From S.F. Gate by Jill Tucker:
In just two years, California students, along with millions of their peers across the country, will start taking new computerized standardized tests that require them to write, think, analyze and solve problems - a dramatic departure from the fill-in-the-bubble tests in place for decades.
But schools in the state are nowhere near ready for what education officials say is an overhaul of what is taught and how kids are tested.
The move away from a testing model that relies on memory and a No. 2 pencil would cost an estimated $1 billion to implement in California, state Superintendent Tom Torlakson said Tuesday. That would include the cost to update curriculum, provide teacher training and get more computers in classrooms, and it would require changing some state laws, Torlakson said.
He outlined several recommendations to help get schools ready for the change. They include getting legislators to approve suspending 30 of the grade-level, course-specific standardized tests given to students next year to save money and give schools breathing room to prepare for a new testing system that starts in 2015.
That means, in 2014, only the tests required under federal law would remain, including math, English and science in selected grades, Torlakson suggested.
National standards
Torlakson's recommendations were made with input from a statewide task force that reviewed how to transition to the new tests, which will be based on national academic standards called the Common Core.
The Common Core outlines what children should learn in math and English at each grade level, offering for the first time a common road map for what to teach and when to teach it. Science standards are in process.
More than 40 states, including California, have adopted the new standards and are expected to administer the aligned tests.
The new standards emphasize critical thinking and problem-solving rather than memorization. They feature a wide range of reading materials that include fiction and poetry as well as nonfiction essays, articles and texts.
In 12th grade, a student might be asked to analyze hierarchical relationships in a phrase or Boolean searches based on "Google Hacks: Tips & Tools for Smarter Searching."
Or a sixth-grader might "trace the line of argument in Winston Churchill's 'Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat' address to Parliament and evaluate his specific claims and opinions in the text, distinguishing which claims are supported by facts, reasons and evidence, and which are not," according to Common Core sample questions.
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