Standardized Testing

"Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo" (rustyvandura) 05/18/2017 at 17:18 • Filed to: None

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My 8th graders are taking the standardized test today on the Chromebooks. The question begins, “Jorge eats 6 packages of pemmican...” What the f&*k is pemmican? Can you say, colonial language and institutional racism? Can you say fiasco? Can you say...

CaptDale - is secretly British > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 05/18/2017 at 17:22

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It is fucking Canadian?! WTF

SantaRita > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 05/18/2017 at 17:23

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http://pemmican.com/

it’s just a brand of beef jerky. Jorge was pretty hungry.

Toby F., Manager > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 05/18/2017 at 17:25

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Tests via Chromebooks? It has only been 9 years since I’ve been in the 8th grade, yet we’ve gone so far from the days of pencil and paper scantrons.

Xyl0c41n3 > CaptDale - is secretly British 05/18/2017 at 17:28

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No, it’s First Nations. It comes from an indigenous people and was co-opted by Europeans.

TheHondaBro > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 05/18/2017 at 17:30

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...Fracas?

DipodomysDeserti > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 05/18/2017 at 17:31

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Pemmican beef jerky is pretty popular. The only people I know who know what real pemmican is are survivalist and outdoorsy types.

jariten1781 > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 05/18/2017 at 17:31

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Pemmican made disgusting energy bars (before energy bars were a thing) back in the 90s. Don’t know if they still make them, but 20 years later I can still taste the foul flavor.

CaptDale - is secretly British > Xyl0c41n3 05/18/2017 at 17:32

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Lol, when you stop reading cause who cares... Still why would anyone know that word?

Xyl0c41n3 > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 05/18/2017 at 17:32

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A simple google search would have shown you that it’s a food product created by one of the First Nations native to Canada. The anglicized word even has its roots in the indigenous Cree language.

But y’know, so much funnier to be a white dude in faux outrage about colonialism and the very real issue of instances of inherent racism and classicism in standardized test questions that unfairly disadvantage people of color and kids who come from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. Oh, and dickbutts, obvi.

ttyymmnn > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 05/18/2017 at 17:34

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Why do we have standardized tests when there are no standard children?

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 05/18/2017 at 17:34

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How can someone not know this? Unless of course you never took any history class that went past 1900.

Chariotoflove > Toby F., Manager 05/18/2017 at 17:34

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We stopped using Scantrons a couple years ago. Check that, some of our courses still use them.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer 05/18/2017 at 17:36

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Or never took a course in the foods of indigenous peoples.

Xyl0c41n3 > CaptDale - is secretly British 05/18/2017 at 17:36

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Probably not many people in the US do know that word, but it doesn’t look like knowing its definition was necessary for answering the question, which looks like a verbal math problem. So, packages of pemmican or packages of pretzels, either way, the important part is the number of packages, not what the packages contain.

Chariotoflove > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 05/18/2017 at 17:37

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I didn’t know what pemmican is either, but is it necessary to answer the question? Could it have been 6 hydrospanners, or whatever? This is a math question, right?

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Toby F., Manager 05/18/2017 at 17:37

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The tests on the Chromebooks still have to be graded by humans. The answers are all text strings.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > CaptDale - is secretly British 05/18/2017 at 17:38

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Every school child knows that, particularly school children in the United States who emigrated from Central and South America. And the Middle East. And Asia.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > SantaRita 05/18/2017 at 17:39

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This. I’ve known what pemmican (small P) was since childhood, but I’m a massive nerd, and the use of the word “package” and eating said packages entire VERY STRONGLY suggests that the brand of beef jerky is intended. Quite common brand. Occam’s razor.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Chariotoflove 05/18/2017 at 17:40

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Sure. But still... “Bob wants to spread shit on a cracker. What would be the best implement?”

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 05/18/2017 at 17:42

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Yeah what is Pemmican? I had to look it up.

user314 > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 05/18/2017 at 17:43

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Wasn’t there pemmican in “The Oregon Trail” PC game? I thought I remembered buying some at one point?

LimitedTimeOnly @ opposite-lock.com > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 05/18/2017 at 17:43

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Colin Fletcher , who wrote the Complete Walker (AKA the hiker’s bible) wrote about pemmican as a food that was part of his backpacking routine, so that’s where I know it from. Never was part of my backpacking kitchen, though.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > DipodomysDeserti 05/18/2017 at 17:43

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Preppers? We pulled up some images on Google. Looks like jerky.

