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Thursday, March 23, 2006
SAT Scoring Fiasco
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Becca notes on an earlier thread that she’s distressed about the SAT scoring mess, where 4,411 students got incorrectly low scores. Here’s a story.
It’s hard not to be distressed when the stakes are so high. The College Board created its stronghold on college admissions (along with rival ACT), but its status hinges on credibility. Doing poorly on a standardized test has more ramifications now than ever. Kids get held back. Kids don’t graduate. And in this case, college admissions decisions don’t go a student’s way, all because of a single test score. Is there any way to have enough controls in place to guarantee an accurate score, especially when scoring is so mysterious and not based on a percent correct like a classroom test?
Talk to me!
(Speaking of testing, I’d love to hear from a student or two who took the science test today for the third, fourth or umpteenth time. If you are such a student or a student’s parent, please e-mail me at pghezzi@ajc.com.)
Eschewing the PTA
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A parent asks: “Can you decline to join your school’s PTA/PTO without getting branded an apathetic parent? I am very involved in my kids’ lives and their schooling. I make sure they do their homework. I’m a scout leader, and that takes up a lot of my time. Our PTO spends a lot of time on petty matters and annoying fund-raisers, and I don’t care to be a part of it. I’m feeling a lot of pressure to join anyway.”
(By the way, a PTA, or Parent Teacher Association, is affiliated with the National PTA. Some schools have a PTO, or Parent Teacher Organization, which is not afflilated with the national group but generally serves the same advocacy role at the local school.)
Any parents out there who have made a conscious decision not to join the PTA/PTO? Did you face the scorn of parents who are actively involved? Does your group tend to get bogged down in pettiness and neverending fund-raising? Any tips for running a PTA/PTO parents want to be a part of?
