{"id":181,"date":"2013-05-17T00:13:24","date_gmt":"2013-05-17T00:13:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/?p=181"},"modified":"2016-08-11T20:04:19","modified_gmt":"2016-08-11T20:04:19","slug":"trials-and-tribulations-of-sats-nj-ask","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/?p=181","title":{"rendered":"Trials and Tribulations of SAT’s & NJ ASK"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"683e65d51c2a59ef9ac597ff66e67f58\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It only seems fitting for the week of NJ ASK to have a short dissertation on testing.<\/p>\n

As one walks outside Fort Lee High School or any other high school in the United States, one can always hear the all too familiar lament from a disconsolate mother, \u201cWell, my son is very bright, but he is just not a good test taker\u201d.\u00a0 To many a listener, these words ring all too true. Masses of parents join in, forming a general assemblage of malcontents, desperately worried that John or Jane will not get into Harvard because of his or her SAT scores.\u00a0 The result is a Shakespearean tragedy at worst or a Gahan Wilson cartoon, depicting hordes of students bleeding from their brains from the trauma of taking these tests.<\/p>\n

We live in a society of testing in our schools.\u00a0 Parents spend a substantial part of their lives worrying about how their children will perform on these tests.\u00a0 Educators and teachers are constantly being questioned about our testing methods, the quality of the tests, and whether the tests are really necessary at all.\u00a0\u00a0 Hopefully, the following will put a little perspective on this issue.<\/p>\n

In the United States, children are tested from the third grade forward as a general rule. In the glorious state of New Jersey, we have the infamous NJ ASK tests.\u00a0 These tests are a comprehensive assessment of how students in any given school rate against students of the same age in schools throughout the state.\u00a0 These tests do not affect the grades of the students per se, but strongly impact on the individual school\u2019s state ratings.\u00a0 These test scores may however affect recommendations of a given student for honors, gifted & talented programs, or advanced placement courses.\u00a0 For months prior to the exams, school curricula careful prepare students with programs to enhance test scores in order to preserve or improve district ratings.\u00a0 Creative and innovative programs of learning may be discarded in favor of test-geared course study.<\/p>\n

Some parents take the NJ Ask tests very seriously or are very concerned about placement of their children in honors courses or \u201cgifted & talented\u201d programs, even at a very early age.\u00a0 This often puts an inordinate amount of stress on young children.<\/p>\n

Some parents are thinking about college while their children are in elementary school.\u00a0\u00a0 Special preparatory books may be used as well as private tutors.\u00a0 After-school and weekend honors Math and English courses are available through private companies like Honors Review right here in Fort Lee.\u00a0 Over the summer, there are Math and Science camps, or special university courses for young children.\u00a0 Pressure, pressure, pressure!<\/p>\n

When it comes to general testing or NJ ASK, I have always advocated less pressure on the children, preferring to make sure my kids had a good night\u2019s sleep the night before an exam and a healthy breakfast the day of the test, while reassuring my children that the tests were not all that important.\u00a0 For whatever reason, that approach seems to have worked with my children, as they have performed well on these exams.<\/p>\n

As for honors or \u201cgifted & talented\u201d programs, teachers and test results remain the most\u00a0 accurate and reliable assessment of children\u2019s abilities in the vast majority of cases.\u00a0 If a parent believes that a child has been left out of a program incorrectly, there are channels of appeal available.\u00a0 In the high school, the last few years proved conclusively that placing children in honors programs and\/or AP (advanced placement) programs upon parental insistence was an abject failure.\u00a0 That failure was a major component of the severe drop in the Fort Lee High School state ratings.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the chronic undercurrent of complaints regarding all this testing of children remains.\u00a0 Community advocacy groups petition against these exams, with claims of racially biased testing, gender bias, i.e. that tests are slanted toward males versus females, inner city bias, i.e. that tests discriminate against urban communities, etc., etc., etc.\u00a0 Of course, none of these groups have come up with any viable alternatives to testing.\u00a0\u00a0 Rather, they vaguely imply that teachers should be able to recognize intellectual potential by class performance, grades, effort, and other general data.\u00a0 Of course, that does assume that all teachers are highly capable of making this type of evaluation independently, without formalized testing, a formula which has never proven out and is speculative at best.<\/p>\n

So for better or worse, testing is ultimately necessary. And all the whining and complaining is not going to change that, at least not until someone comes up with a superior idea.\u00a0 And just for the record, for those parents, who feel it necessary, there are special private courses and tutors strictly to instruct children on how to perform better on tests, regardless of the subject matter.<\/p>\n

