To test or not to test: Should parents be able to decide whether kids take state exams?
Should parents in Georgia decide whether their children take annual state exams?
A reader told me that her daughter was showing signs of test anxiety because her elementary school was already in the midst of prepping for the April CRCT.
So, the parent asked, “Can we legally opt-out?”
No, says the state Department of Education, which sent me this response: “Given both state and federal law require all students test, we encourage parents to discuss their concerns with their local districts. Some districts have policies above and beyond state policies.”
When I last wrote about testing concerns, a parent posted that Georgia students can get around taking the CRCT, although the subterfuge seemed extreme to me and likely to cause the child even more stress.
The parent wrote, “All that is required is that you withdraw them from school and home school them through the two-week window of testing. As long as the student had done well in all core subjects the entire year, there is no way for a school to justify holding a child back. Know your rights. If there are problems, there is an appeal board that usually consists of the parents, teacher, principal. We did opt out last year. Took child out of 8th grade for week of testing and the following week (used to retest) and then re-enrolled child after two weeks of home schooling.”
I am not sure how many kids would be comfortable formally withdrawing from school for two weeks.
But should there be a process under which students can win a reprieve from testing? Should the decision be based on student performance? Should students with exemplary grades be exempted from testing, as they often are in college classes?
FairTest has information on the growing opt-out movement.
I am pulling out a comment from this post from our resident testing expert Jerry Eads:
Most of the entries above assume that the CRCTs and EOCTs are a measure of something worthwhile. Au contraire. The tests only tell us whether a student “met” or “exceeded” totally arbitrary points on one minimum competency test that has one thing in common with the space program: low bid. The information sent back to the schools is of virtually no use to teachers or students as to what they might do better; the tests are of no use for instruction.
For too many students, the tests have driven schooling to be nothing more than trying to memorize factoids to regurgitate and then forget as quickly as possible. Learning quickly becomes drudgery instead of the joy that it should be. Effectively, students learn virtually nothing on the way to becoming citizens. Students (and teachers) learn to hate school, radically increasing the dropout rate for students and the attrition rate for teachers (particularly the good ones).
By the way, the ONLY purpose for the SAT and ACT is to predict FIRST year survival in college, nothing more. Even though they are two of the best made tests in the world, they don’t do that very well at all, and are of hardly any use to colleges in guessing whether a student will be successful.
I think it’s a great idea for parents to keep their kids away from the state minimum competency tests. Perhaps sooner rather than later the state would end this cruel enterprise that does little more than drain resources and worthwhile learning from schools.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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124 comments Add your comment
Pluto
January 28th, 2013
11:05 am
Do you think countries like India, China, Japan and other economic leaders worry about this kind of mamby pamby nonsense? Our students need to prepare for stressful situations or we can step up our movement to third world status.
Devil's Advocate
January 28th, 2013
11:06 am
FWIW, I remember taking standardized tests in school 30 years ago and never considered it stressful as a child. It was just a bigger test than I normally took and we got to fill in the bubbles! YAY. If your child cannot handle the ITBS, the CRCT, or whatever standardized test, how can you expect that child to handle the SAT and ACT? If you don’t care about the SAT/ACT, then why do worry about the more frequent tests?
Beverly Fraud
January 28th, 2013
11:08 am
It’s possible, I think, that the “Commond Core” will help that. The CC itself demands higher order thinking and reasoning; it remains to be seen whether we’ll be able to afford that in the testing
@Jerry not a point of view held by Invisible Serf. Have you had a chance per chance to see the Invisible Serf’s Collar blog?
RCB
January 28th, 2013
11:08 am
Maybe those classroom observations everyone wants should be done the 2 months prior to testing. If a teacher is so stressed out that she is affecting children in her class, she should not be there. Period.
Devil's Advocate
January 28th, 2013
11:15 am
@Jerry Eads,
You just described “cramming” which has been going on for generations.
Richard
January 28th, 2013
11:37 am
This is insane. If parent’s really knew how best to educate their child, they would already be home schooled and not need to take a standardized test in the first place. I love how parents think that since they’re the parent, they are the best person to teach their kid how to read.
