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Wednesday, February 06, 2013
We Don't Need No Standardized Tests!
Across the nation, more and more teachers are fighting back against mandatory standardized testing. Over the last few decades, the use of standardized testing in our schools has exploded, as part of the corporate school reform agenda. These tests do little to improve the actual education of students, but do funnel huge profits to standardized testing companies. In Seattle, teachers at three schools have come forward saying the will sit out this year's mandatory testing. Teachers in Providence, Rhode Island and Portland, Oregon have also stood up against their states' standardized testing regime. And in Illinois, the Chicago Teachers Union launched a new campaign last week, to eliminate certain types of standardized testing. This movement is growing – stay tuned.
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10 comments:
Please MD teachers get on this bandwagon. Most teachers I know aren't even aware of the cycle these tests have created. It's starts with the false labeling of children as "learning disabled" so testing can be modified which gives the false impression that schools are doing well.
Gee, holding teachers accountable for what they are being paid for.
Guess that's unacceptable to the NEA.
You don't know the first of it, 6:16. It is due to these test that children aren't learning anymore. They are not taught to think only to memorize. Teachers anymore are given what amounts to a little box and that is what they "teach." No more are teachers allowed to use creative interactive ways to teach. It's all structered around these tests.
chioldren are falling behind in record numbers because not all children learn the same way.
Sorta like making doctors responsible for patients who smoke when they're told not to, won't lose weight when they're told to do so, don't take their medicine and don't show up for appointments. Blame the doctor. Makes as much sense as blaming the teachers for kids who won't work, behave or come to school.
6:16, please explain how a teacher should be held accountable for test results from students that are absent 60% of the school year.
6:16, please explain how a teacher should be held accountable for test results from students that are absent 60% of the school year.
February 6, 2013 at 8:17 PM
I don't know anything about missing 60% of the school year, or why that is allowed to happen.
I do hold teachers responsible for the dumbing down of America.
Especially union teachers. They are organized and can get their agendas spread out all over this country quickly and efficiently.
You have successfully dumbed down at least one generation. Teaching them to accept liberal and fascist societies and forms of government.
Influencing the decline of morals by teaching homosexuality is okay and should be embraced and celebrated.
Teachers are not responsible for all our problems but they do their part.
People need to wake up to a lot of things. One of which is to take their kids out of public schools and homeschool or send them to private schools when they have some input on what is being taught and who is teaching it.
When you control the minds of children, you control the future and future leaders.
As we are seeing this day and age.
Thank you.
You are missing the point. In the states where these sit outs are occurring, teachers actually have unions.
For the one millionth time, teachers in MD are not allowed to unionize. If a teacher refuses to give a test, they are fired for insubordination. There is no union to protect them.
No teacher likes or accepts what standardized testing is doing right now. Nor what NCLB did, or especially what Common Core is going to do.
Follow the money. It is not going to the teachers, who now make less than an entry level roads or sanitation worker.
11:52 says "Follow the money" and that's another issue related to this. Hugh amounts of resoures are diverted to these FOR PROFIT testing companies.
"Teaching to the Test" has drastically narrowed the curriculum and students aren't learning about other important areas or subjects. Good teaching practices have been replaced with putting teachers in the role of only teaching students to memorized.
These tests are what have dumbed down America 9:10 due to the fact that thinking critically and forward have been replaced with memorization which alot of educators believe is responsible for US students continually and steadily falling behind in Math, an area that requires thinking.
The blame lies squarely on the heads of politicians not teachers. They dangle funds over the schools heads which only available when they show "improvement."
The surest way to show "improvement" is to modify these test scores which is easily done by falsely inflating the number of students considered learning disabled. This practice has then allowed another For Profit business into the schools, the pharmaceutical industry. Then that wasn't enough so another For Profit business entered-The In School Therapist-which are companies school systems contract out to provide services. Being a for profit business the therapists are then under pressure to perform for the company which is resulting in record numbers of children being labeled with all sorts of off the wall things like "highly functional autism" and the diagnosis du jour "Aspergers Syndrome."
For the one millionth time, teachers in MD are not allowed to unionize.
And? So? What does that have to do with all the other areas where teacher unions exist?
This isn't just a Md. concern, it is a national one.
For the umpteenth time.
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