How do you feel about push to get rid of standardized tests?

get these nets

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Would be interested to hear what this section of the board thinks.

Most recent example of the push to drop stand. test as requirement for admission centers around 7 out of the 895 rolling freshmen at Stuyvesant High School in NYC being Black. Stuyvesant is the top public high school in New York City, and one of the finest in the country.

Students in the 8th grade go through an application process to gain entrance to their high school of choice. The top 8 high schools require students to take the SHSAT, the Specialized High School Admissions Test. The top scorers are admitted, with Stuyvesant having the highest admission standards.

Those of you who attended public magnets in this country and those from overseas who took the PISA are familiar with this kind of testing.

Anyway, in light of the story about Stuyvesant, there are now calls to drop the SHSAT.

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I'm against it.
 

Secure Da Bag

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Standardized tests should be 1 of several tools to measure a school's ability to teach and/or the student's capabilities. It should only be used for that.

In terms of the SHSAT, why isn't the SHSAT and GPA equally considered for admission?
 

MR. SNIFLES

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Standardized tests should be 1 of several tools to measure a school's ability to teach and/or the student's capabilities. It should only be used for that.

In terms of the SHSAT, why isn't the SHSAT and GPA equally considered for admission?

YEP. THOSE TESTS SHOULD BE SHOWING WHAT THE SCHOOL CAN DO. THOSE SCORES GET LOW? START FIRING PEOPLE. TEACHERS SHOULDN'T HAVE A JOB SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY COME TO WORK EVERYDAY.
 

Thanos

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They are great for punishing low income/resources areas for being the way they are.:russ: money is usually attached to those tests.
 

Rawtid

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I think they are necessary in some regard. It's good to know where kids fall in comparison to the average, but then use the results to customize learning for specific groups of children.
 

get these nets

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Effort to save the SHSAT gets deep-pocketed allies
By Reema Amin, Christina Veiga - April 22, 2019




A well-funded new group revealed plans Monday to fight the mayor’s push to scrap the specialized high schools admissions exam, advocating instead to broaden access to test preparation and gifted programs.

Dubbed the Education Equity Campaign, the coalition is led by minister and Brooklyn Tech alumnus Kirsten John Foy and is backed by multiple community groups, according to its website. While an exact number wasn’t revealed, the group has raised seven figures in funding, with big names behind the initial dollars: Robert Lauder, chairman of the Clinique Laboratories and a Bronx Science alumnus, and former Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons, according to a spokesman.

Education Equity’s genesis turns up the pressure on the debate over the test and Mayor Bill de Blasio’s proposal to eliminate it in order to boost diversity at the schools. His plan has drawn sharp blowback, particularly from alumni and some Asian-Americans, who this year earned 51 percent of offers to specialized high schools. Foy described the mayor’s plan as a “politically expedient shortcut” that is “morally questionable” because he believed it pitted the Asian, black and Hispanic communities against each other.

“Quite frankly, we have all been in agreement that the test is an indicator of the problem — it is an indicator of what is wrong with the elementary and middle school educational systems,” Foy told Chalkbeat. “And that is not a reflection on the professionals; it is a reflection on the bureaucracy.”

From town halls and rallies to lobbying, Foy said the new coalition will arrange a “very robust and sophisticated” advocacy effort to build support for a wish list of policies: adding two new specialized high schools in each city borough; guaranteeing free Specialized High School Admissions Test prep for every city student; ensuring all students have access to gifted and talented programs from a young age; asking every eighth grader to take the SHSAT (with the option to opt-out); and “dedicating the resources necessary to improve our city’s struggling middle schools” — which a spokesman said was related to curriculum.

The group’s asks echo many of the counter-proposals that are consistently floated by supporters of the single-test admissions standard, but it’s unclear how effective they would be. Some observers shared skepticism and disappointment about the group’s efforts, including former deputy mayor Richard Buery who tweeted, “I don’t understand why these folks would spend their time and energy to exclude Black and Latinx students from the specialized high schools.”

A spokeswoman for City Hall said the mayor will continue to call for changes to the admissions system, which was enshrined in state law almost 50 years ago after the schools chancellor at the time moved to investigate the lack of diversity at the schools.


 
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Silkk

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We had the LEAP test when I was in school, that was some bullshyt. Not because of difficulty or anything but because if your ass failed then you would have to repeat the entire grade regardless of your grades and everything else. That alone gave every fourth grader at my school anxiety :martin:
 
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