Sometimes
I am having one of those days where I think about my job and start trembling and my eyes start tearing up. I can't get over this fucking rat thing. This isn't one rat. Or two. Or twenty. This is a goddamn motherfucking RAT COLONY. We have roaches, too. I saw some on the staircase today. WTF is going to happen if one of my kiddos gets bitten? Our principal is genuinely phobic of rodents and she is about to lose it. She is doing everything she can to eliminate the problem. It's just that rat-removal is not exactly her field of expertise, nor should it have to be. I am not a baby about creepy crawlies, but this is a fucking rat army that produces turds that make me wonder exactly how big are the rats that only come out at night.
We have a significant number of kiddos who I despair over them passing the standardized testing that is coming up next month. It seems like every week I learn something new about the intricacies of the testing system and I can't help but conclude that the system is just set up to ensure that the maximum number of students fall on their asses. Here is the latest example: The standardized testing in math is not simply numbers. It is heavily based on using reading comprehension skills to solve complex, often multi-step word problems. When a student is working far, far below their grade level and is experiencing serious difficulties, we refer them for diagnostic testing. This serves two purposes. First, the student will get the help and specialized services they need. Second, it protects the school from not meeting their AYP (adequate yearly progress) and accountability standards when the child fails a test that they simply did not have the ability to pass. The problem is that we are having kids bounce right back from the diagnostic testing with the verdict that they are doing just fine in math. The reason? The diagnostic testing is nothing like the standardized testing. It's all straight up simple numbers operations, no reading comprehension necessary. So the kids pass the diagnostics, then fail the hell out of the high stakes standardized tests. This is just one of the many ways the educational system sets these kids up for miserable failures.
Every Saturday from now until... April?... we are having Saturday school. I feel a little unhinged at this point.
We have a significant number of kiddos who I despair over them passing the standardized testing that is coming up next month. It seems like every week I learn something new about the intricacies of the testing system and I can't help but conclude that the system is just set up to ensure that the maximum number of students fall on their asses. Here is the latest example: The standardized testing in math is not simply numbers. It is heavily based on using reading comprehension skills to solve complex, often multi-step word problems. When a student is working far, far below their grade level and is experiencing serious difficulties, we refer them for diagnostic testing. This serves two purposes. First, the student will get the help and specialized services they need. Second, it protects the school from not meeting their AYP (adequate yearly progress) and accountability standards when the child fails a test that they simply did not have the ability to pass. The problem is that we are having kids bounce right back from the diagnostic testing with the verdict that they are doing just fine in math. The reason? The diagnostic testing is nothing like the standardized testing. It's all straight up simple numbers operations, no reading comprehension necessary. So the kids pass the diagnostics, then fail the hell out of the high stakes standardized tests. This is just one of the many ways the educational system sets these kids up for miserable failures.
Every Saturday from now until... April?... we are having Saturday school. I feel a little unhinged at this point.
posted by lily of the valley at 1/05/2007 07:34:00 PM
3 Comments:
Yeah, actually the purpose of the No Child Left Behind Act is to fail as many students as possible. It's a Trojan horse designed to show that the public schools are failing and that vouchers (and the eventual elimination of the public school system) are the only solution. It's really depressing to think about the kind of warped humanity that doesn't mind playing this kind of game with children's lives.
I also think that someone in the Bushi family is in bed with the testing companies, because they are making out like fucking bandits selling all those test prep materials.
I'd say it's really likely considering he's got the Texas constituency from his goobernatorial days. Did the practice of Texas schools having to define their curricullum earlier than any other state and have fiirst shot at choosing which textbooks everybody uses happen under his reign?
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