Thread by @elizabethonline

1/30 One of the major points of confusion about the #SAT and the #ACT specifically is what exactly is on the test. It’s always worth discussing the content of assessments, especially assessments that are so high-stakes.

2/30 When I started teaching shortly after college, I got into it as a part time job. I was a subject tutor, designing curricula and teaching math. I had always been comfortable with standardized tests, so it seemed (at the time) like that, too, would be straightforward work.

3/30 I’d never “prepped” for the tests myself when I was in HS, so I didn’t perceive/approach them as arenas that required strategy. It struck me that they were simply testing what I’d learned in school and my understanding of language and mathematical reasoning. #edutwitter

4/30 Even as a young tutor, I wasn’t interested in teaching “strategies.” I figured that if someone couldn’t succeed on the ACT or SAT, it was because they genuinely didn’t know or understand the material on those tests. Nearly twenty years later, I still largely believe that.

5/30 So, as pollyanna as it may seem, I taught kids the algebra, geometry, grammar, and vocab. That has always been my approach: prep students for the tests that get them into college *so that they can be more successful and prepared for college*.

6/30 You can find this in my books. My SAT book started math lessons with things like “this is an integer,” “this is a digit,” “this is a real number,” etc. I’m a purist, I suppose because I genuinely love learning, math, and language. #education #edu #teaching

7/30 Frankly, I think test prep is as much as sham industry writ large as anyone else, bc it’s populated by companies that purport to circumvent the material on the test and by famous tutors who flat out say that they don’t have any interest in teaching material taught in school.

8/30 I got interested in #edreform in '08, when my 1st book, Outsmarting the SAT, was pub'd. By that time it was clear to me that no one really understood what was on the SAT/ACT and that most ppl make judgements abt school/curricula based on their own childhood experiences.

9/30 My work in #edreform and my public commentary on tests have always echoed the same idea: the disparity in testing outcomes don't negate the test. The issue is that it’s absurd that any/every USA HS grad is not sufficiently educated in a public school to do well on the test.

10/30 “Woldn’t that put you out of business?” I’ve always been asked. Perhaps, from one standpoint, yes. But I make my living teaching students how to master fundamentals, how to think creatively about math, and how to write effectively. That's not test-based #teacher #edu #k12

11/30 The utility of those skills doesn’t go away even if the test does. I think telling students that they need scammy tricks to get through a test insinuates that the test is so difficult that they’ll never be able to simply learn what’s on it and engenders anxiety. #anxiety

12/30 Nowadays—and for good reason—a lot of energy is spent fighting testing. Outcomes are disparate for a myriad of important reasons worth discussing. It’s a luxury for me and my students that I get to serve as their private high school teacher. That’s worth discussing.

13/30 Many parents, policy-makers, community-members, students aren’t actually informed about what is tested on the any given test, *what someone who intends to go to a competitive college should know*, and where the overlap is. The overlap is bigger than people care to admit.

14/30 I’ve tried to avoid public test conversations altogether, even as it would be a natural extension of my work with @50CAN to weigh in. To be totally clear: I am just not that interested in discussing tests. It’s like talking about how paint dries. #sat #act #tests

15/30 Not wanting to think and talk about testing all day is part of why I started writing my blog, at StayOutOfSchool, in '09. It's about critical thinking, creativity, how artists think, and the general culture around education.
So it’s not new/convenient that I duck out.

16/30 Even so, a lot of my life involves experiences like going out to drinks/dinner, new ppl hearing part of what I do for work, and getting regaled with stories of what it was like when they took their #SAT in high school. This is a deeply lousy and un-fun behavior.

17/30 HOWEVER, part of the anti-testing propaganda fomented by ppl in edu and, frankly, are being paid by special interest orgs actually hurts conversation about the sort of edu students should be receiving in K-12. Some of the people are “influencers” with real voices and reach.

18/30 Earlier this year, one asked me on Twitter why it is that I have my students learn vocab when it’s “no longer on” the SAT. Ans: Because I’m a teacher and want my students to have robust vocabularies. It’s easier to read when you Know Words. That’s educational integrity #edu

19/30 On a relative scale, there are very few ppl who can speak with depth and specificity about what is currently on the #SAT/ACT. Unfortunately, those ppl are overwhelmingly people who work in test prep or design. It would be impossible, then, to be believably unbiased. #edu

20/30 That’s part of why I stay out of the test fray: I presume that if I comment, people will automatically assume I’m saying things to preserve testing to preserve my “career.” I get that. I’d think so, too, from the outside. #sat #act #teachers

21/30 Last night I responded to a thread with the intention of pointing out the absurdity of a tweet by someone whose voice is often heard in the testing debates. The tweet style is part of his SM strat: post a Q out of thin air, sometimes w/ cited provenance, sometimes not.

22/30 I happened to know where this Q came from. More importantly, it’s an example of the type of math students do *in #Algebra I* in school and it’s on the SAT. It had no testing “special sauce,” nor did it include a higher-order thinking element. It’s just a #math problem.

22.5/30 It's worth nothing that, often, the insinuation of these random Qs is that they're on college admissions tests. The reader is encouraged to assume that they exemplify standardized/achievement tests.

23/30 I found the post misleading and deleterious to effective conversation about #math #education because the tweet insinuated that the most straightforward #algebra problem in the world was just another example of "these ridiculous tests." #SAT #ACT

24/30 Understanding/ promoting quality #math #edu is one of my passions. When someone realizes she can do math, it often changes her life and her sense of possibility about herself and her intellect. It changed mine. <new thread>