So the phone rings yesterday (now that the Board of Directors are full-fledged kindergartners, we're on the district robo-phone list), and it's the announcement that third-through-sixth grade education is about to be suspended for more important things--testing.
Absolutely. Tennessee spends millions each year on the test - it takes place in April, and it effectively ends the school year. Now, we'll be determining whether third graders are forced to repeat that grade solely based on the results of the reading portion of the Big State Test. Want to help third graders with reading? Give them three more weeks of instruction!! Give their teachers a reprieve from mandates around test-score targets. As you note, after the test, the school year is basically done. So, instead of robbing students of three weeks of learning, you're robbing them of 6-8 weeks.
Testing just effectively ended the school year in my district in Maine as well. So, here's what everybody should do: Call your US representatives and demand they co-sponsor Jamaal Bowman's "More Teaching, Less Testing" bill. It will allow states to stop yearly testing and go back to grade-span testing, e.g., once 3-6, etc. That's what the original NCLB legislation allowed. No one is saying we don't need accountability, but this "all testing all the time" is a terrible waste of taxpayer dollars. The only people gaining from all the testing in the testing companies. Maybe that will send a message to the states that too much testing is decimating the curriculum with no time for social studies and science--not to mention art and a sandbox in kindergarten. Maine is now doing MORE testing (all children K-8 2-3 times a year!) and all on computers, of course, so those kindergarteners will know how to type when the real testing happens in 3rd grade. I can tell you from experience that children are often just hitting keys to get the test over with--so all that data is meaningless. Perhaps Rep. Bowman's legislation will bring back some sanity. Kathleen Mikulka, Reading Interventionist who isn't working with her Tier III students because they are either testing or interventionists are monitoring testing. Sigh.
Absolutely. Tennessee spends millions each year on the test - it takes place in April, and it effectively ends the school year. Now, we'll be determining whether third graders are forced to repeat that grade solely based on the results of the reading portion of the Big State Test. Want to help third graders with reading? Give them three more weeks of instruction!! Give their teachers a reprieve from mandates around test-score targets. As you note, after the test, the school year is basically done. So, instead of robbing students of three weeks of learning, you're robbing them of 6-8 weeks.
Testing just effectively ended the school year in my district in Maine as well. So, here's what everybody should do: Call your US representatives and demand they co-sponsor Jamaal Bowman's "More Teaching, Less Testing" bill. It will allow states to stop yearly testing and go back to grade-span testing, e.g., once 3-6, etc. That's what the original NCLB legislation allowed. No one is saying we don't need accountability, but this "all testing all the time" is a terrible waste of taxpayer dollars. The only people gaining from all the testing in the testing companies. Maybe that will send a message to the states that too much testing is decimating the curriculum with no time for social studies and science--not to mention art and a sandbox in kindergarten. Maine is now doing MORE testing (all children K-8 2-3 times a year!) and all on computers, of course, so those kindergarteners will know how to type when the real testing happens in 3rd grade. I can tell you from experience that children are often just hitting keys to get the test over with--so all that data is meaningless. Perhaps Rep. Bowman's legislation will bring back some sanity. Kathleen Mikulka, Reading Interventionist who isn't working with her Tier III students because they are either testing or interventionists are monitoring testing. Sigh.