As someone who struggles mightily with high-stakes testing (I had to take the SATs five times to get a decent score, my GRE math score was in the
My final consisted of three parts--a multiple choice section, a formal essay due on the day of the exam that had been assigned two weeks earlier (drafts were strongly encouraged), and reading a short selection and writing a "Found Poem" on it. The multiple choice component was focused on The House on Mango Street, To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, and Romeo and Juliet and included an element of reading assessment and test-taking strategies. What this means is that students willing to take their time, read carefully, and synthesize information given out in various questions did very well on this.
The found poem was intended to assess on-the-spot reading and taking out what was important. Not surprisingly, this was considered the easiest part of the exam for my students.
And then ... the essay. My hope was that students would use the two weeks to create drafts or, at the very least, to put some thought into what they would slam out the night before. To be fair, a number of students did this. Several went so far as to provide me four or five drafts of their essay over the last week and a half, I gave them feedback, and their essays are unbelievable. The kiddos that worked the essay are the ones that received the highest scores on the overall final exam grade. However ... the number of students that seized this opportunity was just not as high as I would have hoped.
I am myself a world-class procrastinator, so I guess I can understand the lack of enthusiasm for doing multiple voluntary drafts. I just wish that there was some way to demonstrate to kids that, if you aren't able to pull off the last-second magic, you should probably emulate the workhorse.
This post is nowhere near as clear, concise, and (I admit it) interesting as it sounded in my head. However, I needed to get back on the blogging horse, so I guess I accomplished that, at least :).
What do you think of final exams for high school students? Are they worthwhile or a waste of time? Are they similar in value to high-stakes tests like the SAT, the GRE, and (for us educators) the PRAXIS? Does this really mean anything?
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LOL! Ok so I'm going to confess something--LOL! I always turned in a rough draft, with X's and circles, and arrows all over it just so the teacher could see I was working on it. When it came to the final I just printed the SAME one off and of course didn't mark it up. I always got an A, always. LOL! I don't know what to think about tests. I didn't let them dictate my life I just relaxed and took them. And even though my math was never as high as my English and History grades were... I loved school and I'm probably just the wrong person to answer this post! LOL!
ReplyDeleteMost of the time, I think final exams are a waste of time. If your grades thus far don't accurately reflect what you're learning, then (in my humble opinion) the grading process needs to change. And asking high school students to remember some (supposedly) noteworthy quote or date from the first two weeks of school is insane, particularly since they will forget it on purpose once the test is over. Can you tell I'm jaded? (grin) One thing I like about the college I attend is its competency-based approach to learning. My tests show competency in the subject area, not that I can just spit out this or that. And yes, I do have to write papers (I have a huge one coming up in fact), but there is a defined rubric I have to follow. I don't see any reason high schools couldn't follow the same process to evaluating students. Maybe then we'd actually be graduating students that can USE what they learn rather than be inundated with a ton of facts they will forget 2 seconds after leaving the class. Good post though KLO, hope you can ignore the angst LOL.
ReplyDeleteI have mixed feeling about the high-stakes tests because, like you, some people just don't do well on tests even if they know the material. I don't know how that can ever change. It's not a "you know it or you don't know it" issue for some people. I'm glad to hear you reached the last day of your final exams.
ReplyDeletePerhaps not a popular opinion, but it does help prepare them for college. Most of my grades were composites of three exams, and maybe a lab grade. I had a class in grad school where the whole grade was based on one midterm and one final, each of which consisted of one question. Talk about high stakes! You simply cannot make a mistake under those circumstances. Unfair? Probably. That was just the way it was, though.
ReplyDeleteI think final exams are necessary. You WILL have final exams in college, so unless you want your tush thoroughly whipped when you sign up for first semester at the university, you better have some under your belt in high school. It's even worse in college too, because your grade is pretty much a midterm and a final. And as far as memorizing useless facts go, that's what my major is (history).
ReplyDeleteAs much as I would like to say it's not fair, it's the best way we have so far. There are also kids who can't write essays, but they're assigned anyway. Maybe they know the material, they just can't put it coherently on paper. But nobody ever questions assigning essays. Yeah, sorry this sounds harsh, but I don't see this changing any time soon.
I guess maybe my whole philosophy of education is changing. For some reason, I wanted my final exam to be relevant beyond the memorization then regurgitation of facts. Relevance is so key--otherwise, how do you get kids (and adults as well) to buy in? I mean, a lot of people can memorize, spit it back out, ace a test, and walk away with nothing. This has ceased to be okay with me, but then again, I am but a small voice : )
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