Today I helped administer the latest version of the Texas State Academic Skills test know as the Staar. If you have seen my FB posts, my twitter feeds or my posts on various blogs you now I already have a bias against this type of testing. I don't want to pretend to you to that I in any way support the current state testing scheme. It is horrendous.
These tests are simply a snapshot on a bad or good or average day. On any of these days any given student may have experienced a wonderful morning or a morning when his parents split up as happened today. Yet his academic achievement will be judged by this false snapshot on one of the worst days of his 13 year life. Another student came from a home where he found no support at all. Another student came from a home where his parents are so invested in the testing craze that they pressured him to the point that he threw up on arriving at school.
Many of the students tried hard on material written by an industrial complex with no sense of how difficult they find school, their learning difficulties, their motivation or their particular situations which may have been good or bad. Most of the students finished in the first of four hours. This may mean they were brilliant and tried hard. Yet it may also mean that they simply didn't care. The students who tried were finished in about an hour and a half.
The remainder of the students sat still and silent for the next several hours as their peers finished whether they were highly motivated or simply dogging it. Restroom breaks were minimal, water breaks were minimal, nutrition was nonexistent, students had to remain still and quiet for many hours whether working on the test or not. For today the State of Texas forgot anything about preteen and early teen human development. For today the State of Texas essentially forgot about the ARD's of the kids who have ADHD and various other learning problems to become a unified mass of human material which was gauged by the same standard, in the same time, and on the same material without regard for their development emotionally, physically or mentally. Further their motivation was simply thrown out.
This is what the false Texas miracle is today. It is a simple snapshot test written by people who do not live in the child's school deriving millions upon millions of dollars on the backs of Texas school children.
This is one of the best reasons to pursue independent learning. Home schoolers simply do not have to worry about this kind of testing. They learn freely, developmentally and in a way which helps them develop independent thinking and learning skills which will serve them extremely well.
Before I close this entry I want to congratulate the school at which I was working today for making it as humane, efficient and kind as possible. This was not the case in every Texas school. I am lucky to work for an enlightened and kind administration.
But as a parent you should fear the testing scheme of the State of Texas. It drives everything that happens to your child in school, threatens the job of teachers who want to bring in new and creative materials to kids and who want to teach from their best mind and their best heart.
These tests are simply a snapshot on a bad or good or average day. On any of these days any given student may have experienced a wonderful morning or a morning when his parents split up as happened today. Yet his academic achievement will be judged by this false snapshot on one of the worst days of his 13 year life. Another student came from a home where he found no support at all. Another student came from a home where his parents are so invested in the testing craze that they pressured him to the point that he threw up on arriving at school.
Many of the students tried hard on material written by an industrial complex with no sense of how difficult they find school, their learning difficulties, their motivation or their particular situations which may have been good or bad. Most of the students finished in the first of four hours. This may mean they were brilliant and tried hard. Yet it may also mean that they simply didn't care. The students who tried were finished in about an hour and a half.
The remainder of the students sat still and silent for the next several hours as their peers finished whether they were highly motivated or simply dogging it. Restroom breaks were minimal, water breaks were minimal, nutrition was nonexistent, students had to remain still and quiet for many hours whether working on the test or not. For today the State of Texas forgot anything about preteen and early teen human development. For today the State of Texas essentially forgot about the ARD's of the kids who have ADHD and various other learning problems to become a unified mass of human material which was gauged by the same standard, in the same time, and on the same material without regard for their development emotionally, physically or mentally. Further their motivation was simply thrown out.
This is what the false Texas miracle is today. It is a simple snapshot test written by people who do not live in the child's school deriving millions upon millions of dollars on the backs of Texas school children.
This is one of the best reasons to pursue independent learning. Home schoolers simply do not have to worry about this kind of testing. They learn freely, developmentally and in a way which helps them develop independent thinking and learning skills which will serve them extremely well.
Before I close this entry I want to congratulate the school at which I was working today for making it as humane, efficient and kind as possible. This was not the case in every Texas school. I am lucky to work for an enlightened and kind administration.
But as a parent you should fear the testing scheme of the State of Texas. It drives everything that happens to your child in school, threatens the job of teachers who want to bring in new and creative materials to kids and who want to teach from their best mind and their best heart.
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