News Flash: Most of you don’t have a friggin clue how to teach your kid how to read write and do math. You know who does? TEACHERS!!!
(Ironically, many of these parents are the same people that want Congress to stay out of education because Congressmen don’t know how to teach. They’re absolutely correct on this, but acting like they know better is equally foolish.)
Face Reality
January 28th, 2013
11:44 am
Scoring poorly on standardized tests doesn’t mean you have test anxiety; it means you’re not as smart as you and your parents think you are.
Ole Guy
January 28th, 2013
11:55 am
What the hell’s going on here…ANXIETY…STRESS…isn’t this what (among a few other things) education is s’pose tado…enable the kid, through the process of meeting, head-on, the demands of a good education, so that, at some point in the future (be it within the halls of academe, or simply life itself), the kid will be able to become (somewhat) productive and self-sustaining. Maybe it’s..oh, I dunno…ole fashioned to even consider that todays’ youth might be obliged to contend with levels of stress, what with the nanny state we see creeping into the fabric of contemporary society, all one has to do is cry foul and await some form of governmental assistance.
Are you _hittin me…to even ponder the notion that one’s kid might become…”stressed” with the demands of school. Whether this end-of-cycle test (or whatever one wishes to call it) is even valid is another question for further discussion. As one responder points out…if the kid’s doing well on coursework, than why even bother with this exam? The same question might be suggested in the case of professional education. If the kid made straight A’s in med school, why bother with the added stress of board exams? The question become nothing less and nothing more than ludicrous (if it’s mis-spelled…too damn bad).
SOMEDAY, parents will come to realize that their kids are NOT special; NOT deserving of special considerations outside that which is demanded of their contemporaries, and are BEST left the hell alone when it comes to seein just how well these kids handle stress. In case you parents haven’t quite “grapsed” the issue…it sure as hell ain’t gonna get any easier for your kid. Ya best start learning to let go…unless, of course, you want your kids to set up camp in your basement until ya frequin die.
Matt321
January 28th, 2013
12:04 pm
It is interesting to me that so many people are concerned with “Social Promotion.” This is a phantom problem that, as far as I know, no research has been done on if it even exists in significant numbers. This goes hand in hand with people thinking that kids are too nurtured these days. Of course, look at the children and adults who have real problems in life, and of course, it’s exactly the opposite that’s the problem, as you often find a family that didn’t provide the love and support a child needs, not a family that provided too much love and support.
However, we do have real problems, that are measurable, like high school drop outs. As reported by this paper, 1 in 3 high school kids drop out. In some Fulton County schools, that number is greater than 1 in 2. What do these numbers tell us? Kids aren’t just being passed along – in fact, they’re being dropped and forgotten. Is it any surprise, in a system that seeks to standardize kids, and treat them like a mass produced industrial product? Is it any surprise that human beings, with God given talents, abilities, and independence, which we ought to nurture, are discouraged from participating in a system that wants them to be a sprocket that looks like every other sprocket?
It might be worthwhile to point out the advantages and disadvantages of actual social promotion, based upon research, but really, it’s a right wing talking point that isn’t going to respond to facts. Who cares if the kid does better in school and is less likely to drop out if he stays with his peer group, rather than repeating a grade and all the same material while being treated as a stupid failure? Someone did something WRONG, and needs to be SHAMED, am I right?
Devil's Advocate
January 28th, 2013
12:05 pm
I’m just surprised no one has connected the poor stress management with the loading of prescription drugs, and the eventual meltdown from never learning how to handle anything remotely stressful that leads to an unreported case of showing one’s backside at best, to mass shootings at worst.
captain obvious
January 28th, 2013
12:10 pm
Why hasn’t anyone brought up the fact that standardized tests are big business? How much tax dollars are wasted administering these things?
