On the other hand I do believe a good comprehensive exam in a subject area =
that has lots of open-ended questions is important. Students need to be =
able to synthesize their learning as well as place it in context. I know =
when I took the 3 day comprehensive exam for my Ph.D. that I gained a =
great deal by putting all of my course work together. It is important to =
build connections between topics and courses. Our students often miss this =
in math. Some students see math as segmented into topics and skills when =
they need to go back and build the connections. Comprehensive exams allow =
students the opportunity to do this.
Dr. Marcia L. Tharp =20
>>> "RayM" <raypublk@san.rr.com> 06/18 10:13 PM >>>
----------
> From: Lawrence T. Gurley <lgurley@merritt.edu>
>=20
> High School Exit Exams, on the other hand, really test everything the
> student is supposed to have learned since Kindergarten. Often, they are
> machine-scored multiple-choice exams, that are cheaper to design, grade
and
> administer. These exams are then restricted to testing the student on
> those aspects of learning that lend themselves to multiple-choice =
machine
> scoring, i.e., what's usually called "rote learning."=20
>=20
Perhaps just as often, exit exams include an essay section.
> While I agree with Dusty Griggs that entrance exams are preferable to
exit
> exams, machine-scored entrance exams are subject to the same
restrictions.
Most selective schools, from the $17k/yr private preschools of NYC to
specialty high schools to the top ten have both entrance and exit =
criteria.
Always made sense to me.
> IMO, state-mandated high-school exit exams have two other dangerous
> aspects, beyond the items accurately described in the student essay:
>=20
> 1. They allow the legislature and governor a cheap and easy way to
appear
> to be doing something about education, when they're not. We can pass
> "get-tough" laws to withhold diplomas from students who don't pass an
exam,
> without ever going into a classroom, or examining what students are
> actually learning, or spending the financial and political capital to
make
> the necessary changes in school organization, teacher training and staff
> development, or curriculum to improve education for all students.
"Allow" is a weak argument. More to the point, a test is a quick way to
assess which schools are in deep trouble. Sure some schools will not only
teach to the test, they will in fact teach to the answer key. And some =
few
good schools will appear on the surface to be in trouble. But both of
those weaknesses are likely to occur regardless of how schools, teachers,
parents, and students are judged.
>=20
> 2. They reinforce view that high educational standards require a high
> failure rate, that in Dr. Lindsey's words, "to be meaningful [or
valuable],
> the standard will have to be set so that some people don't meet it."
> --that if *everyone* gets a good education, it can't be very good.
>=20
> This seems a particularly American fixation, common among educators as
well
> as the general public. (Perhaps it's due to the Calvinist influence on
the
> early years of our country.)
>=20
I don't think that the US is anywhere near having that problem.
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Dr. Marcia L.Tharp
Associate Professor of Mathematics
Thomas Moss Campus Tidewater Community College
Room 3222, 300 Granby St., Norfolk, VA
email tc.tharm@tc.cc.va.us
homepage http://www.tc.cc.va.us/faculty/tctharm/index.htm
757-822-1327
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