Standardized Testing for Jr High.

Kids are tested to death nowadays, but there may be an advantage to what your son might do. Here's a link to Duke University's summer programs for youths for 2017.

https://summersession.duke.edu/high-school-students/duke-youth-programs

And here's a link to an NPR program about very early SAT testing. I've dealt with a few parents who were intent on instilling academic drive in their children. It's not a bad thing, but the good ones didn't push to the point of rebellion. To me, it is usually a case of when the student is ready, not what someone's aspirations are for a student.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5383634

You might ask the school, or maybe a teacher that you trust, if taking and scoring at a certain level is a requirement for certain activities or classes like science fairs or college bowl (or whatever it's called). My cynical side says an administrator will say no, of course not, but a teacher that's been at the school a while might have a different opinion.

Okay, it was 38 years ago, but the only special test I remember was one given in 7th grade. If you scored pretty well, you could take algebra a year early. If you scored really well, you could be on a special math team and compete at some competition. A friend and I ended up doing it. We had classes after school that accelerated the course so that we'd know enough for the exam. The problem was we still had to sit through the regular class. I sort of paid attention but my friend played solitaire the entire time. The teacher hated it, but my friend always knew the answer to any question asked, so there wasn't much the teacher could do.

MathTeacher, post: 423350, member: 7674 wrote: To me, it is usually a case of when the student is ready, not what someone's aspirations are for a student.

I agree. I was a "B" student in high school with little or no effort. When I got to engineering school I had a rude awakening. I flunked out. When I went back (at age 27) my whole attitude had changed. I decided I was there to get the knowledge that I was paying for and not worry about the grades. I'm the only person that I know of that was on Academic Probation and the Dean's List at the same time. It just took me a little (lot?) longer to grow up than most.
Andy

Attended a presentation by the astronaut, Scott Kelly, recently. He was one of those guys who just put in his time through high school and then basically flunked out of his first attempt at college. When he found his passion for what he wanted to be, then he forced himself to learn how to learn. He did a mighty fine job of it, based on what he has accomplished since then.

Robert Hill, post: 423317, member: 378 wrote:

Don't know why I'm expounding but he came home and said the obvious that it wasn't fun taking standardized tests. We don't press him about any extra study stuff.
He felt ok about the verbal/language and said that he could work out the first half of the math but the last half was difficult.

When you refer to standardized tests, are you referring to Common Core style of testing?

I don't have kids but I have been following the common core issues for some time now. It is actually illegal in Texas to have curriculum based on common core but the standardized test are based on common core so the teachers have to teach it anyway.

I watched a video of a recent State Board of Education meeting where a parent said her 5th grader answered a question "What is 2 more than 5?"
The child answered 7 but was counted wrong because he didn't successfully complete the diagram and the narrative of how he arrived at that answer.

An answer of 8 with a better diagram and narrative would be counted as correct.

James

I've heard similar stories about grading. It seems to me that such grading emphasizes a single process or explanation when multiple ones are possible. It seems to be designed for graders instead of students and teachers. Rote grading instead of contemplation of work and thought. It also seems to diminish the importance of a correct answer.

The year before I retired, I taught a pre-calculus student whose IQ was probably above 170. I never looked at IQs in student records because I didn't want to risk prejudicing my teaching or grading, but this student had it. He never took a note, but he heard every word I said and he contemplated everything that I wrote. His mind worked mathematically. On tests, he rarely showed more than minimal written work because he did almost everything in his head. The work he showed, though, was always the crucial thought for solving a problem.

Grading his tests took more time than a boiler room grading operation allows. On AP Calculus or Statistics exams he would be ok because he could easily adapt to their excellent grading scheme. But on the stuff that seems to matter in today's STEM world, he would be screwed.

Somehow, critical thinking has come to mean "proper" use of canned explanations for rote processes. I think that I retired at the proper time.

It is sad that we must sloooooooooooooow down to prove ourselves to others who are far less capable. Hours of busy work is useless in advancing knowledge.

I feel that 'learning how to learn" is the most important thing that he has been taught these past 2 years.
Interesting research source material, note keeping from traditional medium to digital, memorization with verbal skill, independent critical and analytical thinking.
It's all been laying a foundation of college study.
We would never pressure him to do extracurricular study. We do stress that he alone has to be responsible for his school work and if he slacks off, he needs to work harder to recoup his grade. He has learned to
Dig himself out of some holes.

