Short version: I am so over standardized testing.
Long version: I learned this school year that you are not required to take standardized tests. There is a federal law that allows students to opt out. The only drawback is that they don't tell you this but I will send you the information and form letter if you'd like. This year we opted out. And that should have been the end of things but it wasn't because the boys came home a few weeks ago and said, "Mrs. English Core Teacher* said that we needed to make sure we did really good on the test because it would determine our placement next year (in high school)"
Me, "What?"
Kid, "Yeah, if we do really bad we'll be put in the low class."
Me, "There isn't a low class."
Kid, 'Yeah there is."
Huh, that doesn't sound right because I sat through two high school orientations and have four packets of information (one for each kid from each meeting) and they all clearly state that all incoming freshman will be registered for the same english class unless they pass the Advanced Placement test that was given early in the month. This information was also communicated to us out loud at each meeting. So I sent an email to the HS counselor asking if this was the case. She responded:
"All of the students take English 9 unless they take a test to get into
Advanced English 9. However, if a student scores low on the CAASP** they
may be recommended to take an reading intervention class along with their
English 9."
And this is where I get mad. They've already done an exceptional job of stressing out my kids. I threw in the towel around Christmastime. "Yes, you win. I admit it. You are far better at stressing out my kid than I am at calming them down. I could say it's because you've had more practice at 'preparing 8th graders for high school' but I won't. I will simply admit defeat and leave the ring." Sure the gist of what was said is true but it was said in a way that implies something completely not true. And the kids walk away with the gist and aren't so good at rummaging around for the facts so my kids come home thinking, "oh my god, this is really important and will effect my future." No, it won't. All it can effect is the school's performance rating and having two less stressed out kids taking the test is actually in their benefit so it's surprising that they don't encourage more students to opt out which is probably what happened at some point so that's why they're not allowed to tell people about the opt out option because it was being used to artificially inflate test scores and now we're right back where we started. But I'm tired of telling them this over and over so I finally said, "okay, that's enough, out of the pool, we're going home."
So this morning it came up again. "Ms. Math Teacher said our test scores would be used to determine placement next year." <fuuuck> but then he shrugged it off and walked out of the kitchen saying, "whatever, I've had a lot of time in the library to work on homework. I wish every week was like this." HA- I WIN!
* This teacher's personal philosophy is, "You can always do better" which is not true. Sure you can always spend more time on something but that doesn't mean you're making it better. Da Vinci could have spent another hour on the Mona Lisa but he didn't and it's still hanging in the fucking Louvre. Alternatively you can polish a turd as much as you want and it's still a turd. Furthermore this philosophy lacks any cost/benefit analysis. Is my time better spent doing homework for another hour or going to bed because nothing cures your ails like a good nights sleep. And whiskey.
**CAASP is the new test. STAR is the old test. And there's SAT, and ACT. The next one needs to be WTF or BS. Someone is in charge of this, what the hell is going on up there? The single best thing I did at PTA president during 5th grade was to change the copy machine code to 58008 because upside down it's BOOBS. Being an adult sucks; you gotta grab these chances when they come up.
No comments:
Post a Comment