Chariotoflove > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 05/18/2017 at 17:44

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Well now you’re asking a different question. I would want to know what Bob ate the day before, because the correct implement is determined by the consistency of the shit.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 05/18/2017 at 17:52

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Neither did I. But if you get any contact with course material on Native (North) Americans at all, you’re going to run into information on how they lived. And from there the word pemmican is very hard to avoid.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 05/18/2017 at 17:55

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For the record I didn’t mean defining what it was, just knowing that is was a native food.

LOREM IPSUM > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 05/18/2017 at 17:58

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I’m reminded of this for some reason:

CaptDale - is secretly British > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 05/18/2017 at 18:00

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Well as an American, let me tell you that we don’t speed of those people that may or may not have lived on our land before us. Nor do we speak of the perpetuated lies that we ever treated them or continue to treat them like lesser persons.

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Obviously I am being sarcastic. I just needed to state that incase the internet didn’t convey that.

But seriously i don’t recall ever learning this word.

CaptDale - is secretly British > Xyl0c41n3 05/18/2017 at 18:00

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That is very true, just seems unnecessary I guess.

LOREM IPSUM > LOREM IPSUM 05/18/2017 at 18:01

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Which of course reminds me of this:

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer 05/18/2017 at 18:01

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Not at all. That is a very insightful comment; thank you for passing it along; I wouldn’t have guessed.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > LOREM IPSUM 05/18/2017 at 18:05

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That’s surprisingly good.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > LOREM IPSUM 05/18/2017 at 18:07

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What movie is that?

LOREM IPSUM > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 05/18/2017 at 18:12

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Back to School

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090685/

facw > Chariotoflove 05/18/2017 at 18:21

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I’m not surprised you still have scantron stuff lying about. When I was in high school (late 90's) we still had mimeographs (some teachers still used them because they were exempt from the copier page quota), computer punch cards (admittedly just used as straight edges), and most obsolete of all Apple eMates (sure these were new, but they were outdated right from the box). 

Chariotoflove > facw 05/18/2017 at 18:34

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Hehe, I remember ditto copies in grade and middle schools.

We have been transitioning to Examsoft here over the past few years, but we don’t have enough licenses for all classes yet. Hopefully we will soon as the last holdouts get on board. Also, some testing situations still need the Scantrons for some reason, I’ve been told, although I don’t know what that reason would be. The future is great!...until there is a server crash, which happened to us just before finals season. Ugh.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 05/18/2017 at 19:26

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interesting book on early artic exploration. One party found pemmican from a previous expedition, that was some crazy age 40years+ that was still frozen and good to eat.

DipodomysDeserti > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 05/18/2017 at 19:29

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LIke preppers but without all the paranoia and white supremacy.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > gmporschenut also a fan of hondas 05/18/2017 at 19:35

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“You discover that a man who has gone even a week on bread and margarine is not a man any longer, only a belly with a few accessory organs.”

From Down and Out in Paris and London , by Gorge Orwell

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > DipodomysDeserti 05/18/2017 at 19:36

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Sounds like Mormons.

just-a-scratch > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 05/18/2017 at 21:50

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Even as a former boy scout I didn’t know what pemmican is until about six months ago.

pip bip - choose Corrour > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 05/19/2017 at 06:56

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i had to Google what pemmican is as i’ve never heard of it before.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 05/19/2017 at 10:42

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I’m wondering if they used a possibly-unknown word for a reason. It takes critical thinking for a kid to come across a word (in a math question) and realize that it doesn’t matter at all to answering the question. Some kids might come across the word and give up because they don’t know it, but the ones that don’t give up will find that it doesn’t matter.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 05/19/2017 at 12:22

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You’re probably spot-on, but as Ttyymmnn (my brother) says, there are no standard children. I’ve made my career teaching children from lower socioeconomic situations and the big thing that lacks is parents reading to their children when the children are small. Aside perhaps from trauma, the lack of reading and the low quality level of discourse, stunts the kids’ academic growth and when tests ask them about pemmican, well, I’m left where I was when I started this thread.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 05/20/2017 at 11:53

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Yeah, I understand. Every kid should be given every opportunity to succeed, but some parents hamstring their kids by not doing these simple things with them...

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 05/20/2017 at 14:26

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Rather than simple , I would suggest using fundamental . My wife read to our children over many, many hours over years. Lots of parents work all the time and don’t have time for that. So as a society, we try and substitute Head Start and Transitional Kindergarten, and so on, making teachers in loco parentis . Social workers, many conservatives would complain, and they wouldn’t be far off. Literacy and numeracy. If you want to get your child out of the ghetto or out of the hollow, read them out. Get them reading and they will ace their classes and qualify for scholarships.