EdWatch Nevada by Joe Enge
Joe Enge serves as an education analyst with NPRI, as chairman of EdWatch Nevada, and as a member of the Carson City School Board. Author of two world history textbooks, columnist for Liberty Watch Magazine, Joe was a high school teacher in Nevada from 1988 to 2006 and a Fulbright teacher to the former Soviet Union. He was named a Madison Fellow in 2005.
Recently Written
- Don’t practice whole language on my kids: history of the phonics vs. whole language debate
- You know things are really bad when the Dems demand public school reform: Democrats for Education Reform
- Office of the AG agrees Carson City School board agenda item would have violated the Open Meeting Law
- Heidi Harris Show appearance
- Ethics to hold formal hearing against former State Board of Education member Gary Waters
- Lesson in education
- Educational feudalism
- Professional choice
- Regent Knecht’s Official Evaluation of Chancellor Jim Rogers
- Everyone suffers when educrats don’t do their homework
Categories
Archives
Admin
Search
Apr
27
Crack in the dike: bill to undermine the accountability of proficiency exams
Filed Under Uncategorized |
The semblance of accountability that we have in Nevada with the proficiency exams to graduate high school in Nevada is under assault with Senate Bill 312. The bill introduced by Senator Horsford with Senator Titus speaking in support will provide “alternatives” for students to get out of passing some proficiency exams, as amended the writing and upcoming science tests.
That the current exams to graduate are not that difficult is an open secret. Many of the students who “pass” the low bar of the proficiency exams need to take basic remediation classes in Nevada’s college and university system. An exceptionally high number of Nevada’s students pass the writing test, yet many of them continue to demonstrate major writing challenges.
Even this weak system proved too much for some in the Legislature. They know not what they do because they are undermining not just accountability, but the teachers. The requirement for students to pass the exams to graduate is a true blessing for English teachers. I was there, teaching English and saw how students took the class and subject far more seriously when they knew they had the proficiency hurdle to jump.
The key to an effective education system is having schools and teachers free to innovate in order to meet the needs of their students and have a solid exit exam system. Many countries in Europe correctly have this proper balance as noted by Education Week.
Foreign Scholars Eye Issues That Resonate In U.S.
By Debra Viadero
Education Week April 18, 2007
According to Katharina Maag Merki, an education professor from the University of Freiburg in Germany, the school accountability movements in that country and in Switzerland are designed to be a trade-off: Local schools are given more autonomy, but they must teach to core-curriculum standards and submit to outside tests and evaluations.
When I was a Fulbright teacher in Estonia after the fall of the Soviet Union, my students were pushing me to learn. They did so because they knew they had to pass the national exams in the subject, exams that were academically solid and challenging.
The sick irony is that the same 2 Senators, Horsford and Titus who applaud S.B. 312 to undermine real accountability, are the ones who proposed an overly restrictive Empowerment version to strangle the concept. They are anathema to school and teacher freedom to innovate on the one hand while on the other hand doing all they can to water down what little we have in place for academic quality control.
The bill has been amended to minimize the damage from a 2 inch crack in the dike to a 1 inch crack. No real difference in the end as the dike of high school standards will burst either way. Why do some in the Legislature disdain academic freedom, accountability, and competition? If SB 312 gets to Governor Gibbons’ desk, it should be soundly vetoed with extreme prejudice in big red letters and font.
Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate; now what’s going to happen to us with both a Senate and a House?
Will Rogers
Comments
3 Comments so far
Joe
Great to see someone finally writing about the importance of comprehensive, externally graded, exit exams.
Folks who come here from Europe and Asia find absurdity in an educational system that allows teachers to issue important evaluations, in the form of GPA, to their own students.
Perhaps the most misunderstood component of the concept of external exams is the difference that it creates in classroom atmosphere. In the US, the teacher is an adversary because he controls the grade. In Europe, the bogey man is the anonymous examiner, who has completely intransigent standards and cannot be bullied into awarding grades that are not justified. The teacher is, therefore, an ally in the task of defeating the examiner.
The tragedy of the US system is the conflict of interest that it creates. Teachers can generate popularity, perceived effectiveness and job security by handing out inflated grades. Anyone with the courage to tell the students the truth about their performance risks alienation from students and colleagues, and probably a barrage of angry parents yelling: “You’re stopping my kid from getting into a good college”. The sad thing is - that’s probably true. In Europe there’s no point in bullying a teacher for a grade - the only thing that counts is whether a student can answer the questions the external examiner asks.
Regards
Richard Evans
[…] Ever wonder what happens when politicians are put in charge of something? Joe Enge shows us the answer to that one in his post on Education Standards in Nevada. ‘Crack in the Dike Bill to Undermine the Accountability of Proficiency Exams’ shows current pols are evidently thinking only of the loyalty of future voters. They’re trying to buy off current High School students by lightening their load now hoping they’ll return the favor by voting for them later. […]
Exams are required because colleges no longer trust high schools, high schools no longer trust teachers and the public trusts neither. Modern liberalism caused this, nothing else. IF teachers and admins were allowed by parents- Boards-libs-quota police-circling lawyers-race hustlers and state bean counters to actually give students the grades (and discipline) they deserve all would be corrected within 3 years. This will never be because liberal parenting and the prevailing culture will undermine anything near absolute that reveals the truth about where education (and parenting) are these days. Its all about student happiness, not success or character development like 40 years ago. Re-takes, open book test, super curving and little homework are the norm in most places. The A.C.T. was dumbed down (ed term is re-normed) in 1991. I was on a faculty group from my community college. Been in education 35 years, retired in 2004. All the pressure is downward. Remember where you heard this.