T
January 28th, 2013
12:11 pm
The reason we have standardized tests is that we have a huge disparity in the quality of education children are receiving. Teachers in a poor school give A’s to children that in a superior school would be lucky to get a C. When a teacher sees poor students only, a marginal student becomes a super star.
my child is not a lab rat
January 28th, 2013
12:15 pm
I personally don’t have an issue with standardized testing. Give them a test at the beginning of the year, a test at the end of the year, and see if they learned something. I do have a huge issue with at least 30% of my son’s 3rd grade year being devoted to either teaching to a test or taking a test. I do have a problem with extracurricular activities being cancelled during test weeks. And I know the principals are stressed, the teachers are stressed, and the kids are stressed because I see how it affects my 9 year old.
I just don’t see the benefit of testing week after week after week. It used to be you came to school took a standardized test, and moved forward with the curriculum. Now the curriculum is dictated by the test. It’s backwards.
Of course we shouldn’t get rid of the SAT or the PSAT. I don’t think anyone here is suggesting that. Kids do need to learn how to perform under stress. But, at age appropriate times. I remember seeing the principal walk up and down the halls during the CRCT testing a few years ago with a bucket and mop because they had so many 1st graders throwing up the first day. Is this really what we want for our youngest kids? I don’t.
I wonder if enough parents started pulling their kids out, would it affect change? Maybe not, but just a few teachers at a high school in Seattle seem to have sparked a National debate. Not about whether we should test, but how much, and how do we do it in a way that does not create a curriculum based around our kids filling in bubbles?
I don’t have all of the answers, but I think this is a discussion that needs to occur on a National level.
East Cobb RINO, Inc. (LLC)
January 28th, 2013
12:16 pm
tests have driven schooling to be nothing more than trying to memorize factoids to regurgitate and then forget as quickly as possible
And this is something new? I graduated HS in 1978 then on for a degree after that. That was how we got through school back then and that is how kids/students get through it now. Be it CRCT or the history quiz later this week. Paul Simon wrote about way back then “if you think back on all the crap we learned in high school………….”
Matt321
January 28th, 2013
12:16 pm
Also, it always strikes me how much some people just really don’t like kids. “You are not special! You deserve to suffer stress and anxiety! You must be made tough! If you are not tough, you are weak, and you deserve to fail!”
Hate to break it to you, but the founding fathers were also a bunch of namy pambies who thought that everyone was a special snowflake. The Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
I suspect some people would prefer a version that ran something more like “Some people are born rich, and some poor; to the rich, happiness and wealth, and to the poor, misery and toil. Governments are instituted among Men and Corporations to keep things the way they are.”
Political Mongrel
January 28th, 2013
12:29 pm
“I am not sure how many kids would be comfortable formally withdrawing from school for two weeks.”
Are you kidding? A two week vacation during the most stressful and least productive time of the year? Especially if there are no real consequences for it? Have you thought this through at all?
Kelly
January 28th, 2013
12:35 pm
If you begin to allow students with strong grades to exempt the tests, we will have a grade inflation scandal to add to our test answer scandal.
rojer
January 28th, 2013
12:36 pm
I like tests. As a student it forced me to learn the info and as a parent it gives me a kick in the rear to make time to sit down and teach my children. Not only that but the process of end of year testing makes students review all areas at once and then they can see how coursework and even different subjects interact. I always had good feelings when testing was over and it was (sometimes) a source of pride to get results. Other times it was a kick in the pants, particularly if teachers and grade sheets say great and the numbers say average.
Devil's Advocate
January 28th, 2013
12:39 pm
Matt321,
If all men are created equal, how can any one man (or child in this case) be special?
Okay, let’s fancy your opinion and say that students are all special. Then what? Are you suggesting that some students are more special than others?
Tired
January 28th, 2013
12:41 pm
Officially and intentionally withdrawing a child from school for 2 weeks is a weird form of protest, using the child as a pawn for no gain for anyone. It’s also tremendously disrespectful of the teacher(s) who have to withdraw and re-admit and catch up the student on missed work.
Do standardized tests predict future success, judge character, etc.? No. But they are consistent, as opposed to having easy graders and hard graders, and teachers who were divinely led to the profession and those who are passing time until retirement.
Brasstown
January 28th, 2013
12:44 pm
When business principles were put into education you never saw the pressure filtering down to the students?!
