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4 February 2009 08:49 pmDear British government,
I understand why you want to be making sure that your teachers are literate, numerate, and know where the on button of a computer is. So it's not that I disagree with the concept of the numeracy test you are making me go through before giving me qualified teacher status.
I just do not think that this test is a fair assessment of my ability to do the math necessary to get through the day as a history teacher.
No one is ever going to run up to me and yell in my face "IN A TEST EIGHTY PERCENT OF THE PUPILS IN CLASS A ACHIEVED LEVEL FOUR AND ABOVE. IN CLASS B TWENTY-TWO PUPILS REACHED THE SAME STANDARD. WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO CLASSES IN THE PERCENTAGE OF PUPILS REACHING LEVEL FOUR AND ABOVE. NO CALCULATORS. YOU HAVE EIGHTEEN SECONDS."
There will never be a calculator ban and eighteen second time limit on my figuring out test percentages and pupil achievement. Never. I've thought about it very carefully, and can come up with absolutely no possible scenario in which there might be.
The test you have designed assesses whether I can do math quickly not whether I can do the math required of me to be a good teacher. This is a violation of basic assessment principle. Please review your test with this in mind.
Yours truly,
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in_stead
(All this to say...I keep failing the practice tests by two or three marks. Not because I don't KNOW what to do, but because I can't do it FAST enough. Real test on Friday. V.v. stressed now.)
I understand why you want to be making sure that your teachers are literate, numerate, and know where the on button of a computer is. So it's not that I disagree with the concept of the numeracy test you are making me go through before giving me qualified teacher status.
I just do not think that this test is a fair assessment of my ability to do the math necessary to get through the day as a history teacher.
No one is ever going to run up to me and yell in my face "IN A TEST EIGHTY PERCENT OF THE PUPILS IN CLASS A ACHIEVED LEVEL FOUR AND ABOVE. IN CLASS B TWENTY-TWO PUPILS REACHED THE SAME STANDARD. WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO CLASSES IN THE PERCENTAGE OF PUPILS REACHING LEVEL FOUR AND ABOVE. NO CALCULATORS. YOU HAVE EIGHTEEN SECONDS."
There will never be a calculator ban and eighteen second time limit on my figuring out test percentages and pupil achievement. Never. I've thought about it very carefully, and can come up with absolutely no possible scenario in which there might be.
The test you have designed assesses whether I can do math quickly not whether I can do the math required of me to be a good teacher. This is a violation of basic assessment principle. Please review your test with this in mind.
Yours truly,
in_stead(All this to say...I keep failing the practice tests by two or three marks. Not because I don't KNOW what to do, but because I can't do it FAST enough. Real test on Friday. V.v. stressed now.)
