Will EOC Testing be any Better?

The Texas Legislature is considering replacing the High School TAKS tests with 12 End Of Course (EOC) Tests.

No .... these are not the Final Exams of your memory.

The Final Exams of your memory would be Exams which were written by your teacher covering the material your teacher had covered in class that semester or year. The teacher taught the class, the teacher wrote the tests, the teacher graded the tests.

The EOC tests will be standardized tests written by PEARSON Educational Systems ... the same people who wrote the TAKS tests. (Can you say "another big contract for Pearson"?)

EOC's are not new concepts. For several years there were EOC's being given to 9th graders for Algebra I and for Biology. These tests were given IN ADDITION TO any final exams the teachers gave. My opinions of EOC testing are based on my experiences with the Algebra I EOC test several years ago.

Just let me say this .... it isn't gonna get any better, folks.

A teacher can follow the curriculum and teach exactly what is supposed to be taught ... and be totally blindsided by the "End of Course" tests. It has been my experience that instead of testing the curriculum, the EOC DROVE the curriculum. Teachers, of course, were only allowed to see the test AFTER it was given ... and it often turned out that the things on the test just weren't the things of Algebra I ... at least not what the teachers thought were Algebra I.

We teachers always seemed to be at least six steps behind!! We would focus our teaching on the things that were tested on the last test only to find that the newest test focused on different things. The Algebra I books became totally worthless because the test was testing things often beyond the considered realm of Algebra I. Teachers had to create new worksheets and totally new lesson plans in an attempt to cover anything that might be asked on the next EOC. Algebra I courses became a mish-mash of old EOC tests and areas of weakness on those tests.

Meanwhile .... Algebra I was not being taught. At least, not the Algebra I we learned years ago. Principals and Math Coordinators only cared about the EOC test results ... no one seemed to care if the students could actually do any Algebra I!!

Geometry teachers began to notice severe weaknesses in their students Algebra I skills. So Geometry teachers had to start doing more remediation in Alg. I ... plus teaching the Geometry. And now the state wants to give an EOC Geometry test?? Plus an EOC Algebra II test??
Talk about a Math teacher nightmare. Makes me very happy to be on the private tutoring end of things. My business should do VERY well.

The DMN printed this article about the legislative moves on EOC Testing ... and it contained this quote ....

"We are extremely disappointed with what the House did," said Mr. Hammond, now president of the Texas Association of Business. "While we support the move to end-of-course exams, the House bill would make those tests meaningless."

He noted that when Texas had an end-of-course Algebra I exam a few years ago, virtually all students passed the course, even though as many as 90 percent were failing the end-of-course test each year.

90% of the students FAILED the EOC Algebra I test???

Did anyone stop to question the validity of THAT test?

Yikes ... I am beginning to sound like a broken record.

Any of you who think the move to End of Course testing is a move in a positive direction ... you are going to find yourselves to be sadly mistaken.