MathTeacher, post: 423532, member: 7674 wrote: I've heard similar stories about grading. It seems to me that such grading emphasizes a single process or explanation when multiple ones are possible. It seems to be designed for graders instead of students and teachers. Rote grading instead of contemplation of work and thought. It also seems to diminish the importance of a correct answer.

The year before I retired, I taught a pre-calculus student whose IQ was probably above 170. I never looked at IQs in student records because I didn't want to risk prejudicing my teaching or grading, but this student had it. He never took a note, but he heard every word I said and he contemplated everything that I wrote. His mind worked mathematically. On tests, he rarely showed more than minimal written work because he did almost everything in his head. The work he showed, though, was always the crucial thought for solving a problem.

Grading his tests took more time than a boiler room grading operation allows. On AP Calculus or Statistics exams he would be ok because he could easily adapt to their excellent grading scheme. But on the stuff that seems to matter in today's STEM world, he would be screwed.

Somehow, critical thinking has come to mean "proper" use of canned explanations for rote processes. I think that I retired at the proper time.

There seems to be a trend to advanced study in high schools. AP courses and Dual Enrollment are common to students.
To my knowledge, one of the factors is to get basic college courses out of the way in order to save on college tuition costs on fundamental courses.
Also kids who know that they want to be a MD and are facing tough entry requirements use it as an asset.

mkennedy, post: 423353, member: 7183 wrote: You might ask the school, or maybe a teacher that you trust, if taking and scoring at a certain level is a requirement for certain activities or classes like science fairs or college bowl (or whatever it's called). My cynical side says an administrator will say no, of course not, but a teacher that's been at the school a while might have a different opinion.

Okay, it was 38 years ago, but the only special test I remember was one given in 7th grade. If you scored pretty well, you could take algebra a year early. If you scored really well, you could be on a special math team and compete at some competition. A friend and I ended up doing it. We had classes after school that accelerated the course so that we'd know enough for the exam. The problem was we still had to sit through the regular class. I sort of paid attention but my friend played solitaire the entire time. The teacher hated it, but my friend always knew the answer to any question asked, so there wasn't much the teacher could do.

Like I mentioned, we will not steer him to any extracurricular studies unless he is interested.
The school that he attends for JHS is small. Everything seems to be based on merit. For a small private school, it does offer almost an unlimited amount of school activities for the students.
I'm sure that parents steer their kids into activities but selection into regional school competition is based on merit.
The school has a rep for academic achievement. It attacks some very talented kids. For instance, they will graduate 24 students this year and two are National Merit Scholars. To put that in perspective, there are 26 NMS from all the New Orleans metro area this year.
We (all of us) have decided to switch him back to public HS.
There is a variety of reasons from each of us. He is a very social kid and he sees the limits of attending a small school. He does have a wide social circle. His mom is a counselor at the public HS so that is a plus for both of them.

The dual credit thing is great for knocking out a bunch of the trivial college classes at a very low expense. Each of my daughters had between 24 and 33 hours of college credit already when they picked up their high school diplomas. The challenge comes for many students when they must transition from the standard home life they have experienced their entire lives to a completely different life away from home. They can do the school work but the social changes and the need to finally be responsible for their own basic survival can be daunting. They spend much of their energy on non-scholastic issues. This detracts from their ability to focus on the scholastic side of things. The smart ones seek out other students who may be able to help them a bit or create a circle of friends to serve as a support group for the academic side of things. That's where the rub comes in. My first daughter's experience with dorm life with about 800 other students in her building was that nearly everyone she met was enrolled in the courses she had already completed. It took time to find others who were enrolled in even one of her more advanced classes.

Failure is in the eye of the beholder. A student who has always been at the top of their class may find they were in a class of relatively stupid people. When they pursue a challenging degree program they may find they aren't nearly as smart as they have always been told they were. They may lack study skills, for example, because the high grades they received in the past did not require such effort. This is exacerbated by being relatively shy, which is fairly common among those who have always been told they were "different" or "exceptional". Those who are both academically gifted and socially and emotionally functional will do fine, but it may even take them a semester or two of college life to get things sorted out.

