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Students Need Final Exams

Posted Thursday, September 6, 2007, at 2:12 PM
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It's almost time for the yearly ISTEP tests in Indiana. This is a good thing since kids need to know how to take tests. Once they get to high school in Greencastle if they are good students, show up for class and don't get into trouble they can opt out of final exams.

My kid, a junior thinks its great. I think it is a terrible practice.

I ask him, "What are you going to do when you get to college and have to take tests?"

"I already know how to take them," he tells me.

But he has two more years of not having to take them. I have no doubt he will keep his grades up and show up to school. Until last year, he had perfect attendance for more than seven years. And, that was without the incentive of no final exams.

Last year he insisted on going to school with a temperature of 100 degrees (I didn't know about the temperature until after school). I made him stay home the one day he missed. Luckily, he says, that didn't cause him to lose out on skipping finals.

Life is full of tests, written and oral. Drivers test, aptitude tests, and personality tests--the workplace is full of tests. Kids need to learn to deal with them.

President Bush, last Wednesday began his push to require high school students to take the math and reading tests now required of younger students under the No Child Left Behind law

``Testing is important,'' Bush told a group of students at J.E.B Stuart High School in a Washington.

``Testing at high school levels will help us become more competitive as the years go by. Testing in high schools will make sure that our children are employable for the jobs of the 21st century. ... Testing will make sure the diploma is not merely a sign of endurance, but the mark of a young person ready to succeed.''

``If you look at the graduation rates nationwide, there is great room for improvement," he added. " We have to do something to prepare these kids for college or to be lifelong learners in the world of work.''

I don't always agree with Mr. Bush but on this subject I am one hundred percent behind his push to improve testing and that includes taking final exams in high school.

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Right ON!!!!!

-- Posted by FAW on Thu, Sep 6, 2007, at 7:59 PM

I tutor math classes for high school students, and I too was bothered when told they might not have to take the final exam. Final exams are a necessary review and assessment of what students learn. I completely agree, we need final exams!

-- Posted by smoochy on Fri, Sep 7, 2007, at 9:03 AM

Our kids have no shortage of tests in their lives, regardless of the final exam policy at GHS. Start with ISTEP, MAP testing, on and on.. it seems like kids spend most of the year either getting ready for a test, or actually taking one. High stakes tests are over rated.

-- Posted by BannerChatter on Fri, Sep 7, 2007, at 5:08 PM

Tests can be considered valuable in understanding some depths of knowledge where as over testing may be a hindrance.

What about the students who comprehend subjects but cannot take tests? Where does this leave them? When I took college classes in the late 1990s, a professor stated that "tests only prove you can take tests" and that they cannot capture the full extent of one's knowledge. The following article discusses tests and performance outcomes.

"Introduction

The last 10 years have seen rapid changes in the development of large-scale assessments. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) requirements that districts and schools measure student achievement, including that of students with disabilities and English language learners (ELLs),have created pressure to improve the ability of large-scale assessments to accurately measure student achievement and to ensure access for all students. To this end, assessments using universal design principles promote increased access through various means, such as font size, use of blank space, and use of illustrations in test construction (Thompson, Johnstone, Anderson,& Miller, 2005; Universally Designed Assessments, "Universally Designed Assessments," 2005). States have also increasingly standardized their use of accommodations to increase access(Bolt & Thurlow, 2004; Edgemon, Jablonski, & Lloyd, 2006; Ysseldyke, Thurlow, Bielinski,House, Moody, & Haigh, 2001). Other research has led to the development of new English language proficiency tests focusing on academic English acquisition in four domains (listening,speaking, reading, and writing).

Yet, even with all of these changes and the resulting increase in access for many students,educators argue that the current assessment structure as mandated by NCLB still does not reliably measure the achievement of all students (Almond, Quenemoen, Olsen, & Thurlow,2000; Quenemoen, Thompson, Thurlow, & Olsen, 1999; Wiener, 2006). A significant number of students may not be well-served by the current generation of large-scale assessments in as much as the assessments do not reliably measure the achievement of these students.

These gaps in the assessment structure are not well understood, and there is little research on either the gaps or the students who fall into them(Parker, Saxon, 2007)."

Tests, in my opinion, are overdone and care should be taken on how many are executed. Final exams should be required ,however, as they contain how much knowledge a student has gained.

Parker, Caroline E., Saxon, Susan .(2007).Teacher_views_of_assessment.pdf.Retrieved

September 18, 2007 from the website:

http://www.necompact.org/Teacher_views_o...

You can get the entire article from the above named website.

-- Posted by mohmo on Sat, Sep 15, 2007, at 9:01 PM