That seems to be the implicit question asked in the following story from the Dallas Morning News.
Despite high TAKS test scores, students do poorly when asked to read a story and write three short response questions. Fewer then half of Dallas area students can do this adequately even though large percentages pass the TAKS test.
The reason may be that the TAKS is a multiple choice test test that does not measure comprehensive knowledge nor the ability to translate that knowledge logically and sensibly.
Some point blame at the current technological environment with its emphasis on short brief communication and the short attention spans it breeds. But given that school commonly teach to the test, are we under severe financial pressure to demonstrate performance, we might just as well look at the instruction that this environment creates. Don't we now reward short term attention spans and thereby encourage it?
Some educators and testing experts say the low scores reveal a troubling lack of critical thinking and communication skills.
"Can your kids identify and state a main idea? If not, you need to teach them strategies to think through the text," said Patricia Mathes, director of Southern Methodist University's Institute for Reading Research in Dallas. "The real issue is not waiting until high school to teach these skills. If we teach our kids well, they will do well on these tests."
But some classroom teachers are frustrated, saying they teach the material the way they've been trained. Scoring on that section is too tough, they say, and doesn't truly measure what students know.
"The methods we've been told to use fail when it comes to the short-answer test," Rockwall High School English teacher Melissa Nelson said. "We feel like we're banging our heads against the wall."
The teachers are doing what they should be doing given the testing regime in place. If you want to better result, change the tests. If the nature of testing matters, and I thin it does, the shift to longer answers is welcomed, but it comes --literally--with a price. These tests take more time to grade, and time means money. Multiple choice tests can be quickly graded with machines, ask me I know. As with so many things involving education, are we as a society willing to put the time and money into doing what must be done to adequately teach our youth?
