middle.

In other words, standardized tests are not designed to answer the question, "How well do these students understand this material." The test manufacturers believe they already know the answer to that question-- some students understand very well, most understand moderately well, and some don't understand at all. If the test results do not confirm that pre-determined result, then the test must be defective, and we have to redesign it.

It's hard to state how contrary that is to common teacher sense. If every student in my class fails a test, I know I need to reteach because I didn't get the material taught. If every student in my class does well, I do a little happy dance because we all nailed that stuff. But in either case, a test CURMUDGUCATION: Bell Curve Beatdown: