It comes as no surprise that people who represent populations of students who come from schools that are not academically challenging also are loathed to support Standardized Test.
They often prefer to attack the test rather than address the underlying problem.
Some metro Atlanta high schools routinely award stellar grades to students who can’t pass standardized tests in the subject, leaving them potentially unprepared for college, a state study has found.
The results could mean teachers are either handing out good marks too easily or not teaching the state curriculum well, experts say.
The study released last week found the End of Course Tests were generally much harder for high school students than classroom work. The gap was most startling for the economics test, which covers basic theory and personal finance. While nearly 36 percent of students failed the test, only about 6 percent failed the class.
Public high schoolers must take the End of Course Tests in eight key subjects, including literature, biology and math. The tests aim to track students’ knowledge of state curriculum, as well as teachers’ effectiveness. State law mandates them. The study used 2007 data, the most recent available.
Because both the tests and classroom work are based on state standards, they should be roughly in sync.
“We don’t expect the End of Course grade and test to match exactly,” said Kathleen Mathers, executive director of the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement, which issued the grading study. But, she said, “if they’re far apart from one another, that’s generally a sign that they should probably be examined.”
Statewide, the percentage of students who failed most of the tests was two to three times greater than the percentage who ended up failing the class.
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