Posted on 11/07/2006 12:15:26 AM PST by Antioch
Nine year-old Tyler Stoken, a student in the Aberdeen Public School District, didn't know how to answer an essay question on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning test. As punishment for leaving the question blank his principal suspended him for five days.
Tyler paraphrases the question saying, "You look out one day at school and see your principal flying by a window. In several paragraphs write what happens next." He's asked, "So why didn't you answer that question?" He says, "I couldn't think of what to write the essay without making fun of the principal."
He refused to answer the question even after his mother was called to the school. Tyler's mother Amy Wolfe says, "And he said he didn't know the answer. He just didn't know what to write. And they were telling me to make him answer the question."
He still didn't, so Tyler was given a 5-day suspension. In the letter that went home to mother, the principal writes, "The fact that Tyler chose to simply refuse to work on the WASL after many reasonable requests is none other than blatant defiance and insubordination." Shortly after receiving the suspension letter they received a phone call from Superintendent Marty Kay apologizing for the suspension.
"Because I think a mistake was made and over reacting to Tyler's refusal to complete the test," said Aberdeen school superintendent Marty Kay. ... The superintendent wants Tyler immediately re-instated at school. But Tyler’s mother says the damage has been done. Mom tells son, "Well, nobody will scream at you again. I promise you that." Tyler doesn't want to go to that school any more and you can't blame him. He was manipulated and then punished because he couldn't answer a test question.
WASL opponents also believe the principal and teachers broke the law by interfering with the WASL test. It had better have been a violation of the testing rules. If a teacher and principal browbeating a test taker into answering a question in any particular manner is not against the rules then the test is worse than useless.
And what has been done in the one and one half years since this made the news? Can the kid turn a phrase now? Is he homeschooling?
The question was: WHAT HAPPENED NEXT???? I think it's a crazy question in the first place....and the kid said he couldn't think of anything that wouldn't be mean about the principal. So he was being resectful. Again, too young for that kind of question.
Good catch! The article is dated May, 2005, not Nov, 2006
It seems to me that the test-writers had a sense of humor by asking the test question, but the educators at that school over-reacted by the discipline they imposed.
See my post #100....http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1733829/posts?page=100#100
Additionally....Pilkey's website reads:
"WARNING: This website contains scenes and material which may be considered too silly for grown-ups, small animals, and many varieties of houseplants. If you are a grown-up, a small animal, or a houseplant, we strongly urge you to seek the permission of a kid before browsing this site!"
As far as I can tell, it was an assessment and not a learning exercise. The way an assessment should roll is: teacher hands it out, student fills it in, teacher (or computer) scores it, score is recorded. That is an assessment. Sounds to me like the school's administration suffers some conceptual confusion over this.
Moreover, I don't think this one essay question was the entire assessment. There is a specific score associated with providing no answer to a particular question. Providing no answer is a legitimate response. For some tests and scoring systems, it is best to not answer sometimes.
Sounds to me like the principal got in a battle of wills with a 3rd grader, couldn't win, and couldn't stand it.
HOMESCHOOLING! get your kids away from the fascist-nazi-marxist indoctrination of the public schools!
I never said that the answer is to have homeschooled kids go to public school. What I object to, is parents that homeschool their kids, and say to hell with everyone elses. Your kids are going to be surrounded by products of the public school system when they grow up. What I am saying is, our society is not going to be okay, if we just let this problem ride. If 90% of the people are brainwashed and prone to live with no moral compass whatsoever, it is going to impact you, whether you like it or not. Imagine, if you will, every one of the 300 million members of our society, less the some odd thousand homeschooled students, start behaving like the people in New Orleans. Do you think it can't happen? We are closer than you would ever know.
I don't know much about the WASL, but I suspect it's like the CSAP tests here in Colorado. Schools get graded on the test results, and it has monetary impact.
As a result, administrators put tremendous pressure on the kids to complete the test. Sounds to me like the principal of this school is one of the really hard-core "test scores are paramount" types.
The kid sounds like he's probably a handful -- I'm guessing there's a lot more to the story than this article is telling us. But I also recognize Test Syndrome in the teachers.
It's stuff like this that makes me flatly opposed to this sort of test-based "improvement".
Mr Pilkey? Is that you?
As I saw the principal flying by the window I realized that she was rushing away from a school system that seeks to impose thought control on all students and faculty. I realized how cowardly and fascistic this school system is, which doesn't know how to teach but knows every way imaginable to suppress clear and independent thinking.
Then I realized that I was wrong. I finally came to the realization that she was exstatically rushing to go to church to worship God to thank him for being Republican and straight.
Unfortunately, the boy was working on a different set of worries. He knew that whatever he wrote would be unflattering to the principal, and he was concerned he'd get into trouble over that.
I agree, though, that the school should have absolutely NO ability to interfere with the test taking; how else could the public be assured that the school is not giving answers or something else to increase the kids' averages to make the school look good?
I never saw that attitude among the homeschooler I knew in the 12 years we homeschooled. No doubt there are some just as there are *some* in every movement, but it is certainly not the norm.
So much for that self esteem building.
Ummm,... I have news for you... Even when I was in school, the proctors would go by, look at my paper and make comments like: "Make sure you're answering the right question.", "Don't forget to check your math.", or just "Hmmm..." You knew.
BWAHAHAHAHA! What planet were you on when you were 9? Next you'll be telling me that "children don't know how to lie".
Standardized state-administered assessment test.
Can you say, "Funding?" I knew you could.
I was a gimme question. Gotta keep those scores up!
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><> And there you have it, Ladies and Gentlemen!<><
LOL!
No, I'd be much more clever! The guy's so funny, and I am a firm believer that our kids, without a sense of humor, grow up to be boring and cruel....sort of like liberals.
Looking at the meanings of the verb fly:
- be a passenger in an airplane
- pilot an airplane
- metaphor for "rush"
- self-propelled airborne locomotion, as for example with birds
The only meaning that can represent what a person can do within several feet of a school window, is "rush".
What they are obviously trying to do is conduct a stealth psychological exam, by carefully watching to see what the child writes they expect to discover all sorts of unacceptable (to the PC crowd) tendencies.
Does the child have hidden violent tendencies?
Does the child harbor hostility toward authority?
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