The legislature is trying to teach the students by interrupting the learning process frequently with testing. The teachers have no choice but to chronically teach to the test rather than having a teaching plan to cover the material needed by students.
With 45 testing days per year there is a test every three teaching days. There is nothing else happening in those classrooms except teaching to the test. That is at least one test per week. This is crazy. There aren't report cards in Florida?
February 18, 2015
By Amy Sherman
...The Florida Badass Teachers Association, (click here) which is part of a national association that formed in recent years in an effort to fight back against testing, raised concerns about the tests as they planned to protest Bush’s Feb. 10 speech in Tallahassee.
Thomas James, an association spokesman and Miami-Dade history teacher, leveled many criticisms of Florida schools, including this one in a statement provided to the Miami Herald before Bush’s speech.
"Florida public school students have become little more than ‘test drones’ being bombarded with an array of standardized high stakes tests which eat up as much as 45 school days per year," James said.
James’ claim about the amount of days eaten up by tests caught our eye because it was more than double the number we heard from state legislative leaders in 2013 -- though Florida has made changes to tests since that time.
How many days a year do students actually take standardized tests....
This is crazy. The month of September is taken up by tests and then the tests start again in March and continue through May. That is five months of teaching with some interruption by District Testing that are not required by the state. When do these students receive their report cards and how are those grades determined?
In Maimi-Dade there is not even any month without testing. (click here)
There are fifty state tests out of fifty-four annual tests and that doesn't include all the pre-college testing. Of those same tests thirteen are required by federal standards.
I never had that kind of standardized testing. We had some testing, but, nothing like this. I worried about my grades that came home on my quarterly report card and we had a "Summer Vacation," too. This is crazy. No one trusts teachers anymore. The educational process in the USA is far too politicized and the school year outcomes have become contentious politically. This is nonsense.
Children are soft targets and should be hands off for political agendas. The School Board should be the only political vote any parent should be concerned with. The way to influence a child's learning is to attend school board meetings.
February 22, 2015
By Bob Driehaus
MASON -- The sheer number of state tests that Ohio students (click here) face each year is stifling creative learning, some educators say, and a coalition of Greater Cincinnati districts is lobbying state lawmakers to cut the number of mandated tests.
Mason, Deer Park and West Clermont school districts are among those lobbying to reduce the number of tests for students in grades 3-12 from two or three a year – depending on the grade level – to one. They recommend staggering English, math, science and social studies testing so that none take place in the same year. Some also want to eliminate Common Core-based testing for high schoolers, replacing those exams with the ACT college prep test for juniors.
"It would allow our teachers to be more innovative, creative and engaging with their instruction," Deer Park Superintendent Jeff Langdon told WCPO. "We're assessing our kids more than we ever have. And we're doing less teaching."...
"We've gone overboard with testing," Mason Superintendent Gail Kist-Kline said. "The pendulum has swung too far."
"Every which way but loose."
These tests are expensive as well.
November 7, 2012
By Andrew Ujifysa
...It also says that the District of Columbia I(click here) spends the most on its assessments per student—$114—of the 45 jurisdictions Brookings measured, followed by Hawaii, Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota, and Massachusetts. New York, where test scoring is a local responsibility, spent the least—$7 per student—followed by Kansas, North Carolina, Oregon, and Utah.
Despite the relatively small amount states spend on tests overall, compared with total education spending nationally, the report, written by Brown Center fellow Matthew M. Chingos, warns that the testing costs take on growing importance during difficult budget periods for states....
Schools get Gold and Silver medals? You've got to be joking.April 21, 2014
By Robert Morse
A state-by-state (click here) breakdown of the 2014 Best High Schools rankings shows that Maine is this year's leading performer, with 22.2 percent of its eligible schools earning gold and silver medals.
California came in second with 22.2 percent, since the rankings are based on unrounded percentages of schools with gold or silver medals. Connecticut was third with 19.7 percent.
The gold and silver awards reflect which schools are most successfully preparing students for college, based on students participating in and achieving passing scores on Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate tests. For a school to be eligible for a gold or silver medal, its students must also do well on the appropriate statewide tests, as explained in the 2014 Best High Schools rankings methodology....
This is ridiculous. After junior high school most students decided whether they wanted to attend regular high school or the county technical schools. Those in high school knew they faced the challenge of learning to prepare for college entrance.
We never did any of this. We were advanced through school based on our performance on our report cards. This is crazy. It has to estrange parents from the the learning experience. I can't relate to this mess. Wow. How can a parent participate when all that is being taught is how to pass the test? What if a child is a bad test taker? This is nonsense; very expensive nonsense.
I received a state scholarship to the college I chose to attend. I didn't even apply for the scholarship, the school system automatically submitted students names that were eligible based on their grades and college board tests with colleges already chosen.
I really don't want to hear how a child is doing poorly because parents aren't involved. There is no way a parent can relate to this mess. This is state controlled education. The state is the teacher. The state has taken the classroom out of the reach of teaching and placed in test performance. This is never going to result in students that can compete internationally. It will never happen. No wonder the USA is ranked 25th in world.
The control has to be returned to the local school boards. I am surprised this isn't unconstitutional.