If you couldn’t predict that, then how can we ever hope that you’ll figure out that this was all a big lie anyway to erode public education. It had become incredibly effective at helping families to become socially mobile. Our corporations simply don’t need that many brilliant people to run their corporations. More skilled tradesmen and women are the great need. The private institutions are more than capable of providing the needed members at the top of our oligarchy.
“Remain calm and ring Carson for tea.”
bootney farnsworth
January 28th, 2013
12:45 pm
@ ABC
I stand corrected. based on the way you act towards people who show genuine concern, tests aren’t your son’s problem.
find a mirror, look in it, and you’ll see the main source of his difficulties.
in short, you.
oldtimer
January 28th, 2013
12:50 pm
The tests are so minimal….And after looking over Language Arts Common Core…we are dumbing down again. To teach something ..like The Gettysburg Address without providing historical context is stupid. I hope no teacher does it. That was just one of many ideas I just would not do. We are removing our culture from our schools.
I do think ITBS, SAT, ACT and so on…national norms testing is much more useful.
I can tell you no one is held back because they do not pass. I have had many 6th raders who have never ever passed any CRCT. The could not read or do math and had Bs on their report cards from previous years. When I told parents they could not read the parents were shocked. The ones who did things my way had much better news by the end of the year.
bootney farnsworth
January 28th, 2013
12:51 pm
oh, and ABC,
every helicopter parent I’ve ever met – and I’ve met bushels of them – all start by loudly denying being a helicopter parent.
nearly every parent I’ve met who had a child in difficulty had response number 1 right at the tip of their tongue. there is nothing wrong with my child, its everyone else
found that mirror yet?
bootney farnsworth
January 28th, 2013
12:56 pm
again, the CRCT tests in particular are a waste of time and energy. but until there is a major shift in the electorate they are not going anywhere.
should a parent be allowed to expempt their kids – sure. not our problem if they run into trouble later.
are parents who exempt their kids likely setting them up for disappointment later in life? more than likely.
oldtimer
January 28th, 2013
12:57 pm
Beverly…..I just looked through English Common Core and I do not see higher standards…I see a contiuation of mediocrity.I see deemphzing Americans great Literature for more informational reading. I guess challenging students to read difficult poems has passed…
I will say I taught remedial reading and history in grades 6-12 at various times…was never an English teacher…but I still see issues and feel for children and teachers. This is being pushed so hard and I am glad my own are through their years in school and read and learned what they did.
bootney farnsworth
January 28th, 2013
1:00 pm
@ devil
created equal overall, yes. remain that way? hell no.
and yes, there are – and should be- students who excel well beyond others.
overit
January 28th, 2013
1:07 pm
Isn’t the company that makes these tests owned by one of the Bush brothers? This is a money-making enterprise for this company and nothing more.
Pride and Joy
January 28th, 2013
1:10 pm
Lynn43, you have a good example but wouldn’t you agree that the question you cited was an anomaly and not the rule?
So suppose all the kids unfailry got the answer to that one question wrong…there are still all those other questions…and
Let’s face it.
Most, if not all, standardized tests are a majority of reading comprehension skills.
Reading comprehension is THE most important skill to learn and teach so if you are teaching the students to learn to read and comprehend what they are reading, any kid can pass the standardized tests; these tests are really, really easy.
Cammi317
January 28th, 2013
1:11 pm
The CRCT is a worthless test. They already take the ITBS in Public School which measures them on a National basis. Why the heck does it matter how they are doing against other students in an already failing state? It’s crazy. My daughter is in private school and they take the Stanford Achievement Test every Spring. The results do not determine whether or not they are passed to the next grade, their regular school exams determine that issue. However, the results are used to determine each student requires help in area or needs to be challenged in another.
bootney farnsworth
January 28th, 2013
1:11 pm
@ overit
link?
Pride and Joy
January 28th, 2013
1:12 pm
overit…of course tests are a money maker. you wouldn’t expect them to be free would you?
Are the text books free? Are the desks free? Is that Promethean board free? Do you work for free? no, no and no.
Because a material is made for a profit DOES NOT make it invalid.
