Reply to High points from MS magnet at Blair tonight

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[quote=Anonymous]As long as everyone is given the same test and the test differentiates students, it will be fine.

The reason for a math test was surely to find students who'd spent extra time thinking about math or who notice subtle things that may not be hammered home in the curriculum and therefore would hit the ground running in a magnet.  But because there was a test, a culture of cram schools developed and instead the test just finds students who've been taught extra years of math.  There's a difference between someone who gets a test question right because they're seeing a problem for the first time and have insight and someone who gets it right because they've already done it five times.  There's a difference between someone who has potential to learn and grow in a magnet with like minded students and someone who will do well in the magnet because they've already completed middle school math.  But it's not a huge difference and it's hard to isolate that with any test.

If nothing else, the process has to change from time to time to reset the cram schools.  No one can say if the test prep works, but it's guaranteed that through talking with students who've taken the tests year in year out, the test prep organizers know more about the test and the types of questions that trip students up, than anyone else outside the testing office and selection committees.  And they're the reason we can't have a math test.

Essay, so there isn't a graded essay, but there's a writing sample the committee can refer to themselves, that doesn't sound like a huge change.  The purpose of an essay is to communicate, it doesn't need a score of 1-5 to do that.[/quote]

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