{"id":39259,"date":"2013-10-20T23:09:43","date_gmt":"2013-10-21T05:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/20\/testing-to-destruction.html"},"modified":"2013-10-20T23:09:43","modified_gmt":"2013-10-21T05:09:43","slug":"testing-to-destruction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/20\/testing-to-destruction.html","title":{"rendered":"Testing to Destruction"},"content":{"rendered":"
Okay, I'm in management. I understand the diktat<\/i> that if it can't be measured, it can't be improved (because, duh, you can't measure improvement if you can't measure at all).<\/p>\n

But … kids are not cogs. Children are not business processes. \u00a0Not only are basic measurement techniques (standardized tests) sometimes inappropriate, but the very concept that all kids learn at the same rate, with the same techniques, in the same way makes sense only in the sheltered climes of academia (in some corners) and Congress. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Any parent who's paying attention to each of their kids (and their friends) knows quite differently, and understand that the earlier you get in life, the less "standard" anyone is. \u00a0And while I understand the eventual<\/i> need for measures, it's not a principle of human nature that actually goes away over the years.<\/p>\n

I mean, my wife and I are both adults, we're both pretty darned intelligent, we're both highly educated (she has a more advanced degree than I do, in fact) — but a standardized test of what we each know or are qualified to talk about or are fully educated in would reap wildly different results in different areas, and the very modality<\/i> of such a test would bring forth very different answers.<\/p>\n

So, yes, I understand wanting to hold schools and teachers accountable, to a reasonable degree,<\/i> for their success in educating kids. But I think I'm not being too wooly-headed a liberal in thinking that forcing Kindergartners to fill in bubbles perfectly and ignore their fellow students like good test-taking drones might be taking things a wee<\/i> bit too far …<\/p>\n

(h\/t +<\/span>George Wiman<\/a><\/span>)<\/div>\n

\n

Embedded Link<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s Never Too Early to Teach Kids to Hate Learning<\/a>
\n New York’s high-stakes testing regime has now metastasized to kindergarten. Really (boldface mine): Because of a tough new curriculum and teacher evaluations, 4- and 5-year-olds are learning how to…\n <\/p>\n

View this post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Okay, I'm in management. I understand the diktat that if it can't be measured, it can't be improved (because, duh, you can't measure improvement if you can't measure at all). But … kids are not cogs. Children are not business processes. \u00a0Not only are basic measurement techniques (standardized tests) sometimes inappropriate, but the very concept … Continue reading “Testing to Destruction”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":39260,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/20\/testing-to-destruction-part-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":39259,"position":0},"title":"Testing to Destruction, Part 2","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 20-Oct-13 11:38pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Testing takes time and resources. And it has an effect on the testee (Holy Heisenberg!). \u00a0Is it worth it? \u00a0Looking at this example calls that into question -- as do the concerns raised further down in the article.Yes, again, it's useful to measure status \/ progress. \u00a0But academic knowlege is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28260,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/06\/13\/new-kids-in-gay-familes-suffer-horribly-study-is-pretty-bogus.html","url_meta":{"origin":39259,"position":1},"title":"New "kids in gay familes suffer horribly" study is pretty bogus.","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 13-Jun-12 7:36am","format":false,"excerpt":"New \"kids in gay familes suffer horribly\" study is pretty bogus.If for no other reason than it compares apples (children of married heterosexual couples) to oranges (mostly children of broken families where one custodial parent is gay).But\u00a0we will be hearing the\u00a0Regnerus study dredged up as \"proof\" of that gay marriage,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7491,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/02\/21\/bill_gates_guid.html","url_meta":{"origin":39259,"position":2},"title":"Bill Gates’ Guide to L33t5p33k","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 21-Feb-05 10:22am","format":false,"excerpt":"For all you parents who want to build your m4d sk1llz in such stuff so you can understand what your kids are IMing. In related info, there's a fun article...","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10763,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/07\/02\/tell_me_lies_tell_me_swee.html","url_meta":{"origin":39259,"position":3},"title":"Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 2-Jul-07 3:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Kids lie.\u00a0 Toddlers lie.\u00a0 Babies lie. Though by \"lie\" I mean \"practice deceptive behaviors and represent themselves falsely in order to get something (or avoid something).\u00a0 That isn't necessarily a...","rel":"","context":"In "Parenting"","block_context":{"text":"Parenting","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/personal\/parenting"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10158,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/08\/22\/this_first_grad.html","url_meta":{"origin":39259,"position":4},"title":"This First Grade Class is Brought to You by the Letter “J”","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 22-Aug-06 6:09pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Of the 26 kids on Katherine's First Grade class roster, 11 have names starting with \"J\": Jack, Jack, Jacob, Jaden, Jake, Jennie, Jillian, Joey, John, Julia, Justin followed by three...","rel":"","context":"In "Comics & Comic Books"","block_context":{"text":"Comics & Comic Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131539,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/09\/14\/trump-doesnt-seem-to-understand-conflict-of-interest.html","url_meta":{"origin":39259,"position":5},"title":"Trump doesn't seem to understand "conflict of interest"","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 14-Sep-16 7:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Dear Donald: Giving your national and international assets to your kids doesn't mean you no longer have a conflict of interest in domestic and international policy you might pursue.I'm not sure which is worse: thinking that you know this, or thinking that you don't know this. Trump\u2019s Plan To Separate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}