Around the US, 6th graders (and alot of other grades) are preparing for this Spring's standardized testing.
When "we" grew up, the standardized tests were straigh forward math problems. I remember addition questions . . . .like 235+156=? Or fractions like 2/3 + 7/21 = ? At the very end, there were a few word problems. That was appropriate for the 6th grade.
Today, this new testing is absolutely NUTS. It's all deductive reasoning with alot of different math subject areas thrown into one question. I bet you alot of you would not be able to figure this S*** out. Each question is long and drawn out word problems.
Here is one example (they are all THIS hard). #5 on Florida' sample math FCAT for the 6th grade.
"Tim's workbench is in the shape of a trapezoid. A drawing of his workbench with some dimensions is shown below.
?
___________________
| /
| /
| 32 inches /
| /
|____________/
40 inches
If the area of Tim's trapezoidal workbench has a total of 1,440 square inches, what is the total length, in inches, of the longest side of his workbench?"
If you want to see more of this lunacy, go here: http://fcat.fldoe.org/fcat2/pdf/sample/1112/math/FL530625_Gr6_Math_TB_WT_r3g.pdf I bet almost all of us on this board could not pass this "standard" test.
The standardized math test is now only 16 questions long, but they are all long, drawn out word problems. Where the student has multiple subject areas thrown to them at one time, and deductive reasoning that most college aged kids couldn't do. The teachers are "evaluated" on how well their students perform on these unsustainable tests. The children are super stressed out over the tests becuase if they don't pass them, they might not go to the next grade. Do you see what is wrong with our education system?
These new standardized tests are great tests if your kid is a gifted student. But, for the average bear it is unsustainable. Remember back to the 6th grade, and what you knew & didn't know in math. Would you have been able to pass this test? And, if you didn't would it have demoralized you to believing that you couldn't do math? I think it would have done that to me. In college, I went all the way through calculus and beyond - making alot of A's. I tutored students and know, for a fact, that the college students of the 80s didn't have this level of thinking that we expect from every 6th grader across the country.
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