2 ms·

Fewer days in school reducing test scores is very much expected. Going from that to claiming an adverse effect on learning, much less an overall harm, is quite

• rayiner 2y ago
  Test scores accurately measure learning. That’s one of the most robustly supported facts in all of education, and something virtually nobody in Asia or Europe disagrees with.
  • davorak 2y ago
    > Test scores accurately measure learning. I think you claim to much here. Or are using odd definitions, to me at least. Sure you can extract something about what has been learned with properly made tests administered correctly. It is the tool that is used because it is the tool we have, not because it 'measures learning' in all the ways we want to measure.
  • stefan_ 2y ago
    Which is why reorganizing all school systems around teaching the standardized test and judging teachers by these results has been such an overwhelming success that "virtually nobody [..] disagrees with".
    • School-Cotton 2y ago
      The US has probably the least test-focused education system in the developed world (you don’t need to take any exam to graduate high school except in some cases an extremely easy one as a formality). Would you claim the US education system is better than the UK, France or Germany?
      • lmm 2y ago
        The fact that we even have year-by-year, grade-by-grade test figures for the US implies it's significantly more test-focused than the UK, where those tests simply don't exist for most grades.
        • School-Cotton 2y ago
          Whether you get any qualification at all in the UK is entirely determined by high-stakes standardized tests, at least on the main academic track (GCSE and A levels)
          • lmm 2y ago
            Sure. But students have very little influence on the system. How test-focused a schooling system is isn't going to depend on how much test results affect the students, it's going to depend on how much test results affect the teachers and especially the administrators.
        • willy_k 2y ago
          Are you talking about finals or standardized tests? Because from my experience at least, the latter has minimal impact on the track that kids follow (could put on you advanced math or reading track but there is opportunity for mobility regardless) and only the SAT/ACT (highest score of however many times on chooses to take them) is used to determine where someone can go to college. But test scores (even MCAT/LSAT) will never determine what someone can study, just where, which is not the case in the UK per my understanding.
      • mrguyorama 2y ago
        There is no "US" education system in reality. There is a "Maine" education system, and a "Colorado" education system, and a "Florida" education system. They have wildly different rules, designs, systems, and results.
      • MisterTea 2y ago
        > The US has probably the least test-focused education system in the developed world And there I was, in American schools being told test scores were 80% of my grade with homework accounting for 10% and class projects another 10%. Both high school and university. Fucking liars.
        • School-Cotton 2y ago
          Presumably random exams made up by your teachers, not nationwide or statewide standardized tests, though.