Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
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Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Predestined to flunk
Should a teacher try to pre-determine that 25 percent of their students are going to get a D or F on every test? I don’t think so. But one teacher featured in this week’s Carnival of Education, hosted by Mike at his Education in Texas blog thinks this is the way to make a test.
Sounds like he needs to read this story about standardized test creation.
See, I thought tests were supposed to measure how well a group of students learned material. If everyone in the class learned really well, the’d all get A’s and we’d celebrate, right? But this approach to testing presumes there should always be about 10 percent who flunk and 15 percent who get D’s, no matter how well the teacher teaches and the kids study.
Imagine if they used this approach on your state’s driving test, deciding ahead of time that one in 10 people are just simply going to flunk and never get their licenses because the test will be designed to “differentiate” them into the bottom group. Sound fair?
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Testing, The Carnival of Education
Top 10 college majors
A nod to the teacher/blogger Chem Jerk who’s quiz pointed me to this list.
Before you click “continue reading” quickly jot down your prediction for the top 10 college majors. Then see how close you are to the real list. I’ll even get you started with big hint — journalism is not in the top 10, but both of my college majors are.* And another major closely associated with this blog is on it TWICE.
Here’s Princeton Review’s list with the most popular major first:
Business Administration/Management
Psychology
Elementary Education
Biology
Nursing
Education
English
Communications
Computer Science
Political Science
Some quick observations:
—For an “undesirable” profession known for a lack of respect and low starting pay, teaching is surprisingly popular.
—There’s a noticeable lack of science and engineering on this list. About 10 years ago, I wrote a story about how biology, a long-dissed “boring” major, was surpassing physics as the most popular science major thanks to the sudden explosion of exciting biology-related research in genetics, forensics and other areas. It appears that trend has held.
—Do we really need that many people with expertise in psychology? If so, what does that say about America?
*At the University of Dayton I double majored in English and communications with a concentration in journalism because UD did not have a separate journalism department.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: Colleges and Universities
