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The thing that's most fascinating about this is seeing how the upper middle class to wealthy react when their own kids fail. I guess elementary school stats for the trendy parts of Brooklyn and LI and lower Westchester is going to show another improvement due to the failing kids opting out again. The conclusion I draw from this is that failing wealthy kids can undermine the system while failing poor kids just fail.
The thing that's most fascinating about this is seeing how the upper middle class to wealthy react when their own kids fail. I guess elementary school stats for the trendy parts of Brooklyn and LI and lower Westchester is going to show another improvement due to the failing kids opting out again. The conclusion I draw from this is that failing wealthy kids can undermine the system while failing poor kids just fail.
And you know who is encouraging this - bad teachers and parents. Parents are in denial that their kids aren't up to par with the rest of the world... For god sake this is english language arts, if it were math, I would understand why you would want the rest of the world to know americans kids aren't up to it.
And you know who is encouraging this - bad teachers and parents. Parents are in denial that their kids aren't up to par with the rest of the world... For god sake this is english language arts, if it were math, I would understand why you would want the rest of the world to know americans kids aren't up to it.
Don't be ridiculous.It has nothing to do with "bad teachers" or "bad parents." Doesn't have anything to do with performance, location or income levels either. The tests are being boycotted by large numbers of parents in some of the highest performing and wealthiest school districts in the state. It's not just a NYC thing at all.
"On Tuesday, April 14, the first day the state tests were administered, Superintendent Katy Graves said 25 percent of Sag Harbor students had not taken the ELA test that day.Many of the students who refused the tests are the same students who do the best on them, and Sag Harbor’s scores will likely suffer as a result."
Sag Harbor is one of the highest performing districts in the state.
If the state (Common Core) tests were just being used to diagnose kids' weaknesses and help them, that would be fine. At some point every student has to show what he's learned and tests are a way (but not the only way) to do it.
But the testing craziness has morphed into a monster where the results don't have a lot to do with kids anymore. They're used to evaluate teachers, award bonuses to educators, help determine school funding, or shut down entire schools--uses that go way beyond just providing a common measuring stick for student learning. And on top of it all, there's just a lot of general shaming going on for kids with low test scores--what with being denied entrance to some school or being held back--and that doesn't help kids learn at all, IMO.
Hell, a bunch of teachers in Atlanta just got sentenced to hard time for manipulating students test scores because they were under pressure form their superintendent to improve performance. What they did was wrong but it's also symptomatic of what can happen when we make test results the be-all and end-all.
No problem with testing. BIG problems with how the tests are used.
Don't be ridiculous.It has nothing to do with "bad teachers" or "bad parents." Doesn't have anything to do with performance, location or income levels either. The tests are being boycotted by large numbers of parents in some of the highest performing and wealthiest school districts in the state. It's not just a NYC thing at all.
"On Tuesday, April 14, the first day the state tests were administered, Superintendent Katy Graves said 25 percent of Sag Harbor students had not taken the ELA test that day.Many of the students who refused the tests are the same students who do the best on them, and Sag Harbor’s scores will likely suffer as a result."
Sag Harbor is one of the highest performing districts in the state.
Don't really buy that the scores will suffer part. Common sense would tell you that the majority of the higher performing students will take the exam. I can imagine how pissed the upper middle class parents must be when their kids are one of the ones that fail. It's perfectly understandable to jump on the boycott bandwagon. I guess next is the boycott of the new teacher certification exams since so many prospects failed the new exams.
Quote:
Originally Posted by citylove101
If the state (Common Core) tests were just being used to diagnose kids' weaknesses and help them, that would be fine. At some point every student has to show what he's learned and tests are a way (but not the only way) to do it.
But the testing craziness has morphed into a monster where the results don't have a lot to do with kids anymore. They're used to evaluate teachers, award bonuses to educators, help determine school funding, or shut down entire schools--uses that go way beyond just providing a common measuring stick for student learning. And on top of it all, there's just a lot of general shaming going on for kids with low test scores--what with being denied entrance to some school or being held back--and that doesn't help kids learn at all, IMO.
Hell, a bunch of teachers in Atlanta just got sentenced to hard time for manipulating students test scores because they were under pressure form their superintendent to improve performance. What they did was wrong but it's also symptomatic of what can happen when we make test results the be-all and end-all.
No problem with testing. BIG problems with how the tests are used.
Nothing is perfect. The sad part is how the teacher's union is encouraging the boycott for their own benefit. They should instead fight for a faster feedback in at least obtaining partial results so that they can help the students. Everyone not in the union can see what this is all about and it's not the students.
Really stupid idea. The parents want their kids not to be stressed? When do they plan on allowing them to be stressed - when preparing for college interviews? when applying for a job?
Stupid people have always hated tests.
It so often shows they are stupid.
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