Re: testing's effect on teachers - letter to FairTest

[aburke5054@aol.com]

 Maybe the problem isn't only politicians.? Maybe it's also teachers who see only dark clouds and no silver linings.? 

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>; NDSG <ndsgroup@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tue, 20 Nov 2007 10:21 am
Subject: [arn-l] testing's effect on teachers - letter to FairTest









This letter adds more concerns to the issues Lisa and I addressed in our Philalphia Inquirer op ed last week. The author gave me permission to forward it.?

Monty?
?

Monty Neill,?
?

I read your article in the Inquirer and couldn't agree more.  I went to St. Joe's Prep (a long time ago) and now teach 9th graders in a public high school in South Carolina.  Needless to say, I speak as a veteran teacher.?
?

The End-of-Course tests in this state--as in others--are beyond merely a negative factor in the ways you mention, they are outright MADNESS.  I refuse to let EOC pressure wear on my mind like other teachers, but then again, I'm 56 and will be out of this madness soon.  I feel sympathy for young teachers walking into the horror of having this millstone of politically-mandated crap hanging over them, and that is why I'm writing to you.?
?

For, here's the biggest reason against exit testing that's left out of these discussions: good, new, dedicated teachers will leave the profession instantly when they go through even one year of this insanity.  I know of two examples right off the top of my head, who would have been excellent teachers. I was in a "curriculum standards" teacher's meeting Tuesday of this week, and thinking exactly that.?
?

The politicians drive administrators to walk into these meetings and say, "Now, we don't want you to teach to the tests, but . . ."  And teachers are sitting there knowing full well that's a load of nonsense.  OF COURSE, they want us  not only to teach to the test, they want us to gear the entire curriculum in lockstep to it.  No new teacher worth a grain of salt will want to kiss up to that kind of phony approach.  Good luck to schools of education finding the saps who want to go through the robotic, insipid teaching routine embodied in that concept.  In the meantime, the politicians are not "accountable"--their favorite word--and are on their merry way making up another soundbite about their deep concern with education.  Spare me.  It's absolute madness.?
?

Bob Strauss, Jr.?

Greenwood, SC?



 


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