Understanding the Issues: Education

[saden1]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

Yeah I think I gotcha. You're saying that the SATs force teachers/schools to gear their teaching styles towards the test.

I'm not sure that's a bad thing. I happen to love the SAT and think it's a great measure. It combines good probing questions with the need to perform under pressure (time limit). I think you need a degree of standardization in schools all across the land. After all, all students are headed to the same real world and job market, aren't they?

The SATs are a funny animal though - those who did well on them tend to like them. Those who didn't... not so much.

It's definitely a bad thing if you talk to teachers. I had the opportunity to speak with a middle school teacher/principle a few weeks ago and he said they're just training the children to take the test. No critical think necessary. When teachers don't believe in what they are doing how can they possibly do a good job?

SAT is a total different beast, it's a collage aptitude test. Teachers can do some prep-work to prepare students for the test but they don't base their curriculum on the test.