Are state tests derigeur everywhere? It seems our school system is basing everything on those tests. Its absurd.
Well Andrea, you've hit a sore spot. My wife teaches in the public school system here in Massachusetts. Here we have the MCAS test. This pretty much equates to the complete destruction of the public school system. Going forward it's not about teaching anymore for the schools...it's about testing. You are correct, it is all they care about on the political side. Schools are punished if the test scores don't improve each time the kids are forced to take this test.
What this means is, if your school scores well, you've got a problem...because within the system you must show improvement. The other issue is you're testing a different group of kids each year so the scores will fluctuate due to that rather important factor. As it stands the threat that hangs over the head of all the school administrators is if test scores decline or don't meet the standard, they lose their job and guess who takes over the school? State officials! Oh boy! People with no clue how to operate a school system without a background in education strip the system of the folks who dedicated their lives to educating their children (for lousy pay to boot) to come in and create an improvement? You've got to be kidding me.
This is one of those areas where politicians should not be screwing with stuff they don't even have a vague understanding of. What they've done is sent the message that the MCAS scores take priority over everything else...they don't care about what the kids learn they want to hold up test scores and create statistics...that's stuff politicians can campaign on...but the poor teachers are forced to throw all their lesson planning out the window and drill the kids on nothing but how to score better on the MCAS tests or they could lose their jobs. The administrators turn up the heat on the teachers telling them to throw out anything and everything except what it takes to improve the test scores...basically focus just on math and english. The kids are put under the gun (you know how much kids love tests) and basically their performance on these tests will determine if people will keep their jobs.
This actually has led to the idea that they will be eliminating everything except these basic classes. That means...no art class...no gym...no foreign language...limited science...limited history...limited geography...you see on top of everything else they are also here in Massachusetts getting hit with budget cuts. So, they will be cutting everything possible except what's important to create a better MCAS score.
They have begun this process by firing teachers. As an example...if an elementary school has 3 third grade teachers they will fire one and add the kids to the remaining two classrooms. Increasing class size is, to anyone that understands education, a recipe for decreasing what the group will learn. So, all the teachers will now need to try to cope with more students as well as the pressure to raise test scores.
Top this off with insane factors like all students are now grouped together in one class. What I mean by this is in our public school system kids with special needs or severe learning disabilities are grouped in with all the other students and take the same classes. The rather inept idea behind this is that all the kids should be treated equally and integrating the classes this way creates understanding and acceptance among the children. It's actually quite comical from an outsiders standpoint because here's this poor teacher who has lesson planned to teach the kids and this teacher is forced to teach the same plan to a group that goes from kids with Down syndrome or Asperger syndrome to the kids that are just a bit slow, to the middle of the road kids, to the advanced kids...all in one classroom in one big happy group and guess what...their test scores all count the same too! Yup, that's right! We're all the same and damn it to hell if the politicians won't prove that one way or another with test scores and statistics.
What fucking baboon comes up with this crap?
Why anyone would want to become a teacher in the public school system is beyond me. You run up huge debt in school loans, to be paid shit money, get constantly assaulted by the stupidity of the system and politics, a lot of the general public can't stand you and thinks you're a glorified babysitter...which is mainly what they like to use you for... that's overpaid and they despise you because you have a union which you have no choice but to join and your dues are automatically deducted from your already low pay along with a whole load of other stuff like a bunch of mandatory retirement deductions and your health care etc... leaving you with barely enough to pay bills and buy groceries at the end of the day...not to mention having to endure an endless parade of people who all believe their kid is the next Einstein...even if little Johnny can't master the alphabet...and who will show up to scream bloody murder at you if their kid does not get all top marks because he's perfect after all and you're going to mess up his getting into Harvard...even if the little bastard has never completed a single homework assignment because mommy and daddy let junior come home and screw with his playstation all night long...you have to remember as a teacher it's always your fault if the kid performs poorly...the parent is not responsible. If he's a behavior problem...hell that's your fault too! A parent has no responsibility for discipline. Really it's all so insane...
If we're testing anyone it should be the politicians because I'm not sure I see any indication of any brainwave activity at all from these people. I don't think just any monkey should be allowed to get elected to public office.
Anyway...everytime I hear "No child left behind" I nearly puke. We're leaving the whole education system behind and these baboons that call themselves politicians are the ones responsible...and in the end really that means WE are responsible...because WE voted for these clowns...Someone did anyway....
