Educators: Kids exhausted by new exams - 4.5 hours over three days.

[Liberal_in_LA]

Educators: Kids exhausted by new exams

With state testing under way, many younger students appear to be exhausted by this year's longer exams and unable to complete their work effectively, Long Island school officials reported Tuesday.

English testing began in grades three through eight Tuesday and will continue Wednesday and Thursday, with a maximum four hours, 30 minutes allowed for completion over the three days. That includes 90 minutes allotted Tuesday.

"They just didn't have the stamina for it," said Peggie Staib, assistant superintendent for curriculum in the Connetquot district, which serves communities in Islip Town.

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This year's testing has extra significance because results will be used by the state for the first time in its new job-performance ratings of teachers and principals. Job evaluations, which will include input from local districts, are due Sept. 1.

http://www.newsday.com/long-island/education/educators-kids-exhausted-by-new-exams-1.3667394?google_editors_picks=true

[coalition_unwilling]

1. Charles Dickens prefigured today's NCLB nightmare back

in 1854 with "Hard Times" and Thomas Gradgrind's "Facts, only the facts!"

Gradgrind has an epiphany by novel's end, something I doubt will ever happen with the NCLB cultists.

[virgogal]

2. A third grader would be required to concentrate for

90 minutes on Tuesday?

Virtually impossible.

This is outrageous.

[oldhippie]

3. I'm shocked!

Shocked and outraged! How dare they expect someone to concentrate for an hour and a half a day? What the hell are they thinking?

Next they'll expect people to work that long every day!

[Starry Messenger]

4. recommend.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

5. At age 13, at the end of middle school,

I had a final state-mandated exam that lasts 4 days. On day 1, I had to write an essay on a topic of my choosing from among a few offerings, not revealed until test day. I had to write for at least 2 hours and I had a maximum allotted time of 5 hours.

On day 2, I had a four-hour long mathematics exam made up entirely of word problems.

On day 3, I had the foreign language exam where I had four hours of time to write in the foreign language and responding in writing to questions in the foreign language, generally on such topics as philosophy or history or art.

On day 4, I would meet with all my professors - arts, literature, math, science, music and so on - and I had a four-hour window to talk to them about a topic of my choosing, encompassing various disciplines and including a brief chat in the foreign language.

This was in Italy. If I and the thousands of other Italian 13-year olds can do it (and don't get me started on the final exam after high school - that's an exponentially more difficult exam), it can be done for a measly 90 minutes in grades 3 through 8.

This intellectual exercise has made me into a well-rounded and learned adult who has an attention span longer than a fruit fly's. And this is in addition to random oral quizzes in front of your classmates, endless essays, random quizzes, etc. And my parents complained school wasn't as hard as it was in their day...

Really, if a kid can stand to be in front of a computer or TV screen playing a game or watching a movie, s/he can handle 90 minutes of intellectual probing.

[Jello Biafra]

6. And on top of that...

teachers have their yearly performance review now heavily weighted on the student results of these tests.....it sets up everyone for fail.