Returning to the subject of SAT exams (or ACT exams), taken predominantly in the junior year of high school, the pressure on the students becomes monumental.\u00a0 The child\u2019s future is in jeopardy, or so the parent assumes.\u00a0 I can\u2019t speak for every community, but in Fort Lee and Bergen County, if the student is to be competitive, he\/she must be enrolled in an SAT prep course, generally costing thousands of dollars (guilty!).\u00a0 And these courses do work for many students, elevating scores several hundred points from what the student might have scored on his\/her own.\u00a0 This permits some parents to issue a legitimate claim of financial discrimination against those students who cannot afford these SAT prep courses.<\/p>\n

There is one provocative fact that we may want to consider during this conversation.\u00a0 Parents whose children score well on the SATs generally are not the ones complaining about how unfair or biased these exams may be. \u00a0For the record, having taken these exams, albeit many years ago, I personally fail to see the bias in having to solve x2 <\/sup>+ 4x + 4 = 0.\u00a0 Word problems should not have to relate to a specific ethnic group by naming the characters with international names.\u00a0 As for language barriers, it just is not feasible to offer the \u201cEnglish\u201d sections of the SATs in multiple languages for obvious reasons.<\/p>\n

Urban language bias issues present some interesting possibilities.\u00a0 Perhaps the College Board organizations can have Kanye West and Jay-Z develop a Hip Hop SAT test for Los Angeles inner city kids.\u00a0 Jersey City and Brooklyn representatives can compete for the right to prepare a \u201cstreet language\u201d SAT exam, although Newark and the Bronx may feel slighted.<\/p>\n

Even if universities are declaring publically that SAT scores are only one component of the admission process, please do not be deceived. That is just good PR to appease all the anti-SAT groups that permeate the American public.\u00a0\u00a0 Since the inception of these exams, major universities have used SAT scores as a major qualifying tool in the process and will continue to do so, because it works!\u00a0 The truth is that, with the deluge of applications to the most prominent universities in our country, they need every tool available to whittle down the number of applications to a workable number for each incoming Freshman class.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, excellent test results may have negative ramifications.\u00a0 Those students who \u201coverachieved\u201d on the SATs may be accepted by Ivy League or other fine universities that might have otherwise excluded them based on the lower scores.\u00a0 But when they enter these fine universities, some of these \u201coverachievers\u201d find themselves \u201covermatched\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cOops\u201d, they weren\u2019t really bright enough to compete at that level.\u00a0\u00a0 The pressure to survive and please their parents may create severe bouts of depression or, even worse, isolated cases of suicide.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWater seeks its own level\u201d, may be the applicable expression in this case. Students have a certain ability and potential.\u00a0 Accepting a child\u2019s innate ability is not easy for every parent.\u00a0\u00a0 Parents who constantly push children to \u201cexceed\u201d this level are most probably not doing their children any favor, possibly even causing damage to the child\u2019s psyche.<\/p>\n

Some interesting statistics on the SATs regarding the<\/b> quality of education in Fort Lee High School <\/b>(Scores out of perfect score of 2400):<\/p>\n

NJ State Average Score \u00a0 \u00a0 1550<\/b><\/p>\n

Fort Lee HS \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 1618<\/b><\/p>\n

River Dell Regional HS \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 1627<\/p>\n

Cliffside Park HS \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 1367<\/p>\n

Palisades Park HS\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1456<\/p>\n

Ridgefield Memorial HS \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 1528<\/p>\n

Leonia HS \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 1596<\/p>\n

Northern Valley HS \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a01726<\/p>\n

Glen Rock HS \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a01689<\/p>\n

Indian Hills HS \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a01628<\/p>\n

Dwight Morrow HS \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a01426<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There is one simple and undeniable truth that everyone seems prone to forget.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There are many, many fine universities in the United States of America.\u00a0 There are colleges, large and small, providing amazing educations for matriculating high school seniors.\u00a0\u00a0 For the student that truly wants to excel, it is not absolutely necessary to go to Harvard, Princeton or MIT.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And while going to Cornell was a wonderful experience, I could have saved a great deal of money for my parents had I chosen to go to Rutgers, one of the best state universities in the entire country (excluding a few verbally abusive coaches).<\/p>\n

So, maybe we should all relax just a little bit and allow our children their childhood.\u00a0 Less pressure to perform well on State exams is a solid approach.\u00a0 Try to accept that tests, like it or not, are the only measuring stick of knowledge and potential that has been proven effective over the years.\u00a0 Recognize that once in a while, like it or not, a child may do poorly on an exam and the world will not end.\u00a0 NJ ASK and SATs are just little bumps in the road to the child\u2019s future and he\/she will survive.\u00a0 \u00a0And let\u2019s remember that there are always athletic scholarships.<\/p>\n

Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.\u201d\u00a0\u2015\u00a0<\/i> Plato<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It only seems fitting for the week of NJ ASK to have a short dissertation on testing. As one walks outside Fort Lee High School or any other high school in the United States, one can always hear the all too familiar lament from a disconsolate mother, \u201cWell, my son is very bright, but he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=181"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":183,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions\/183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}