Chapin notes in this chapter of her book that eighth grade students believe social science is the least valuable subject in terms of lifeskills, but the same study also found that these students looked forward to going to Social Science more than any other class.  Whether or not we like it, student perception plays a major part in how our classes run.  If students generally percieve a topic as boring, it is difficult to teach them it can also be fun.  Her section on parents, teachers, administrators, and community were also somewhat bleak and reminded me HBO’s The Wire.  Basically the pyramid is students on the bottom upset that the teachers are making them do work.  The teachers are upset because the adminstration seems focused–from the teacher’s perspective–on all the wrong things.  The adminstators are doing the bidding of the superintedents and the superintedents likewise do the bidding of the state who, in turn, recieve financial backing based on test scores that return to the circle to evaluate the teachers.  Perhaps that is why those like Michael Kaufman are saying we have traded out drill and practice for drill and test.

The thoughts on assessment and evaluation tie in well with another book I am reading for another class called A Teacher’s Guide to Classroom Assessment.

Her references to the NAEP peaked my interest and I went to look at some of the sample questions online.  I was surprised to see that students actually have to fill out short-answer questions for this test.  It was also very helpful to see actual student responses.  This type of test seems much more valuable than a multiple choice that does not necessarily show depth of thinking.  I was confused, however, by the grading scale.  How does one determine the difference between an “A” or a “B” in short answer questions?  How does one standardize this?

When reading about state testing, I favor criterion-based tests over norm-referenced tests.  The lines bewteen the two tests, however, may not be as dark as Chapin makes them out to be as shown by arguments over the ACT in Kentucky.  In line with this as well, I think that performance assessment is very important in assessing students.  Instead of just paper and pencil tests, I am able to gague deep thinking and help students improve.

On the nature of tests, Chapin takes times to explain the proper context for taking tests.  I hate multiple choice tests and never want to give one as a teacher (another blogger explains why giving something other than multiple choice tests is problematic at the state level).  I know that I will regret writing this later, but I just don’t see the value in students taking them.  There are better ways to gague student learning, but Chapin is correct in noting that multiple choice tests are easy to grade.  My preferred method of testing for students is fill in the blank tests or tests where students have to write a definition of based on the description of that definition.  But I prefer essay tests over all of these other types of testing.