Pride and Joy
January 28th, 2013
1:15 pm
Devil’s Advocate…
If you want to blame people for gaming the system for testing purposes…don’t blame the kids and parents.
TEACHERS and schools in Atlanta GA produced the BIGGEST cheating scandal in US history on those standardized tests. It sure wasn’t in the interest of the kids or parents.
Put blame where blame is due. It sure isn’t the innocent children and parents.
Pride and Joy
January 28th, 2013
1:22 pm
oldtimer makes a great point “To teach something ..like The Gettysburg Address without providing historical context is stupid.”
All of our kids learn the pledge of allegiace in Kindergarten and never taught what it means. It is ridiculous for children to “pledge allegiance” when they zero concept of what pledging and allegiance mean…
And has anyone ever actually listened to small children pledge allegiance? They slaughter it. A common misused word is “indivisible.” They all say “invisible.”
Before we tell kids to recite meaningless words, we need to ensure they understand what the words mean and the context in which they were meant to be.
It’s why I detest social studies in kindergarten. They all “learn” about MLK, right?
Wrong.
Until kids are taught the history of the US which includes slavery, the Civil War, Jim Crow laws and civil rights, they have no business having MLK shoved down the tiny innocent little throats. That’s politics, not education.
mathmom
January 28th, 2013
1:41 pm
Note – students currently in 9th and 10th grade, and those who will be entering 9th grade in the future, do not have to pass any EOCTs to graduate. They only have to pass what is now the writing part of the GHSGT. The writing part of the GHSGT does not seem to be too demanding. Of course, all of this could change – the GADOE changes the rules about once a week.
karla
January 28th, 2013
1:47 pm
I have said before that there is too much testing. The schools teach to the test only. How about teaching subjects the students actually need. When is the last time someone needed to know what a declarative sentence is?
The teacher
January 28th, 2013
2:01 pm
Already Sheared – and you know that all teaching stops after the CRCT’s stops – how??? Let me guess – your child says that they haven’t learned anything…REALLY??? Do you believe EVERYTHING your kids says all the time?? Instead of assuming that that is the case, maybe – as the parent – you need to sit down with your kids and encourage them to be an active participant in their education – oh but that would have to mean you would be an active participant in their education – too hard – sorry!
When are you (collectively) going to wake up and realize that if every little whim or concern your kids have is met with doing whatever they want is SERIOUSLY crippling their future?!?!? Lots of stuff in life is “too hard,” but opting out of it isn’t always going to be an option…WAKE UP!!!
News flash – most teachers DON’T teach to the test (we can’t “teach to” a test we can’t see); we try to instill critical thinking skills while following the standards and the curriculum, so they will be able to reason out the answers – it is a curriculum based test, so when we teach the curriculum, we ARE preparing them – DUH!!! This is the most idiotic idea yet!!!!
Dyslexic in Decatur
January 28th, 2013
2:04 pm
The debate about the amount of standardized testing that is appropriate at any particular grade level is a good one. But when you talk about the CRCT itself, it’s black humor. My child who could hardly read in elementary school, had MAP scores on the floor, and was diagnosed with a reading disability by psychoeducational evaluation, EXCEEDED on the CRCT several times during elementary school, even when the child too old to have the test read to them. Worthless test. The only thing it told us was that my child’s IQ is probably higher than whoever wrote the test.
Momof2
January 28th, 2013
2:29 pm
My kids now tell me what “standards” they are learning, not concepts. They both go to “top rated” schools in a nice suburban area. But the entire school environment is sterile and lacks creativity so that the “standards” are met. It just seems like the baby has been thrown out with the bath water when it comes to dependency on the CRCT to tell us that are kids are doing well in school…
John Friedricks
January 28th, 2013
2:39 pm
Want to go to college? There is a test.
Want to drive a car? There is a test.
Want to sell insurance? There is a test.
Want to be a lawyer? There is a test.
Want to be a surgeon? There is a test.
Need surgery? Who do you want to operate? The doctor with good grades or the one that is board certified?
There is a test for many professions. How do we responsibly prepare children by letting them skip the test?
