Standardized Testing Fail
2012-04-17 16:57:41.413316+00 by Dan Lyke 1 comments
You know that problem where the test presupposes some level of ignorance. We've all had this problem, the high school physics tests which asks "why do AM signals travel further than FM signals", a question predicated on frequency, not signalling mechanism, and knowing of applications which use AM and FM signalling on the same band means you're likely to give an answer the teacher wasn't looking for.
(And, yes, I respect my high school physics teachers, but Mr. Chesto should have been smarter than to ask this question in this way... In his defense, he did back down quickly when challenged.)
Education is full of this sort of thing, I know that Charlene's recent college classes have had me tearing my hair out with "the teacher wants this answer, but here are cites which support this answer being more correct".
Turns out that Florida's Science FCAT test is institutionalizing this sort of idiocy and penalizing schools for having smart students.
So according to the Test Development Center, it appears that it is acceptable to use scientifically correct answers for wrong responses on the Science FCAT as long as FLDOE does not expect a fifth grader to be educated enough to realize that the wrong answers are scientifically correct.