What does test-driven education accomplish?

Star Tribune Sun, 06 Jan 2008 05:06:22 GMT
Fall schedule is a (modified) block buster

The high school is moving away from block scheduling in an attempt to boost its scores on No Child Left Behind tests. This fall, Forest Lake High School will make its biggest schedule change in a dozen years, altering its four-period block system in a move largely driven by concerns the schedule might hamper students' performance on No Child Left Behind assessments. The high school joins a move away from the block schedule, which runs on 85-minute classes and condenses yearlong courses into a semester, in favor of one that teaches core subjects 50 minutes a day for the entire school year. The North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale and Stillwater districts also abandoned a block schedule in the past three years. The new system eliminates the learning gaps that might have students taking the MCA-II test -- the state's No Child Left Behind assessment -- a full year after their last math class. "If we take kids out for half a year and expect them to do well on state exams, we're fooling ourselves," Principal Steve Massey said.

Comment: if content and teaching methods produce results that cannot survive a year, why do we bother teaching? If, on the other hand, sound content and teaching produce results that a test can't measure a year later, why bother with that test?
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