High Stakes Testing and Student Achievement.
The effects of high stakes testing may be critical in the lives of public school students and may have many consequences for schools and teachers. There are no easy answers in measuring student achievement and in holding teachers accountable for learner progress. High stakes testing also involves responsibilities on the part of the principal who must involve teachers in quality in-service education programs to offer the best in student education. Parents too have a vital part to play in the current high stakes testing movement, and they should learn what the test means and how to prepare their child. Motivation in test taking is a real problem. Student anxiety is one of the factors that must be considered. When the stakes are low, more energy might be available for test taking. Much research and development will be needed to resolve questions about high stakes tests.
Appraising Learner Progress in the Social Studies
Many changes have occurred in techniques used to appraise pupil achievement in social studies. Teachers, supervisors, and principals need to stay abreast of new procedures. Why? With the use of diverse approaches, the teacher may be in a better position to notice progress of Individual pupils and then plan for sequential learning in the social studies. Diagnosis and remediation involve evaluation and the results should be used to assist each pupil to attain more optimally. A more traditional approach in the appraisal process has been to use standardized achievement texts. These are norm referenced tests and provide results which spread pupils out on a continuum, from high to low, in a classroom, pupils' results from taking a norm referenced test may range from the first to the ninety-ninth percentile. Comparisons among pupils and between schools as well as states may then be made of learner achievement. There are no objectives for teachers to use in teaching when referring to standardized tests. Objectives, carefully chosen, provide direction and guidance to the teacher in what is to be taught as well as what is to be learned by pupils. To take care of some of these deficiencies, criterion referenced tests (CRTs) were developed. The CRTs had statements of objectives that aligned with the test items. Learning opportunities were chosen by the teacher to assist pupils to achieve the stated objectives of instruction. The appraisal procedures measured what pupils had learned. Validity of the test items was then in evidence. If adequate pilot studies had been made of the CRT, reliability might also have been determined, be it test/retest, split half, or alternative forms of reliability. However, the purpose of CRTS was not to spread pupils out from high to low In terms of test results, but rather to guide pupils to achieve the objectives of instruction. There are states and schools that still give standardized tests to pupils to measure progress, at selected intervals. CRTS are more common and are given every few years to pupils as they progress through the public school years. Approximately, three/fourths of the states in the United States measure pupil progress in selected grades to report pupil achievement to the lay public. CRTs have several weaknesses. These weaknesses are the following: 1. It is a one shot approach in one or more school years in attempting to show pupil progress as they go through the public school years. It is vital that pupils do extremely well at that time, since the results are reported to the lay public. Parents and the lay public may place much credence upon CRT results to the point that daily work in evaluation of pupil progress is not considered. 2. the CRT may have been written hastily with inadequate or no pilot studies made. In pilot studies of a CRT, weak items may be rewritten or weeded out, as item analysis studies of that CRT indicate. 3. the CRT may not be properly aligned with the stated objectives. Thus, validity goes by the wayside. 4. studies of reliability may not have been made in a pilot study to notice how consistently the test measures. 5. trivia, rather than relevance, may be inherent in the test items written. Appraisal procedures used should be studied and revised as the need arises. New procedures on evaluating pupil progress also need to be in evidence (EdIger, 1988). Journal Writing by Pupils In each unit of study, pupils should have ample opportunities to write in their journals. In social studies lessons and units of study, pupils may write individually or collaboratively. The entries may tell about what was learned in terms of subject matter content. The entries written need to be reviewed to retain for a longer period of time that which had been learned. Journal entries may also reflect impressions gained by learners. Feelings may become a part of journal writing. …
Students as promoters of rural extension in aquaculture in the Marajó archipelago, Pará, Brazil
Aquaculture is the creation of aquatic organisms. An expanding activity, being of great importance its approach in rural extension. Thus, the objective of this study was to analyze the contribution of extension activities in aquaculture in the professional training of students in Marajó, Amazon, Brazil. The project “Technology transfer through training and technical assistance for tambaqui breeders, Colossoma macropomum, in the archipelago of Marajó/PA” was developed by 10 technician and under graduate students from rural education course and the technical course in aquaculture from the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Pará (IFPA) Campus Breves, in the city of Curralinho. They participated in the stages of data collection in aquaculture enterprises, training for producers and monitoring of aquaculture production, acting as researchers, instructors and extension workers, respectively. The duration of the project was from August 2019 to March 2020. At the end of the project, a questionnaire was applied to the students involved. The results showed that the aquaculture extension activities developed were relevant and significant, for the construction of knowledge in a mutual way between those involved (students and aquaculture producers). The acquired experiences will substantiate and subsidize the professional practice of these students in a concrete and effective way. In conclusion, the extension project represents an excellent tool in the teaching-learning process for students.