Tuesday, March 3, 2009
"How the Test Was Won"
This week’s episode of The Simpsons which was called “How the Test Was Won” focused mainly on the idea of standardized testing in public schools. When Bart and Lisa return to school they find out that the vice president is giving them a test in order to determine how much money they should receive from the government. This episode makes reference to the no child left behind policy that we now have in the United States. On the day of the test Bart and a few other students are made to believe that they are exempt from taking the exam because they did so well on the practice test. However in reality the principal and the superintendent were excluding them from the test so the overall score of the students would not be brought down. This idea can also be related to a problem that schools have faced throughout the years. There have been accusations that schools have deliberately kept certain students from taking the exam, so they could possibly receive more money from the federal government. While taking the exam, Lisa is shown to be very nervous and anxious about doing well. The questions were very tricky to her and she wasted most of her time dwelling on one specific question. This can be related to how most students feel when they are forced to take a standardized test. Some people have excellent grades throughout the year, and then end up doing terrible on the standardized tests. Bart and his friends were able to prove to Principal Skinner that standardize tests do not help students at all, and that the teachers need to be more willing to teach the students in a way that will reach out to them. Overall I thought this was a very good episode and was easy to relate to the issue of standardized testing that we have today in our society.
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I actually said alot of the same things in my blog. I think its pretty insane how the teachers put so much stress on the students about this test that doesn't count for anything for the students. They are so high strong about maintaining high scores that they would do anything to keep it high, even it if means exempting students who are a threat to scores. I like how you mentioned that Bart had proven to Skinner that the tests were no help which I had missed when watching it. I find it ironic how a student who was considered by Skinner to be one of the less intelligent students had taught him that the test was "a joke". The pressure that they put on the kids for this test is unbeleivable and I like how Simpsons emphasized this.
ReplyDeleteI, too, picked up on many of the same things in my blog. I think that the reason I liked this episode so much is because remembering the pressure of standardized tests makes me somewhat angry...and it's nice to see that others feel the same way. I remember in the episode how the students were told to relax, and then told that with each question that they answer incorrectly, a baby chick will die. Though obviously exaggerated, it's a terrible thing to think that anyone would ever say this to elementary school children just to get extra money from the government.
ReplyDeleteI had also watched this episode and found it to be very intresting and very true. It brought back memories of when I was in grade school taking those sameme standardized tests, how dreadful. They really emphasized how much stress is placed on the students and how each school wants to perform the best. They went as far as taking out Bart and other students that did not get good grades and sent them on a "field trip." I thought that was funny and made the episode that much more intresting.
ReplyDeleteI too really enjoyed this episode of The Simpsons. All I could picture was when I was younger and had to take similiar tests. I can remember just how painful those tests were. It wasn't just my teachers stressing how important the tests were, but my parents also. I'm glad I'm able to look back now and laugh. However, I do have the LSATs next fall so it's not that funny.
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