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Sa’ar in Ynet exclusive: Canceling standardized tests 'dangerous'
Ynet
Published: 14.08.13, 15:08
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1. Sa'ar is wrong
A Jerusalemite ,   Jerusalem, Israel   (08.14.13)
All standardized tests do is to force 'teaching to the test' in the schools. It does not encourage Education! which should be wide and deep not specific to a single goal.
2. No, Sa'ar is not wrong.
Raymond in DC ,   Washington, USA   (08.14.13)
I have some experience teaching - as a graduate teaching fellow, and within my agency as an instructor. (My sister is also a teacher.) Yes, there's always a danger of "teaching to the test", but the only way to know if the students have absorbed the teaching is to test. And those looking for the better schools need metrics to help decide. NOT testing is the coward's way out. Set high standards, as I did with my students, and they'll usually rise to the challenge. Drop any means to measure their achievement and they'll wonder "Why bother?" Sa'ar set a decentt standard as Education Minister, and Piron is failing to measure up.
3. Sa'ar was our best Education Minister.
Reuven   (08.14.13)
4. Raymond #2
A Jerusalemite ,   Jerusalem, Israel   (08.14.13)
I did not say don't test. I was a teacher for 30 years, have a post-graduate degree in education and retired only 3 years ago. Yes one must test to check on learning of material presented. That is a whole other matter than standardized testing across the nation. A teacher prepares a test *on the material taught*. When all students must be tested on the same material than that is the only material taught! When school's ratings depend on the levels achieved in the standardized tests, then no teacher is free to emphasize other subjects and no pupil is free to question the needed subjects taught. Standardized testing teaches mediocrity and lowest possible level. It is not education.
5. Churchil and Einstein would not pass.
ORA ,   JERUSALEM   (08.15.13)
Other factors than the result of these tests should be taken in account to accept students.
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