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"Art" is not even a question - these tests typically apply to high school kids, and you're lucky if bare-bones basic communication is possible there. Most of th

"Art" is not even a question - these tests typically apply to high school kids, and you're lucky if bare-bones basic communication is possible there. Most of these kids are straight-up idiots, and I say this having spent several years teaching them. I'd guess that the algorithm "map number of Microsoft Word reported spelling errors from (0 -> 800) to (20 -> 400)" does a pretty damn good job of guessing students' SAT Writing scores. Add in a factor for essay length, unique word cound, and grammar errors, and you'd probably get pretty damn close to perfect, within a reasonable statistical tolerance. Children don't produce art, almost all of them produce garbage, right up to the top 1%. Make no mistake, all that standardized tests aim to measure is how stinky the shit that they produce is. I'm fine with missing a bit of brilliance at the top; those students will do just fine anyways. It's ranking the relative crappitude of the middle that's important here, and I think the standard (if crappy) grading procedures do a pretty good job here.

kenrikm 14y ago
Jaded much? Maybe I'm overly optimistic of the quality of students the school system produces? (I never went to high school, I took the GED and scored in the 100th percentile across the board and went directly to college at 16)
unimpressive 14y ago
>I'd guess that the algorithm "map number of Microsoft Word reported spelling errors from (0 -> 800) to (20 -> 400)" does a pretty damn good job of guessing students' SAT Writing scores. The best part about that is the fact that people misspell words even with spellcheck! Come on, how hard is it to notice the squiggly lines and correct your error by picking the correct spelling from the drop down list? And I wouldn't say what I produce is shit, but then I would have said that when I was twelve. And I mostly have to double time on projects and essays, so they probably are shit. EDIT: And since losethos (Schizophrenic dude who's hellbanned.) asked, the boss; it's pretty clever to use someones tendency for pedantry against them.
- losethos 14y ago
  http://www.noob.us/humor/the-office-dwight-faces-nerd-torture-of-the-highest-form/ http://www.noob.us/humor/the-office-dwight-faces-nerd-tortur... Who's smarter the boss or Dwight? God says... 49:24 Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail. 49:25 How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy! 49:26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts. 49:27 And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad. 49:28 Concerning Kedar, and concerning the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon shall smite, thus saith the LORD; Arise ye, go up to Kedar, and spoil the men of the east. 49:29 Their tents and their flocks shall they take away: they shall take to themselves their curtains, and all their vessels, and their camels; and they shall cry unto them, Fear is on every side.
ericd 14y ago
I'm sorry, but this is absurd, and it makes me very angry. If I got a whiff of this attitude from you as my teacher, you would not get an ounce of my respect as a student. Why should I spend time trying to produce good work to impress you if you've already decided that what I produce will be shit? If you take the ridiculous view that my attention to grammatical detail, essay length, and variety of vocabulary used are the most important things about my writing, and enough to determine my grade? I say this as someone who graduated at the top of my high school class - if you can't get me to work hard for you, you're pretty screwed with the average student. It's no wonder that the stuff they wrote for you was crap.
- yummyfajitas 14y ago
  ...you've already decided that what I produce will be shit... What he said: "Most of these kids are straight-up idiots..." He hasn't already decided, he just came up with a prior.
  - ericd 14y ago
    He said it was true right up to the top 1%. If a teacher has disdain for the majority of his students, everything I said there holds.

kenrikm 14y ago

Jaded much? Maybe I'm overly optimistic of the quality of students the school system produces? (I never went to high school, I took the GED and scored in the 100th percentile across the board and went directly to college at 16)

unimpressive 14y ago

>I'd guess that the algorithm "map number of Microsoft Word reported spelling errors from (0 -> 800) to (20 -> 400)" does a pretty damn good job of guessing students' SAT Writing scores. The best part about that is the fact that people misspell words even with spellcheck! Come on, how hard is it to notice the squiggly lines and correct your error by picking the correct spelling from the drop down list? And I wouldn't say what I produce is shit, but then I would have said that when I was twelve. And I mostly have to double time on projects and essays, so they probably are shit. EDIT: And since losethos (Schizophrenic dude who's hellbanned.) asked, the boss; it's pretty clever to use someones tendency for pedantry against them.

losethos 14y ago
http://www.noob.us/humor/the-office-dwight-faces-nerd-torture-of-the-highest-form/ http://www.noob.us/humor/the-office-dwight-faces-nerd-tortur... Who's smarter the boss or Dwight? God says... 49:24 Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail. 49:25 How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy! 49:26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts. 49:27 And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad. 49:28 Concerning Kedar, and concerning the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon shall smite, thus saith the LORD; Arise ye, go up to Kedar, and spoil the men of the east. 49:29 Their tents and their flocks shall they take away: they shall take to themselves their curtains, and all their vessels, and their camels; and they shall cry unto them, Fear is on every side.

ericd 14y ago

I'm sorry, but this is absurd, and it makes me very angry. If I got a whiff of this attitude from you as my teacher, you would not get an ounce of my respect as a student. Why should I spend time trying to produce good work to impress you if you've already decided that what I produce will be shit? If you take the ridiculous view that my attention to grammatical detail, essay length, and variety of vocabulary used are the most important things about my writing, and enough to determine my grade? I say this as someone who graduated at the top of my high school class - if you can't get me to work hard for you, you're pretty screwed with the average student. It's no wonder that the stuff they wrote for you was crap.

yummyfajitas 14y ago
...you've already decided that what I produce will be shit... What he said: "Most of these kids are straight-up idiots..." He hasn't already decided, he just came up with a prior.
- ericd 14y ago
  He said it was true right up to the top 1%. If a teacher has disdain for the majority of his students, everything I said there holds.