Google "NEA" and "union"
January 28th, 2013
3:07 pm
“Teaching to the test” is just another canard floated by the teachers’ unions to influence the gullible and avoid accountability, of course.
If any such thing was possible—wouldn’t our state’s inferior test results speak to the incompetence of those very same teachers claiming they’re forced to … “teach to the test?”
AlreadySheared
January 28th, 2013
3:07 pm
@The teacher,
Your guess is wrong!!! I have seen it for myself!!! As I said, the CRCT tests are easy!!! Do you always use so many punctuation marks??? Why??? What’s up with that??? And the ALL CAPS??? Seems a little EXCESSIVE!!! But I guess since you have written your post so emphatically YOU MUST BE RIGHT!!!
Sandra
January 28th, 2013
3:07 pm
I have a daughter who has/had test anxiety. She did not score well on the IOWA in 3rd grade back in 1992. Her school wanted to put her in remedial classes even though she was an A/B student. I refused. Throughtout her middle and high school years she did not do well at all on the CRCT or ACT. She graduated #28 in her class. She went to college and had to take remedial classes the first year which was a total waste. Long story short….she attended college for 5 years on the HOPE scholarship maintaining a 3.8 to 4.0 GPA. She is now teaches 4th grade (for 6 years now) and is finishing her masters. This is a prime example as to why I am against testing!
Mom of twins
January 28th, 2013
3:28 pm
Home schoolers are required to take the CRCT, at least in 3rd grade where we are. You also can’t re-enroll in the same year you have withdrawn from public school. Can’t even enroll into online public school. Tried it.
Billycreekdawg
January 28th, 2013
3:43 pm
Pride and Joy,
I am not sure where your son/daughter goes to school, but I don’t know anything about teachers receiving bonuses for high student test scores. I do agree that many teachers place too much emphasis on these tests.
Home-tutoring parent
January 28th, 2013
3:43 pm
I don’t want to be perceived as “subversive”. But here are some things:
Garfield High School teachers in Seattle voted unanimously to not administer the MAP exam (three times per year as an intra-year progress-measuring device) and they’ve received a lot of support.
Excellent teachers feel that the test detracts from time that they want to teach important lessons. They’ve pointed out that the MAP test scores’ “margin of error” is greater than the “expected scores improvement” settings.
Most of these standardized mass-administration tests are “okay” for mass-mean setting, but not good for many individuals. For example, my boys got 700-710 SAT-M scores, 94th percentile for all HS SAT-takers, which included future humanities, social sciences and even arts majors. As wel as many future community college attendees.
Mysteriously, then they scored 800 on SAT Math Level 2C, 99th percentile, among a test-taking group comprised overwhelmingly future STEM majors (social science majors mostly declined this test opportunity, and future humanities and arts majors were absent from the field).
Take-home lesson, there is a non-mathematics aspect to SAT (I) M. Our kids couldn’t have mastered SAT Mathematics Subject Level 2, without having exemplary algebra and geometry knowledge and skills, which SAT-M I purports to measure.
Some of the newer tests require students to show their thinking processes, which reader-graders personally examine. This is a good development.
On Finland’s really good PISA performances, we hear lots of American NEA and AFT-member unionists proclaiming, “Finland students do great because their teachers are unionized, and their students don’t have to take standardized tests until age 15, when students are tracked into university vs. vocational-training tracks.” Wrong proclamation. Finnish students do well because their teachers are selected from the top 12% of university entrants. In our country, elementary school teachers are mostly comprised of 60th percentile or lower college entrants.
In math, which I am familiar with, a teacher who didn’t score 620 SAT-M or 27 ACT-M, and took either pre-calculus or calculus as her/his first college math course, is incapable of teaching 4th-6th grade mathematics, to college-track students.
For example, a 5th-grade teacher who can’t correctly solve 3/4 + 4/5 + 3/8 + 4/9 + 7/12 + 8/15 + 7/20=?, reducing the answer to the proper lowest denominator in less than two minutes, can’t teach college-track math. Breaking all integers 2-100 into primes or prime-factored composites in 5 minutes or less, identifying all prime integers 2-200 in 10 minutes or less, do it, or don’t pretend you know how to teach 4th-5th graders late-elementary mathematics. Be honest. Demand mathematics’ specialists to teach your students math.
