High Stakes Testing......At What Cost?

Education in New York State has gone through some serious changes over the last 10+ years. The Common Core is a new term describing what each grade level & subject gets taught so as to assure that all children are getting what they need.  Not a bad idea.  Teacher evaluations have a new look.  Evaluating teachers is a good thing but the process needs some serious tweeking since the new procedure is very time & labor consuming.  the High Stake's Testing though needs serious revamping, maybe even elimination.

The rally being held in Albany of those opposed to High Stake's Testing  on June 8 has a real point.  Currently, students in all grades are subject to these tests. SLO's or Subject Learning Objectives are determined for all things taught.   Students are then given pre-tests of materials they should know after somethings taught & post-test after it's taught to see what they actually did learn.  Even with their teachers telling them not to worry on the pre-tests, imagine the stress this causes on 6 and 7 year olds?  All students are subjected to this testing, periodically, all year long.  Teachers are pulled out of their classes to administer and grade tests.  I know a teacher who missed parts or all of almost 20 days just to do school related business which includes testing & grading these tests.  Can this be good?  Teachers not teaching but testing & grading? 

The people making these decisions are usually far -removed from the classroom.  What they are missing is really the obvious. If you want to improve achievement, you need to guarantee that each child comes from an educationally nurturing home and gets  the same kind of pre-schooling. It's really that simple.

First grade is where many children learn to read. Many readiness activities are started at home and pre-schools, while some reading is being taught in Kindergarten.  Teaching Reading is all about Readiness and not all children are READY at the same time. Some come from a nurturing home and begin to learn reading at home while some get little or no educational nurturing. Some get one or two years of pre-school while many don't.  Until we can guarantee that every child gets the same nurturing at home and same pre-school opportunities,things will NOT improve. Schools are asked to do more and more every day, but they cannot make up for a less then adequate start or for a lack of interest in the home. There is NO substitute for a good Home Nurturing of Education. If the gap between success & failure is wide in first grade, imagine that gap in high school.

 High Stakes testing is not an answer.  It steals valuable learning time, stresses students and educators, and does little to improve opportunities for success.

Anonymity or Just the Facts?

Who are these people speaking "on condition of Anonymity?" The information they are giving ESPN & other New?Sources is either unconfirmed or unauthorized. They can't be doing it for notoriety since they remain anonymous. Are they being paid for this information in the hopes that it's true? Is ESPN & the other News?sources that desperate to break a story...any story that they don't care if it's true or not as long as it is tantalizing enough to draw substantial attention? Is THIS what news reporting has come to? Well, with News? 24/7 I suppose it has. They need to fill their slots & pages with something. Shame on US for accepting this kind of News? Reporting.  Did you realize that the most read papers in this country are the Tabloids where Truth & Fiction are interchangeable? What does that say about the American Public? And is it too late to ever go back to just reporting , as Joe Gannon always said, " Just the Facts Mame"?