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Subscribe to RSSA new digital tool to test academic and behavioral skills will target students starting in kindergarten.
ACT, the organization that developed the ACT college-entrance exam, will start testing the tool in the fall. It will be available to schools starting in 2014. The tool tracks students' career interests, academic performance and progress toward goals.
One interesting element: The Associated Press said the assessment system will combine traditional testing with teacher-led projects to generate a digital score. That might allow broad comparison with a student's peers.
ACT said in a news release on Monday that the tool is part of a "'next-generation' system" that will attempt to provide a measure of a student's performance from early elementary school through high school.
Jon Erickson, president of ACT's education division, said the goal is to identify and address gaps in skills needed for college and the workforce.
Schools won't be compelled to use the new tool, but Erickson said he anticipates that entire states or groups of states will choose to utilize it. ACT said the tool can be customized to include state-specific benchmarks and other performance measures.
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Another possibility is to ensure the child is adhering to the political dogma being taught in school today. We MUST ensure that the children are politically correct and devoid of any concept of original thought.
Sounds like another opportunity for the makers of the ACT to grab some cash from gullible helicopter parents for years and years.....
"Your son Ashton's interest in finger paints is in the top 5 percentile of the nation. Compared to the other children in his school, he is in the top 3 percentile. Compared to children in kindergarten who don't care, he is in the equivalent of 99.99%." Of course, the fact that he is 8 years old in kindergarten is irrelevant.
Many highly intelligent children look like they are lower in performance because they are made to sit through the curriculum that is geared for their "peers" by states' laws, even if they test far above grade level. Then they are labeled "hyperactive," and this new tool by ACT will ensure that their college applications will show maladjustment from an early age. Instead of fixing what is wrong with the schools, this new test will ensure that the students are further penalized for just being kids who want to learn and explore something new instead of the same curriculum that they already knew years before. It is a terrible idea, and I hope that every effort is made to put a stop to it NOW.
ACT huh,,ya, on a grant from the Republican Right-the same people that brought us the TSA x-raying babies and fondling grandma, the Homeland security goons that significantly reduce our rights and the homophobics that are afraid of gay marriages..seems a little like big brother to have a national company watching our every step from pre-K to PhD. I want a smaller government that stays out of my life instead.
seems like a useful tool to track kid's progress in comparison to kids in other areas of the country.
Or just an opportunity to cash in on more useless information generated from meaningless statistics.
When I read the headline, I thought they were going to chip them like we do our pets so they can be physically tracked. This sounds better.
Oh, the original headline didn't have the word performance in it.
Sir! I'm not sure the tool is working correctly.... says here half of the kindergarten class wants to be police officers, and the other half want to be astronauts....
Surely some of them must want to be firefighters and reality TV "stars". :-)
Don't forget veterinarians.
When my kindergartener had his career puppet assignment, the only career I could get him to commit to was "Dad". So there is that too.
Sounds bit big brotherish to me....what happened to the part of growing up that allowed for mistakes and self-correction? I think they may be trying to stick round pegs into square holes.
They're still allowed mistakes, but self-correcting?The ACT is gonna correct 'em now, so I hope you like the way your children turn out after being corrected.
At that age I was torn between being a jockey, a cowboy or a ballerina. I was 5'6" tall at 12 years old, which pretty much ruled out two of those and no I am not a cowboy either.
Talk about big brother watching - simply frightening!
Yup..I think TSA and the Homeland Security agency should be sharing all the data collected..not really. I want a smaller government and want it to stay out of my llife, my kids lives and my grandkids lives.
I don't like this at ALL it's a invasion of privacy! It could be used to hurt kids trying to get into college! I don't want my kid to be a marketing tool!
I wonder how long it will be before ACT starts selling their data to marketers and retailers? So now governments are sharing data generally considered private under federal law with *one* private company? I can see it as a great way for local districts to generate revenue through the sale of the data... wtg!
Actually, it's more like FaceBook following you to job interviews or employers asking for you Social network password.
I am so glad that my youngest child just graduated from high school. Testing and tracking has ruined the concept of learning for the sake of learning. Our school system, rated one of the best in the state, is so focused on testing that they actually called the kids into the gym and told them that they were disappointed that they received the number two rating, and that they must work harder to become number one. The money spent on testing should be put back into the classroom. Teachers know who needs to work on certain concepts, let them focus on that and not on those tests. Doesn't anyone realize that we are creating a nation of kids who can memorize standard answers, but who can't be creative and think for themselves. Schools spend most of their time teaching kids how to fill in the bubbles, instead they should be teaching them how learn and explore without so much pressure to be the best school.
How true !!! To be educated, it used to be one had to learn how to learn what one knew and did not know and how to obtain knowledge. Now, all you need to do is to learn how to take the test and determine the most likely answer. Many schools do not teach how to learn, but simply teach to the tests. When these super tested individuals are expected to learn on their own in college, many fail, miserably because they don't know how to learn.
Lots of great comments. But ACT is simply a business wishing to extend its commercial reach. Our children are merely fodder for their machine. Technology is fun. Corporate demagoguery is frustrating.
just one more way to take away our freedom. mark my words you @!$%#ing APATHETIC(seriously look up the definition), OBEDIENT, IGNORANT, AMERICAN MASSES; ALL OF THESE LAWS AND NEW PROGRESSIVE INNOVATIONS THAT ARE BEING PASSED ARE PART OF A BIGGER PLAN. it is to change our country in a slow, unnoticed step by step, piece by piece, little by little, one law at a time way. The result will be that in a few decades the face of america will be so vastly different from the original america( different from the original america that offered us freedom of choice, freedom of thought, freedom of speech and expression) all of this will be gone in a few decades mark my word. where is my evidence?; just do some research, use google search type in cops pull over man for political bumper sticker. OR try googling cops arrest woman for reading the constitution in a public forum.
The basics of what i am saying are this: there is an agenda to change the country for the worse. In order to accomplish the change without raising eyebrows they must initiate the change slowly by passing new laws incrementally and slowly over a period of many years. the public says, with each new proposed law, "its no big deal". its just one more law." Eventually though the end result will be that the country will be inundated with so many laws that people will realize how bad things have gotten and will wonder "what were our parents thinking"? At this point the agenda of slow change has been accomplished, and it is too late to turn back.
And it all happened because the current american public, is APATHETIC, LAZY, IDIOTIC, AND OBEDIENT
As long as government doesn't have access to the information it seems like a good idea.
ACT huh,,ya, on a grant from the Republican Right-the same people that brought us the TSA x-raying babies and fondling grandma, the Homeland security goons that significantly reduce our rights and the homophobics that are afraid of gay marriages..seems a little like big brother to have a national company watching our every step from pre-K to PhD. I want a smaller government that stays out of my life instead.