Kindergarten teacher details ‘lunacy’ of standardized tests for kids

[proud2BlibKansan]

Have you ever given young children a standardized test?

Kindergartners are 4 to 5 years old and this is what happens: Some of them cry. Some get stomach aches. Many of them, all of a sudden when instructions are being explained, have to go to the bathroom or get a tissue. Some draw all over the paper. They talk. They shout out answers, as they have been taught to care for one another and help one another.

Race to the Top put us on the data bandwagon and Education Secretary Arne Duncan has now called for more “formative assessments.” Even though Michigan did not win Race to the Top money, we are nevertheless answering the call for data for data, data, and more data, for children in kindergarten.

I am spending so much time recording “formative” assessments that I don’t have time to evaluate the meaningful assessments and plan for instruction, much less time to actually teach!

more . . . http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/kindergarten-teacher-details-lunacy-of-standardized-tests-for-kids/2011/07/24/gIQApZjNXI_blog.html

[handmade34]

1. rec

proud2BlibKansan: did you hear this on NPR this weekend??

http://www.npr.org/2011/08/15/139648752/when-teachers-cheat-what-about-the-kids


Deborah Meier was exceptional when talking about testing. Made me want to consider teaching again.

http://www.deborahmeier.com/

http://bostonreview.net/BR24.6/meier.html

"Our school troubles are not primarily due to too-easy coursework or too much tolerance for violence. The big trouble lies instead in the company our children keep–or, more precisely, don’t keep. They no longer keep company with us–the grown-ups they are about to become. And the adults they do encounter seem less and less worthy of their respect. What kid, after all, wants to be seen emulating people he’s been told are too dumb to exercise power, and are simply implementing the commands of the real experts? ...It is a matter of choice–such a future does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability. We have the resources, the knowledge, and plenty of living examples of the many different kinds of schools that might serve our needs better. All we need is a little more patient confidence in the good sense of "the people"–in short, a little more commitment to democracy."

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. When Diane Ravitch spoke at SOS, she said she is often asked how she changed

from an ed dept official to an outspoke critic of ed policies.

She said it was from debating Deborah Meier. :)

Meier is an unrecognized shero to educators. I wish we had a few dozen more of her.

[LeftyMom]

2. A friend of mine had to give standardized tests to severely autistic students.

We're talking teenagers who aren't even potty trained half the time, and he had to play-act at giving them tests about stuff they're completely incapable of understanding, and write up plans for how to get them on grade-level. That's not going to happen until somebody invents a cure for autism or a brain transplant, but somebody somewhere who didn't know their ass from their elbow thought that was a dandy idea.

He's since quit teaching.

[LetTimmySmoke]

4. Our obsession with standardized testing is destroying education.

I just got into this profession and they're already fucking it up. Most of this is about corporate profits for testing companies - which have exploded in the last 10 years.