Newsalert: Can You Pass The Harvard Entrance Exam of 1869 or sample of a typical eighth grade exam in Nebraska circa 1895 ?

Check it out at Newsalert.

What a difference a whole century makes? I think in colleges back in the 19th century you had to learn Latin or Greek and that's reflected in the Harvard Entrance Exam. I don't think I could even do the 8th grade exam in Nebraska in the 19th Century. Hopefully the teaching was top notch to take these exams.

Were 8th graders smarter in 1895?

[VIDEO] Mr. Beat takes a test written in 1895 to illustrate its difficulty. It's supposed to prove how great the education system was near the end of the 19th century vs. how weak our education system is during the first two decades of the 21st.

A few things to bear in mind when watching this vid. Was this test really designed for 8th graders? Is this really a good test appropriate for anyone and any education level? Mr. Beat attempts to tackle both near the end of this over 6 minute video.

RELATED: 1954 8th Grade Civics Test

WBEZ: Chicago scales back on standardized testing

CPS will eliminate 15 out of the 25 standardized test that students must take between KG and 12th grades. What tests were they taking? I think I could count on one hand the tests we had to take each year every year through 8th it was the Iowa Tests. The IGAP tests would be every year too, however, the testing would be different for example we may have to take a science and social studies one year and then the next math, reading, and writing. In 8th Grade we'd also have to take a minimum skills proficiency test.

Anyway cutting some of these exams will save money another thing I can agree on do these tests allow for learning or are teachers instructing for success on an exam. One of my teachers did that unfortunately even before the need to use standardized exams to determine achievement and learning.

Math quiz: Count the kindergarteners’ tests

Math quiz: Count the kindergarteners’ tests

Last week Karen Lewis, the often-feisty president of the Chicago Teachers Union, told a parent group that kindergarteners have to take 14 tests this year. That’s what some people call education reform, Lewis said, but “it should be called child abuse” because of the stress the testing regime imposes on youngsters.

CPS officials dispute that count, and say the number is much smaller. The big gap appears to reflect different interpretations of the word test, and the inclusion of separate tests that can be added at individual schools.

CPS spokeswoman Marielle Sainvilus said Lewis’ statement isn’t true.

“There are two required assessments for kindergarteners that are administered at the beginning and end of year,” she wrote in an emailed response. Those two tests are the REACH Performance Tasks – a wide-ranging evaluation that CPS uses as a key measure of teacher performance -- and a literacy–and-math test known as the NWEA MAP for Primary Grades.

That suggests CPS administers four tests to kindergarten students, two in the autumn and two in the spring.

How can four tests become 14? Different schools have the option of requiring additional tests, for one thing. Julie Fain, wife of CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey and mother of a kindergartener at Pritzker Elementary School, breaks it down this way: “For NWEA MAP Testing, students test in reading and math three times this year. For REACH testing, students will take a literacy test twice this year.” There’s also a literacy test, known by its acronym DIBELS, that will be given three times this year, she said. And Pritzker also administers a math test, known as mClass, that will be given three times this year. 

Winning a PR war with exaggeration?

I'm sharing this related post as I feel it fits with this one. It's not necessarily about testing but it's about parents wanting their young children to be "a step ahead" in the education system by attending an academic kindergarten as opposed to a play-based kindergarten. I wonder if the testing kindergartners go through these days are akin to turning KG into an academic based KG.

Cramming for kindergarten tests

I know the trend these days are to have our young people sent to pre-school in order to prepare them for school. Still is Kingergarten really that serious where you have to test them. So what is this Tribune article all about?

To test into some of Chicago's top schools, incoming kindergartners must be able to do more than just count to 10 or rattle off the alphabet.

They could be asked to identify trapezoids, figure out how many cookies they'd have if Mom put two more on their plate, demonstrate advanced literacy skills and, for gifted programs, be able to infer relationships, recognize patterns and predict what comes next.

You can probably predict what comes next yourself: With 3,337 applications filed for about 500 seats in Chicago Public Schools' classical and gifted kindergarten programs next fall, parents are helping their preschoolers cram for the tests.

"It's just yet another example that the country has gone test crazy," said Robert Schaeffer, public education director for FairTest, a national nonprofit that advocates for other methods of assessing young children. "This sort of insanity testing produces test coaching for little kids and gaming of the system by parents and others to figure out what's on the test and get their kid a leg up. We're not letting kids be kids, and we're making them into little Einsteins."

But with low-performing neighborhood schools an unattractive option and the cost of some private schools out of reach, many parents see CPS' selective enrollment programs as the best public education option in the city. As kindergarten is an entry year for most of those programs, many parents are hiring private tutors, researching tests used in other large urban school systems, finding age-appropriate questions online and doing whatever else it takes to get their kids on the right track early.

Read the whole thing!

I do believe McDade is one of those classical elementary schools on the south side.

Elementary scores up on state tests

However, scores for high school juniors fell flat! According to the Sun-Times:

Statewide, elementary kids showed improvement in almost every grade and subject tested. As a result, overall, more third- through eighth-graders passed their Illinois Standards Achievement Tests in reading, math and science than last year. The ISAT pass rate was 80.9 percent, up from 79.8 percent last year.

But improvement on the Prairie State Achievement Exam taken by high school juniors was flat, with only 53 percent passing that test both this year and last.

High school reading was down 2.9 percentage points, with only 54 percent of juniors passing that test. Even fewer kids passed math — only 52.7 percent — but that rate was up 1.1 percentage points from last year.

In science, 52.7 percent of juniors passed, up 1.1 percentage points.