General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTeacher: No longer can I throw my students to the ‘testing wolves’
Teacher: No longer can I throw my students to the testing wolvesVeteran teacher Dawn Neely-Randall and Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown look at a post Neely-Randall wrote for The Answer Sheet about the reform movement. (Photo by Tom Traut)
Last spring, you wouldnt find the fifth-graders in my Language Arts class reading as many rich, engaging pieces of literature as they had in the past or huddled over the same number of authentic projects as before. Why? Because I had to stop teaching to give them a Common Core Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) online sample test that would prepare them for the upcoming PARCC pilot pre-test which would then prepare them for the PARCC pilot post test all while taking the official Ohio Achievement Tests. This amounted to three tests, each 2 ½ hours, in a single week, the scores of which would determine the academic track students would be placed on in middle school the following year.
In addition to all of that, I had to stop their test prep lessons (also a load of fun) to take each class three floors down to our computer lab so they could take the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) tests so graphs and charts could be made of their Student Growth Percentile (SGP) which would then provide quantitative evidence to suggest how these 10-year-olds would do on the real tests and also surmise the teachers (my) affect on their learning.
Tests, tests, and more freakin tests.
Parents upset as well.
One parent sent me her districts calendar showing that students would complete 21 mandated (K-3) assessments before a child would even finish third grade. When I asked an Ohio Department of Education employee about this, she insisted there were not that many tests. When I read them to her one by one from the districts calendar, she defended her position by saying that some of them were not from her department, but from another one. But its the SAME kid!!! I told her.
Indeed, it sure seems that school just isnt for children anymore.
AuntPatsy
(9,904 posts)I wonder exactly who is making money on the destruction of our school systems? It's definitely not the schools themselves
BadgerKid
(4,551 posts)Defining a goal, need, requirement, etc., brings about a business opportunity. Example: taxes.
Dragonfli
(10,622 posts)AuntPatsy
(9,904 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Last edited Tue Sep 9, 2014, 07:45 AM - Edit history (1)
AuntPatsy
(9,904 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Last edited Tue Sep 9, 2014, 08:07 AM - Edit history (1)
Too sorry.
I love the article. Thanks.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)Bookmarking it now.
AuntPatsy
(9,904 posts)energy you give in attempting to help one education system, it must be daunting.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)anyone hired since 2011 has no job security at all. So really it takes those of us retired to speak out. Teachers here are too afraid. Can't really blame them. Thanks for the kind words.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)So the Bush Crime Family cooked up a scam to get him some more. Now the president is on board with it, so he can be pals with the Bush's in 2017.
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)More like making sure it keeps going. They're getting rich off tax dollars, as usual. So they're hardly ignoring it.
2010 - Healthcare
Next - Education
Then - Social Security
they call it "privatizing". For you and me it's called "10 times the cost, 1/10th the quality. And of course some of you will do without. It's the price of freedom".
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)zazen
(2,978 posts)Thanks for posting.
I mean, _we_ know this is part of a neoliberal agenda supported by the corporatist mainstream of both parties, and that it sucks pedagogically for a hundred and one reasons.
But the rank and file parent is going to associate this with Obama and Arne Duncan rather than the Bush family, Pearson, Gates, et al, and hate the "common core" because it represents some vague government interference and because it's making their children miserable on a daily basis, rather than understand that it's representative of the philanthropic industrial global corporatist complex. I think a lot of people will vote against Dems just for supporting the common core, and I don't see any Dems in my state with the guts to stand up to it.
I've detested it since before its implementation and its implementation was so much worse than I could have imagined, but anyone who defends it immediately assumes I'm a radical republican (I'm a progressive feminist socialist with advanced degrees in educ policy--I'm hardly arguing against it based on conservative grounds).
Corporatist dems have really handed the Tea Party something with this disaster.
Trillo
(9,154 posts)because the kids have to successfully follow more orders throughout each day.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)Pearson is a private British corporation. WTH are the British doing teaching American kids? Working on winning the Revolutionary War post-mortem!?
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)determining what the students must learn.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)bbgrunt
(5,281 posts)out of public schools. Charter schools are not subject to the same standardized tests as public schools. So private firms make money on students in public schools through testing procedures and on charter schools through diverting money needed for public school students. It's win/win for private profits from students.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)Yes, turning education into a profit.
Vots
(24 posts)The neo-liberal in a lot of Dems really come out on this issue. This has been a complete money maker that was conjured up by a few rich elitists! Talk to teachers and listen to them, this Common Core crap has been terrible for the kids and we need to let TEACHERS TEACH!
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)madfloridian
(88,117 posts)daleanime
(17,796 posts)Iwillnevergiveup
(9,298 posts)I am stocking up on GOOD stuff for my 2-1/2 year old grandson in the form of books, drawing, toys, field trips, library visits and conversation! This is what parents and grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and other family members must do to truly educate our kids. TV, dumb expensive games, tablets, online junk are no substitute.
NealK
(1,864 posts)BuelahWitch
(9,083 posts)Not to mention the tests down in the computer lab (she doesn't give a time frame for that). Sounds like it's almost 2 days out of 5 (when you add up the hours) simply devoted to testing, or preparing for the test.
All kids are learning is how to take a test!