Posted on 01/28/2013 1:23:38 PM PST by St_Thomas_Aquinas
...“I, along with 3 million educators across the country, proudly support our members’ efforts in saying ‘no’ to giving their students a flawed test that takes away from learning and is not aligned with the curriculum,” said National Education Association President Dennis van Roekel...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
"When schoolchildren start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of school children." -- Al Shanker, former President of the American Federation of Teachers
“A flawed test”. Developed by the NEA.
I think the main problem these “teachers” if they are worthy of the name, is they have to cheat so their favorite students (Black and Latino) do better on the exams.
A whole bunch have been caught cheating recently.
I can’t imagine why teacher’s union members would be against a test that would MAP THE PROGRESS of the students so it could be determined if the students are ACTUALLY BEING TAUGHT ANYTHING. Just STFU and give us the raise we deserve.
I’ll bet they’ll next change the paper-grading pens from red to purple; oh, wait...
Schools should be accountable to the public, not to teachers.
Goal of Teachers Unions:
1 - Maximize teachers pay
2 - Minimize their actual hours worked
3 - Reduce their actual workload
4 - Eliminate accountability
5 - Institute strict work rules so that more union teachers are needed to do the same amount of work
No surprise. If I failed every test intended to show whether I was doing my job I would certainly be anti-testing.
I think you might want to take a look at your curriculum, if this is true.
“Schools should be accountable to the public, not to teachers.”
There is a way to fix this. Have the people who pay the property taxes for schools vote on it. When families who do not pay property taxes complain that they do not get a vote, propose they pay into the system.
Such a disconnect with reality.
So we are not going to test: pharmacists, pilots, police, CPAs, bus drivers etc. Because we have set expectations too low?
in other words they only want to test the children on what they are teaching... (ie. global warming lies, info about MLK, the glories of the gay lifestyle, and the evil of religion and gun ownership)
It's not FAIR! to test the students on reading, writing, and math!
lol
I think, based upon Wisconsin and Michigan, just to name two, you missed several more goals;
6. Keep the union-protecting 'closed shop' which requires all workers to pay to the union.
7. Expand the franchise by including more peripheral jobs to be union members, thus more money in union dues.
8. Set up captive Insurance and health organizations that the public has to pay for in the union contracts that funnel even more money to the union.
Gee, amazing how it all ends up with more money to the unions! FYI: there was a time when the USofA had the best education system in the world but that was before the unions like AFT and NEA! What a surprise!
virtually everyone pays property tax, either directly or through their landlord/building owner.
Just so we remember, testing was introduced because dimwit public educators were graduating tons who people who were illiterate. The students had no body of knowledge they were taught. They were indoctrinated in all things anti-american and stupid.
However, I have to admit, reform did little to improve some liberal schools. With the union, they progressed to cheating on the tests to hide their incompetence. They cheated on teacher competency tests too, that were introduced to address the problem of illiterate teachers.
I say trade in testing for private school vouchers. Get rid of the expensive, incompetent monopoly.
Exactly.
While homeschooling our 2 daughters we bacame very good friends with the assistant superintendent of our district.
At one point he was complaining that he had several tests that he wanted to "test the tests" to see if they were any good.
The other administrators and faculty were dead set against this as they were afraid of the results. He had tried to explain to them the purpose was to find out the validity of the tests, not to go on a witch hunt.
Still no go.
When he told me of it, I mentioned we had to PAY 50 bucks a kid each year to have them tested by a certified teacher. We would gladly have them take and critique as many tests as he wanted to try.
Our kids became the most tested kids in the district FOR FREE!
Since they were both at or above grade level, they did very well and had fun critiquing the tests with him.
We want to stop this “testing” thing because it reveals the kids that might be losers, and that’s not fair. Everybody is a winner. That self esteem crap and all.
Boy, are you ever right about the self-esteem thing. We learned a weird lesson from the neighborhood kids one year when our children were in elementary school, some 15 to 20 years ago.
We sent our children to private Catholic school instead of the local public schools. I remember one time it was report card time and my father was visiting. He decided to pay my children according to their letter grades received. A’s received $1, B’s 75 cents, and C’s were awarded 50 cents. Our oldest was in third grade, and the neighbor boy came over to play. When he heard that my son got paid for his good grades, he asked my Dad if he would pay him for his report card. My Dad was a good sport, so he told the young man that if he brought his report card over to him, he would pay him the same rates.
When Christopher came back with his report card, we were surprised to discover that he had no letter grades at all. There were only “warm fuzzies” (symbols) and “cold pricklies” with comments. He got 3 warm fuzzies for pretty much every subject with comments like “Christopher is a pleasure to teach in class” and “Christopher pays attention at appropriate times.” My Dad & I were so puzzled that he just awarded Christopher the same amount my son earned.
Report cards were never brought up again with the neighbor kids again when my Dad visited. I never really knew how to ask my neighbors about these “grades” their children received from the public school. I just knew my kids would never in a million years go the same schools. If that made us outcasts in the neighborhood (it did), so be it.
I'm with you 100%.
Pray that Louisiana's statewide voucher program is upheld by the kangaroo courts.
Jindal gains victory as court puts hold on voucher block in Tangipahoa
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