We got our midterm grades back today. This resulted in all of the teachers at the school enduring about two hours of lecturing and reprimanding by our principal and dean about how poorly our kids did and how we need to change our teaching techniques in the future. Although this made me feel pretty down for a little bit, I then got a chance to look at the county-wide midterms that our kids were required to take. It's standardized across our school district, and we didn't get a chance to see the tests until after they were taken. Here are samplings from the 6th grade and 4th grade English tests.
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| The directions tell you to "happily" read the passage, then determine if the below sentences are true or false. The "Where am I?" at the end of the passage seems to be irrelevant to the questions you must answer. Fluent English speakers out there---are you not confused? Is Jim female? Is "My teacher." a sentence? |
The rest of the 6th grade test was equally confusing, and it tested them on things that were very clearly not covered in the first half of the textbook that everyone in China uses. The 6th graders almost revolted when I entered the room. Some of their reactions: "I looked through our whole textbook, and I couldn't even find some of those words." "There were SO many mistakes." I knew those kids were awesome.
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| A true or false section on the 4th grade test. You're supposed to determine if the sentence is correct, based on the corresponding picture. The pictures are no clearer in person. I still am unsure about what the correct answers are. (My favorite is number 4, of course.) |
So, in conclusion, I'm going to let it slide if my kids fail these ridiculous tests. Our principal is very upset, since our school spent a week solely reviewing for the midterms. Unfortunately, he failed to acknowledge (or perhaps realize) that at least the English tests are a very poor assessment of what our kids have actually learned. A lot of the midterm hype has to do with the fact that our school is competing with the other elementary schools in our district to have the best midterm grades. No pressure, 1st graders who hadn't been in a classroom until two months ago! By the way, a lot of cheating goes on in these tests. Teachers sometimes will blatantly give their students the answers to make themselves and their schools look more impressive. If my kids failed, at least they can proudly say that they failed with their dignity, integrity, and critical thinking skills still intact!
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