Thank you, humblegunner
Do you use Free Republic?
Consider donating to keep the lights on, or we may all lose it
Click the Pic
Posted on 10/15/2011 12:07:51 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
A group of parents, educators, students and activists who have organized to work to eliminate high-stakes testing in public education is now seeking to collaborate with the Occupy Wall Street protest movement on specific demands regarding school reform.
The movement, called United Opt Out National, encourages parents to use “opt out” rules in their school districts that allow students to stay home when standardized tests are given. They say that the focus on high-stakes standardized testing in the No Child Left Behind era has failed to improve student achievement and instead has narrowed curricula, wasted public resources and caused anxiety and fear in children and teachers.
The opt-out movement represents one of a number of recent protests against corporate-based school reform, which include a teachers’ march in Washington last summer and California Gov. Jerry Brown’s veto on Oct. 8 of legislation that would have reduced reliance on standardized test scores to evaluate students and schools but that, he said, still relied on the scores in an inappropriate manner....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I think I’ve seen some of these UOON “parents”. They had a huge “My Kid Is An Honor Idiot” bumper sticker on their “smart” car.
A lot of these people are indeed like that - their kids would ace the exams, and in fact their kids are not the ones that would benefit from the remediation strategies that are meant to improve exam performance of the kids that the whole performance testing regime is intended to help.
Part of it is the conflict between the egalitarian impulse to avoid tracking, versus the desire to improve the performance of the lower performers. You really can’t teach the top and the bottom the same way, or even the same things.
Liberal policies are conflicting with liberal policies.
Most students do not look forward to tests, and some students are so anxious that their test performance is lower than it should be. But, there are a few students that SHINE on standardized tests. One of my children fell into that category; he was bored in class. His performance on dumbed-down daily work was lackluster, but his performance on standardized tests was stellar. Standardized tests can tell parents, teachers, and college admissions people something not apparent from other sources.
P.S.—Today, that child is a professor in a scientific/technical field at a major university.
Your son’s story is mine as well. I attended 13 different schools from K-12, didn’t do well in class (I had already read the book the first few days) but had very high ITED and ACT scores. Was once tested in California to see if I was “slow” but then had to be placed in “mentally gifted” classes, which frustrated everyone!! LOL
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.