Re: Bracey: The Degeneration of American Education

[aburke5054@aol.com]

It's true that public education employs people who, as Bracey says, 
seem to have lost all proportion and common sense.  This would be true 
with testing or without it and attributing every silly thing that goes 
on in public education to testing itself demonstrates lack of 
perception and common sense.

Art


-----Original Message-----
From: monty@fairtest.org
To: arn2-strategy <arn2-strategy@yahoogroups.com>; ARN-L 
<arn-l@interversity.org>; ARN-state <ARN-state@yahoogroups.com>; CARE 
<care@yahoogroups.com>; NDSG <ndsgroup@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Fri, 28 Mar 2008 6:19 am
Subject: [arn-l] Bracey: The Degeneration of American Education


"Good" examples of test mania in action - I snagged this from Susan 
Ohanian's posting of news, including henr comment:


The Degeneration of American Education


If readers have other examples of absurdities, Gerald Bracey would love 
to hear about them. You can write to the blog or to him directly at 
gbracey1@verizon.net


Don't forget to send a copy to:

Susano@gmavt.net


by Gerald Bracey


The high-stakes testing mania in general and No Child Left Behind in 
particular have reduced too much of public education to a system to be 
gamed. Some people play the game sincerely and seriously. The teachers 
and principal in Linda Perlstein's Tested are such players. They have 
doubts about the value of the state test, but they strive mightily to 
get their impoverished students over that barrier. After the test is 
given in late spring, they start acting like real teachers in a real 
school--they take the kids to museums and aquariums and to watch the 
Blue Angels perform. They make art and write poetry. But only in the 
short time between the state test and the end of the school year.


Some people play it cynically, doing whatever it takes to get children 
close to the passing score--the bubble kids--off the bubble and into 
the magic kingdom of "proficient." The "sure things" and "hopeless 
cases" are ignored. Or emphasizing the increasing passing rates on a 
required test as students enter their senior year, not taking into 
account the massive dropouts that have occurred along the way. Or 
establishing "leaver codes" in sufficient number that a school can have 
over 1000 9th-graders, fewer than 300 12th-graders and zero dropouts.


Some play it as if they have lost all sense of proportion and common 
sense. The Texas Education Agency refused to grant a waiver from the 
state test for a young woman hospitalized after a serious automobile 
accident that killed her brother and left her memory impaired. Her 
school dispatched an assistant principal to administer the test in the 
hospital. Fortunately, one of the girl's teachers overheard what was 
up, got to the hospital first and told her to refuse to take it. In 
Colorado, a father, a teacher himself, sought to opt his daughter out 
of the state fifth grade test. Fine, said the superintendent, but she 
won't be promoted to sixth grade.


In Washington, a willing testee who simply couldn't think of how to 
respond to a writing prompt was harangued by his teacher, then by his 
principal and then by his mother. Unable to respond, he was forbidden 
to attend a post-test party at which pancakes were served and the movie 
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events shown. He was told he 
had ruined everything for everyone else at the school and suspended for 
a week.


And some play it desperately. On March, 27, 2008, the Houston Chronicle 
reported that a middle school principal told a group of teachers that 
he would kill them and kill himself if the school's science scores did 
not improve. He was not, the teachers said, joking. "You don't know how 
ruthless I can be," he is alleged to have said. The incident is being 
investigated as a "terroristic threat."


At this point we should be asking HAVE WE GONE COLLECTIVELY MAD?


"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit 
atrocities," said Voltaire. In a world that contains Clear Skies, Clean 
Waters, Healthy Forests, an Axis of Evil, Iraqi Freedom, Family Values, 
Patriot Act, and No Child Left Behind, it is a good reminder for our 
time.


— Gerald Bracey

Huffington Post

2008-03-27

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerald-bracey/the-degeneration-of-ameri_b_93742.html 


------------------------------------------------

Direct list questions to listmom@interversity.net