While researching assessment tests for end of year...

[My3girls]

I made the mistake of looking at grade level standards.   Do they make the standards read harder than the reality actually is?

 

Writing Process- Use all steps in the writing process: brainstorm and organize ideas, create a first draft, revise and proofread draft, share completed work.

 

This is just one example that has me freaking out.  I think this so unreasonable for a 3rd grader!  I'm just glad that she can write a solid, complete sentence. 

 

I don't think that my 6th grader is going to complete MM6 before testing, because we had to do so much remediation when pulling her from ps.  So I am worried about her, too, now.  Not to mention that one of my ps mom friends is helping her daughter with mean absolute deviation and interquartile range.  What the heck is that?  I don't even see that in our curriculum!

 

I just keep telling myself, "I will not teach to the test.  I will not teach to the test." Please, talk me off the ledge.

[Arcadia]

 

Writing Process- Use all steps in the writing process: brainstorm and organize ideas, create a first draft, revise and proofread draft, share completed work.

I have one doing 3rd grade LA.   The writing process takes a week, not a day.  First day is just filling up the graphic organizer or putting thoughts down in note form.  Second day is looking over the notes or graphic organizer and write short topic sentences. Third day is write one or two sentence to support the topic sentence. Fourth day is proofread and get ready for recitation. Fifth day is read completed work to an audience.  So it really is not a one day job.

 

For mean absolute deviation and interquartile range, my older did cover it for school in 6th grade math. It is the statistics portion and is about a few pages worth in his textbook. 

 

Don't panic.  No one would care what kids in general do for these tests.

[zoo_keeper]

Not to mention that one of my ps mom friends is helping her daughter with mean absolute deviation and interquartile range.  What the heck is that?  I don't even see that in our curriculum!

 

Funny timing, I'm giving an exam today to my undergraduate students (who have already had a college stats class) that, in part, includes standard deviation.  Even after seeing the concept and computation in high school, in a previous college course (and apparently now in elementary, who knew?) some still didn't get it.  And these are kids that have self-selected into math-based disciplines.  My point is that these statistics are more advanced than 6th grade math so please don't worry about them.  I would never have guessed they were being introduced so early, because it's certainly not sticking!

[Crimson Wife]

I just took the CA Basic Educational Skills Test yesterday (required of all PS teachers, including daily substitutes). I went into it basically cold because I registered for the test on Monday and my choices were either the very next day or the 25th. The math is all very basic algebra (as in solve for x in a simple linear equation) or below so I figured that if I could teach Singapore 8A to my oldest, I should be able to pass the CBEST math portion.

 

I was a tiny bit concerned going into the CBEST because the test prep book from the library I had looked over the night before had information on calculating the standard deviation and the % of the testing group each stanine represents (I'd always assumed they were deciles but actually the 5th stanine contains 20% while the 9th stanine only contains 4%). But I figured that out of 50 math questions total, there couldn't be more than a handful of statistics questions; even if I got ALL the stats questions wrong, it would be unlikely to make a difference between passing the math section and failing it (the test is pass/fail).

 

When I took the real test, I discovered that the actual test questions had not only the standard deviation already calculated for me, but also the bell curve was labeled. I didn't even have to calculate anything- all I had to do was to be able to read the diagram correctly! They didn't ask me anything about stanines. I got almost every single question on the math portion correct (scaled score of 73 out of a max of 80, passing score was 41).

 

Given the relative ease of the math on the exam that PS K-8 teachers have to pass in my state, I'd be willing to bet that most of them wouldn't have a clue how to do the stats questions the OP mentioned.

 

Now I'm just waiting on the results of the stupid essay portion of the CBEST. It was such bull manure, but I'm confident that it had decent spelling, grammar, sentence variety, vocabulary, and coherence. All I need is a "pass".