Teachers who believe in public education, vote to agree to let really-talented math teachers be paid more than all-fields-teaching generalists–or in middle/high schools, more than humanities, social studies / sciences and arts teachers.
Let me give you some examples of good math teaching:
23 x 27 =? It equals 621. Answerable in 5 seconds.
Step One: Recognizing that 23 and 27 are 25 – 2 and 25 + 2.
Step Two: Recognizing that 25^2 = 25.
Step Three: Recognizing that (x +2) (x -2) = x^2 – 2^2.
Now try 26 x 21. Do 25 x 20 = 500 , 26 x 20 = 500 + 20 = 520, add a 26 for 26 x 21 = 26 twenties, plus another 26 answer, 546.(
Try 196 x 198. First do 200 x 200 = 40,000. Your multiple-choice answer to 196 x 198 will be close to this. For a multiple-choice question, look for an end-digit of 8 (6 x 8 = 48) and a value close to, but less than 40,00. But for an exact answer, you need to do 200-4 [196] x 200-2 [198], so you first do 200 x 200 = 40,000, subtract 200 x 4 [800] = 39,200, which equals 200 x 196, and then you need to subtract two 196’s, or 392, to get 198 196’s. 39,200 – 392 = an estimate a little more than 39,200 – 400= 38,800, but ending with an 6 x 8 =>, so pick 38,808.
“Nobody ever taught me to do SUBTRACTION doing MULTIPLICATION!”
Alas, you’re absolutely right. Nobody ever taught me that. That’s why WE WERE TAUGHT INCORRECTLY. That’s why every 4th/5th grade generalist teacher who doesn’t know how to do multiplication by subtracting should DEMAND that their students receive math pull-out/insert math instruction by people who understand mathematics. If you got a sub 620 SAT-M, sub 27 ACT-M, if you didn’t get placed in Calculus, or at least Pre-Calculus, for your first college math class, you’re out of your depth. The teachers who aren’t striking to get math-knowledgeable people, and to pay them more than they are receiving, are an important aspect of the problem.
“Everybody gets the same starting salary, and everybody gets the same step-raises” is killing public education. Uniformity does not equate to excellence, or even competence.
Inattentive parents are a significant aspect of the problem at all socioeconomic levels–it’s not just poor kids’ parents. Barack, a product of expensive private education, admitted he flunked out of post-7th-grade math. But he wants to rule America. He’s admitted, “America has been dumbed down sufficiently to make me Dumbo-in-Chief.”
Home-tutoring parent
January 28th, 2013
3:49 pm
Sorry 25 x 25 =625, my keyboard is acting up.
mothers concerns
January 28th, 2013
3:53 pm
I need a good Education Lawyer looking to sue son IEP plan wasn’t followed. I don’t think it right for kids with learning disability to be the same as other students in testing. The teacher failed him in one class and said she never saw his IEP until i schedule a meeting with counselor and special education.
rojer
January 28th, 2013
4:10 pm
Call me 404-766-8002.
Ann
January 28th, 2013
4:16 pm
Many commenters seem to think that requiring children to take these tests somehow prepares them for life and the work world when they will have to do things they do not like. The fact is that, in order to succeed in the future workplace in the U.S., they will need will the ability to adapt and learn new skills and tasks. The absolute most important thing a child needs to acquire and maintain is a love of learning and a desire to learn new things, and the motivation to do that. Beyond, that logical thinking and problem solving skills are cited by many companies as the future skills they need. That is the key to their success. Just ask any of the people who have been laid off, or are in their 50’s or 60’s, having worked in a career for many years, and now they cannot find employment in their field.
In the current school structure, the amount of time spent preparing for, emphasizing, and administering tests squashes this love of learning and takes away time from other important life skills. The attitude of they need to just “get used to it” and “do it” is short-sighted. And, just because a parent criticizes how something is currently done does not mean they are a “helicopter parent”.