A young man has worked for me from time to time over the past couple of years and is now in his second semester as a Mechanical Engineering major. At last report he was maintaining about a 98 in Calculus II and a 95 in Engineering Physics I. He was in a class his first semester with about 20 others just like him, but he was the only one of them who had any practical experience of working with his hands. That particular course was geared at working with the practical application of their early engineering and science classes by requiring the design and construction of a transportation device for humans that was powered only by something equivalent to a battery-powered drill like the ones surveyors use regularly. Plenty of the other students could visual what needed to happen but the manipulation of screwdrivers, pliers, grinders, welders, small hammers and such was foreign to them. For many it was the first B or C they had ever received in their life. Very intelligent but completely lacking in basic skills. He ended up doing most of the actual assembly work because his peers were either incapable or unwilling. The instructor had explained how failure to do all parts of the project would lead to lower grades, but, most did not believe him until it was too late.

JaRo, post: 423405, member: 292 wrote: When you refer to standardized tests, are you referring to Common Core style of testing?

I don't have kids but I have been following the common core issues for some time now. It is actually illegal in Texas to have curriculum based on common core but the standardized test are based on common core so the teachers have to teach it anyway.

I watched a video of a recent State Board of Education meeting where a parent said her 5th grader answered a question "What is 2 more than 5?"
The child answered 7 but was counted wrong because he didn't successfully complete the diagram and the narrative of how he arrived at that answer.

An answer of 8 with a better diagram and narrative would be counted as correct.

James

Louisiana has standardized tests for public schools. LEAP tests. Catchy acronym for Louisiana Educational Assessment Program. Fourth and eighth grade students must score Basic to advance. Students in other grades take the iLEAP test for evaluation. These are the tests that he scored in very high percentiles (95%+) in some areas of study that made him eligible for the Duke TIP program. Based on these scores, the school gave him another assessment test that he did well. Finally that led to another where he did ok.
His middle school did switch to common core when he attended.
He didn't have a problem with it. The math was different but no problem.
There was an outcry from parents and politicians about common core here. It became a political football. Between school educators and parents and politicians pressured by parents and lobbying groups. Since school board (non-educators) are elected positions, it doesn't take a weatherman to know what way the wind blows on the issue.
I looked at common core requirements and it did raise the bar. Some of the methods of common core study was alien and unknown to my education background but I'm not getting prepared for 21st life.
Some kids caught in the transition were affected by the change. Some teachers also who weren't prepared for the change. So some were lost in the transition.
The political arguements of government intrusion in private lives was not valid, IMO. Many will disagree.
Here, where the state is a perineal member of being at the bottom of the list in public education and where private schools excel in nationwide ranks, you would think that adopting curriculum to advance would be a no brained.

I can't speak for Common Core in subjects other than math, but in my view, the Common Core approach to teaching math is on target. It emphasizes learning math principles first and then is heavy on applications. I will quibble with the assessment process, but I always do that. North Carolina, like so many states, fiddled with the concept instead of implementing it as-is. In the end, we got Math I, Math II , and Math III instead of Algebra I, Algebra II, and Geometry. But, they weren't one-for-one replacements.

Geometry disappeared as a standalone course. Instead, it was woven in and among the topics in Algebra I and Algebra II. The reasoning from on high was that finding applications for Geometry would be easier if it were meshed with algebra. I seriously questioned that, but mine was to do or die, not to reason why.

As was [USER=378]@Robert Hill[/USER] experience, Algebra I and Geometry can be learned in Middle School. Most middle school algebra teachers in NC do not have a degree in mathematics. Instead, they have an algebra certificate which licenses them to teach algebra. With Geometry suddenly comingled with algebra, few middle school teachers were qualified to teach the new Math I. Panic set in, training programs were hastily thrown together along with scripted lessons. Students learned whatever they could, some of it even true, and parents were more helpless and lost than ever. On top of that, the state has not adopted new textbooks since 2004 and has repeatedly cut the textbook budget so that even the old ones are in short supply. I didn't use a textbook for Math II and Math III, writing my own lessons instead, weaving Geometry through algebra and making heavy use of the New York Regent's program materials.

Then the legislature mandated that Common Core be abandoned, to be replaced by some alchemic brew to be concocted by select ivory tower inhabitants. It was about that time that I pulled the plug on my working life, so I'm not up on how successful it's been.

I know that we can do better in NC and my hat is off to those states that are indeed doing better. Students everywhere need more academic support than ever and so do their teachers. It's good to see the parents on this forum taking education seriously and preparing their children for life in a rapidly changing world. Both will pay enormous rewards.

One of the complaints coming from Teachers in Texas is a 700 page book for a 185 day class. How can anyone justify a 700 page textbook for grade school?

James