[Edu-sig] Could there be a new test, call it AP something else?

[Maria Droujkova]

On Mon, Jan 25, 2010 at 11:50 PM, David MacQuigg
<macquigg at ece.arizona.edu>wrote:

> Litvin wrote:
>
>> AP is driven by colleges.  The AP exam used to be in C++ until 2003.  The
>> current exam has heavy emphasis on OOP.  It took a tremendous effort to
>> retrain HS teachers from C++ to Java/OOP...  If the college board decided
>> that Python is used at most colleges in intro CS courses, they would
>> eventually move.
>>
>
> Why does the AP test have to be offered in just one language?  Why do we
> need to make a "tremendous effort" to move teachers from one language to
> another?  Couldn't every school-district make it's own choice of language?
>

The goal of the whole standardized testing movement is to compare people
from different educational backgrounds on the basis of some universal
standards. The way this fascinating and potentially creative problem is
currently approached mathematically is to create not just universal
STANDARDS for the content, but universal CONTENT. This makes it easy to show
that the comparison formulas and norms work. For example, in this thread
people said Python is two to five times more effective for them than Java.
Well, the ancient test-norming math won't have any of that, and to the best
of my knowledge, people have not done any concerted theoretical development
in that area for the last fifty years at the very least. Why work on that
complex task, when the same content for everybody can be mandated through
test monopolies, trivializing the norming problem?

Standardized tests as we know them aren't suited for any pluralism within
one area, by their very design. Multisubculturalism has happened too
recently to be taking seriously, I guess.

At the other end of the spectrum, we have extremely open-ended interviews
a-la, "Why are manholes round?"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhole_cover#Circular_shape

What we seem to want is something in-between. I hope my note shows some of
the conceptual and administrative challenges involved in this, much-needed,
change.

Cheers,
Maria Droujkova
http://www.naturalmath.com

Make math your own, to make your own math.
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