[Boatanchors] The ARRL's next move

[Bill Henderson]

"Teaching the test" - an interesting phrase.
I currently "work in education".
The education dept. of provincial government (ya - I'm in Canada - check
the callsign) established quality assurance tests a number of years ago
with the aim of being reasonably certain that a student completing a
certain grade level "knew" the same things as another student completing
the same grade level at another school or even in another part of the
province.
"Quality control", if you will.
Thing is - this became warped into a tool to judge the performance of the
teachers - a class consistently having a low score meant the teacher wasn't
quite doing things right.
So the teachers started teaching the test - how to pass a test.
It's an ongoing battle that continues today.
The results of the tests are used (among other things) to rate the schools
and these results are available to the public.
Parents use these as a guideline to select the "best" school for their
child.
It's not necessarily the best school for the things the kids are supposed
to know, but often the one where teachers have been most successful in
"teaching the test".

Just my five cents worth...

 - Bill H. / va3hwa




********************
The VECs are encouraged to randomize the answers within the questions.
If the test were properly prepared, in a class of 15 people, each could be
given a test with all of the questions the same, but, not in the same order
and with all of the answers randomized. With this no two tests in the room
would be the same. It would make it impossible for the test teacher to say
that answer a is correct for the question that deals with xyz. The VECs
will not do this because it makes their job "too hard".

I was a Master Training Specialist in the Navy. This is the way that we
gave tests. The fastest way for me to get to see the CO was to teach a
test. I refuse to teach a licensing course for this reason. I refuse to
teach a test.

Just my thoughts on this disaster.

The bar is too high, so, rather than increase the knowledge level, lower
the bar.

See you in the microwave spectrum away from the kids and lids.

73
Glenn
WB4UIV
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