standardized testing

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NY Test Asks Kids About Baffling 'Talking Pineapple'

Bizarre story befuddles New York students, teachers

(Newser) - No amount of studying could prepare students to assess the wisdom of a talking pineapple, but that's what New York kids were asked to do on a state test. The eighth-grade reading exam offered a fable-like story about a pineapple challenging a hare to a race. Other animals weigh...

Banned From NYC Tests: Dinosaurs, Aliens, Birthdays

Officials ban 50 subjects from city-wide assessment tests

(Newser) - New York City test-makers are going to have a hard time coming up with acceptable questions to place on students' tests, after officials decided to ban 50 subjects including dinosaurs and birthdays. Why? Because those topics have been deemed potentially controversial, and could make kids upset: Dinosaurs, for example, could...

School's Plan to Boost Test Scores: Feed Kids Placebos

Florida elementary school students given 'FCAT PowerBars'

(Newser) - A Florida elementary school wants its students to perform better on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test … so it's feeding them "placebos." Hagen Road Elementary students will be given an "FCAT PowerBar"—aka an apple-flavored cereal bar with a label reading, "Warning: Improves Writing...

Chinese Students Go Extreme for College Entry Test

Kids and parents stop at nothing to ensure passing score

(Newser) - Suddenly, the SATs seem like a leisurely way to spend a Saturday. Chinese students and their families have turned preparation for the country's college entrance exam into a national obsession. Some students study hooked up to oxygen tanks in an effort to improve concentration, girls take birth control to...

Test-Prep Giant Stanley Kaplan Dead at 90

Founder of test-prep firm challenged thinking about SAT

(Newser) - Stanley Kaplan, founder of the test-prep behemoth that bears his name, died this weekend of heart failure at age 90, the Washington Post reports. Kaplan’s company not only helped millions of students level the playing field in what he described as a “poor man’s private school” but...

Another Memphis Player Accused of SAT Cheating

Dozier's initial results were invalidated

(Newser) - Another former University of Memphis player has a dodgy-looking SAT score in his past, ESPN reports. Robert Dozier was originally set to go to Georgia, until the school noticed that he’d scored a 1260 on his SAT, a score drastically better than his practice exams. The NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse...

Students Can Hide Low Scores With New SAT Policy

(Newser) - “What did you get on your SATs?” is now a multiple-choice question. A policy enacted last month allows students who take the test several times to pick which score they send to colleges, the Washington Post reports. But many schools aren’t thrilled with the change, and a quarter...

Teach to the Test&mdash;But Make Better Tests
Teach to the Test—But Make Better Tests 
OPINION
Mar 23, 2009 10:38 AM CDT

Teach to the Test—But Make Better Tests

Tie reading passages in with curriculum to even playing field

(Newser) - Critics worry that the current system of “fill-in-the-bubble” school testing promotes teaching to the test—but maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing if we had tests “worth teaching to,” writes Ed Hirsch Jr in the New York Times. The tests themselves are highly reliable...

At More and More Colleges, SAT Is Now MIA

Standardized test seen as poorly calibrated measure of students' abilities

(Newser) - Colleges are fleeing the SAT, saying the standardized test is not a reliable predictor of academic success, the Boston Globe reports. But though a coalition is forming against the requirement, even doubtful admission officials see the need for a field-leveler for disparate applicants. “The SAT only measures how good...

Throw Out SAT, Say College Deans

Panel recommends move away from standardized testing

(Newser) - Colleges should make admissions decisions without requiring the SAT or ACT, says a group of deans led by Harvard's admissions chief in a yearlong study that concluded standardized tests distort students' high school experiences, exacerbate class disparities, and enrich only the billion-dollar test prep industry. Instead, say the admissions officers,...

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