testing 1,2,3

state standardized testing has begun- it must be spring!

oh how painful to tell a child, "Sorry, i can't pronounce that word for you- do your best!"

agonizing- watching some of my students fade in and out of concentration and mark a bubble even though they have no idea what they just read.

sad- these kids have worked hard and have shown growth, but it all comes down to these three weeks.

how about a test in the fall and a test at the END of the year? look at the child, look for growth!

(trivia for you: testing is required to take place 150 days into the school year. this is for the convenience of the testing company, so they can get the results back. don't you think that the companies making millions off of testing could hire a few more people to run scantron sheets and score reports? why are the kids forced to cram 180 days of instruction into 150???)

What constitutes a failure?

There is a story in the Washington Post today that reveals there is a report issued by the Government Accounting Office that is currently being reviewed by the defense department. The significance of the report (done by the Investigative arm of Congress) is that it details the failure of the US to meet all but three of its own benchmarks in Iraq. The official who leaked the report to the Post did so out of concern that it would be watered doen prior to being released to the public next week.

So, out of 18 benchmarks, three have been met. Does that mean we have a long way to go and need to dig in deeper, send more troops and spend more money? Or does that mean it is time to pack it in, and start bringing poeple home? I am not the one to answer that.

What gets me about all of it is that somehow, this administration will highlight only its successes and downplay the abject failure of it all. Of course, the case could be made that it is human nature to highlight your strengths, etc...

So how come yesterday, I had to sit in a meeting where I was told that because our students' test scores slipped by one point we had better figure out where we went wrong and what we were going to do about it? Why, across the country, are thousands of schools being labelled as "failing" by this administration and facing sanctions and take over by the government when they don't meet their benchmarks? (They can even be making improvements and showing growth, but still be labelled failing!)

Every day, hundreds of teachers and students are told that they are failures on a field where the goal post is moved every year, yet this administration will defend its choices in Iraq and paint them as successes- SAD!