There are a lot of issues that this article brought up that I did not find surprising. The problems of high-stakes testing effects all areas of classroom instruction espcially when you start talking about bilingual programs. I had a class this summer with many bilingual teachers and I asked them how do they make the choice of what language the students will take thier exams in, all of them had something different to say. I think as a teacher that would be an incredibly hard choice to make. The teachers, some had consulting processes they went through with teams, others just made the choices themselves and others just taught in English, even though they were suppose to be bilingual teachers. This issue of what language to take a test in just highlights another reason why high stakes testing can not be the only measure for schools and students.
Another aspect of this article I find interesting, is the underlying belief of teachers that kill and drill in one language is going to improve students proformance on a test, when most research shows that balanced bilingual education is much more benificial. So, in light of that I sitll don’t understand teachers descisions not to keep with the principles of bilingual education and keep a balanced instruction. I wonder if someone did a study on that what students would perform better, the students with balanced bilingual instruction, or the students with the kill and drill method in one langauge.
Another thing I dont understand is why can’t the TAKS test just have both languages on one test for the kids? They have already gone throught the expense of making and translating this test, why not just have both and have kids choose while they are taking the test which language to answer in. Maybe some questions they will answer in English and some in Spanish, won’t that be a more balanced way to do this kind of testing. Why do they have to choose between two languages? Maybe there is some administrative reason for it, but I have to imagine that the folks who are grading the Spanish test are bilingual. Maybe somebody knows more about this than I do and has a answer to it.
The point the article makes about rich and diverse instruciton time lost due to preparation for the TAKS test is so true. That hurts all students. It makes me think of the schools that spend so much time focusing on TAKS preparation seem to do worse than schools than the schools who do not spend time focusing on preparation, and I just think that widens the gap instead of “equalizing” education the supposed purpose for standardized testing in the first place.
November 3, 2009 at 3:06 am |
Beth,
Your suggestion for the students to be able to choose which language to take the TAKS in was interesting. I have never thought about that. But, I can see how that makes sense. bilingual education means that the students are being taught in both languages… and the article did state that the purpose of bilingual education was to have the students grow in both languages. I wonder if this would help the teachers move from the drill and kill method into more appropriate teaching practices.
November 4, 2009 at 2:01 am |
I agree. I hadn’t thought of combining Spanish and English in one test. It seems like a relatively simple solution, which makes me think there must be a reason that it hasn’t been done that way. I wonder what that reason is.
November 4, 2009 at 6:12 am |
I wrote something like this on another blog, but they say in the article that it raises validity questions because of how difficult it is to translate across dialects/variations in languages. I guess I see this point, but it seems that it would be do-able.
November 4, 2009 at 1:18 pm |
I am sure it brings up validity issues. But I wonder if in the TAKS test if they have the directions in both Spanish and English for each item because if they don’t, that also makes the test not reliable because they don’t know if they are testing content knowledge or the ability to understand instructions.
November 5, 2009 at 12:54 am |
I do agree that it would be completely doable to have the test in both English and Spanish, but then poses the question of how long this would continue? Would this happen throughout all of the years of school? And if this does happen, at what point does it become a crutch for the students, and not a help? I want my students to be able to transition fully at some point during their education to be fluent in English. Allowing both languages does not provide a accurate gauge for when they are able to be transitioned out of a bilingual program and into mainstream English classrooms. I want to find a balance of this on the test, I just don’t know how that is possible.