"Teacher of the Year" quits over Common Core tests

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Virginia is reducing the number of SOL tests and they are about to put in a project based assessment as an alternative to the tests.

The pendulum is swinging back. The feds are behind, but they will see the light on this soon.

Oh, how I hope so. My DD lives in terror of the SOLs. Learning is no longer fun and interesting at her school. Now it's just a huge packet of facts they must memorize for the SOLs. Crazy.

My kids have had fun and find learning interesting in school. My 6th grader, for example, made a solar oven this fall. My 4th grader was writing books on an iPad. They're both playing musical instruments. One is in a school play. The other is reading incredible books. Both schools get top SOL scores every year.

Maybe your school is doing it wrong.

[Anonymous]

Virginia is reducing the number of SOL tests and they are about to put in a project based assessment as an alternative to the tests.

The pendulum is swinging back. The feds are behind, but they will see the light on this soon.


Oh, how I hope so. My DD lives in terror of the SOLs. Learning is no longer fun and interesting at her school. Now it's just a huge packet of facts they must memorize for the SOLs. Crazy.


My kids have had fun and find learning interesting in school. My 6th grader, for example, made a solar oven this fall. My 4th grader was writing books on an iPad. They're both playing musical instruments. One is in a school play. The other is reading incredible books. Both schools get top SOL scores every year.

Maybe your school is doing it wrong.

You are not at a Title 1 school. You are in a school that gets top SOL scores every year. Your neighborhood is probably in the top 5% of incomes in America. There's a HUGE difference. Your children will always be entitled. And you are so entitled that you get to decide what the less entitled of America have to do. And you get to rub their noses in the great things your kids get to do at their schools. So happy for YOUR children.

[Anonymous]

Maybe your school is doing it wrong.

Clearly testing has not helped them to do it right.

[Anonymous]

Here's a clue:

When schools have to throw pizza parties, wear weird clothes, promise limousine rides, etc. based on SOL or other high stakes test scores, there are big problems.

Children should have fun (especially in elementary school) and through the fun they will absorb knowledge, concepts, and new ways of thinking. If they have to be bribed, the process is probably grueling and mind numbing and kids hate it. No wonder so many kids aren't thrilled about going to school.

[Anonymous]

My kids have had fun and find learning interesting in school. My 6th grader, for example, made a solar oven this fall. My 4th grader was writing books on an iPad. They're both playing musical instruments. One is in a school play. The other is reading incredible books. Both schools get top SOL scores every year.

Maybe your school is doing it wrong.

A little smug aren't you? I'm wiling to be that your kids are in AAP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

My kids have had fun and find learning interesting in school. My 6th grader, for example, made a solar oven this fall. My 4th grader was writing books on an iPad. They're both playing musical instruments. One is in a school play. The other is reading incredible books. Both schools get top SOL scores every year.

Maybe your school is doing it wrong.

A little smug aren't you? I'm wiling to be that your kids are in AAP.

No, there's no AAP where I am.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Virginia is reducing the number of SOL tests and they are about to put in a project based assessment as an alternative to the tests.

The pendulum is swinging back. The feds are behind, but they will see the light on this soon.


Oh, how I hope so. My DD lives in terror of the SOLs. Learning is no longer fun and interesting at her school. Now it's just a huge packet of facts they must memorize for the SOLs. Crazy.


My kids have had fun and find learning interesting in school. My 6th grader, for example, made a solar oven this fall. My 4th grader was writing books on an iPad. They're both playing musical instruments. One is in a school play. The other is reading incredible books. Both schools get top SOL scores every year.

Maybe your school is doing it wrong.

You are not at a Title 1 school. You are in a school that gets top SOL scores every year. Your neighborhood is probably in the top 5% of incomes in America. There's a HUGE difference. Your children will always be entitled. And you are so entitled that you get to decide what the less entitled of America have to do. And you get to rub their noses in the great things your kids get to do at their schools. So happy for YOUR children.

Exactly PP. I teach in MD and the "incentives" for the PARCC testing will begin in another week or so. Raffles, pizza/ice cream parties, giveaways, etc will be the name of the game. Why? Attendance mostly. Our principal offers gift card giveaways for coming to school on time after each school break (winter break, spring break), long weekends (like MLK and Presidents Day, etc) and for testing like PARCC (she did it for MSA testing too). 95% of our students are on free lunch. Coming to school on time is a huge deal for them. We play catch up with the vast majority of our students every day. Our admin and support teams spend a lot of time and energy trying to 1) get kids to come to school on time each day 2) dealing with behavior issues and mental health issues 3) making sure kids' basic needs are met (the dentist spend almost an entire week at our school). Our school is doing what it needs to do to make sure kids are ready to learn. We provide breakfast and lunch (and dinner for kids in the after school program). We make sure kids have school supplies and coats/mittens/hats for the winter. We also have a food pantry and provide fresh fruit as a snack a few days a week. Basically, we do what parents with who have money do for their kids. A lot depends on our test scores so open your eyes before you make sweeping generalizations like, "Maybe your school is doing it wrong."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

All that supposed experience and yet you still haven't come up with any meaningful or robust specific, fact-based examples of how Common Core is "developmentally inappropriate..."

You seem to be suffering from some magical thinking that saying it over and over will somehow make it so.

LOL! You have resorted to personal attacks. Pretty clear you have lost the battle.

But PP's post was actually not a personal attack.

[Anonymous]

No, there's no AAP where I am.

Because you don't need it because of the demographics of your housing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

No, there's no AAP where I am.

Because you don't need it because of the demographics of your housing.

If your schools and housing are so shitty, sounds to me like you don't have the luxury of worrying about whether or not they "teach the test" or fail to make school "interesting."

[Anonymous]

All that supposed experience and yet you still haven't come up with any meaningful or robust specific, fact-based examples of how Common Core is "developmentally inappropriate..."

You seem to be suffering from some magical thinking that saying it over and over will somehow make it so.


LOL! You have resorted to personal attacks. Pretty clear you have lost the battle.



But PP's post was actually not a personal attack.

How can saying that someone seems to be suffering from" magical thinking" not be a bit personal? If it's not an attack, it's at least a pretty weird assumption. The posters on here are trying to argue and, of course, they will say something isn't so in the course of the argument and calling that "magical thinking" is just plain weird.

[Anonymous]

No, there's no AAP where I am.




Because you don't need it because of the demographics of your housing.


If your schools and housing are so shitty, sounds to me like you don't have the luxury of worrying about whether or not they "teach the test" or fail to make school "interesting."

Yeah, I guess poor people don't count a whole lot. I should be out working and trust all the rich people to figure out what is best for me (because they are way smarter than I am). That's America.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

All that supposed experience and yet you still haven't come up with any meaningful or robust specific, fact-based examples of how Common Core is "developmentally inappropriate..."

You seem to be suffering from some magical thinking that saying it over and over will somehow make it so.

LOL! You have resorted to personal attacks. Pretty clear you have lost the battle.

But PP's post was actually not a personal attack.

How can saying that someone seems to be suffering from" magical thinking" not be a bit personal? If it's not an attack, it's at least a pretty weird assumption. The posters on here are trying to argue and, of course, they will say something isn't so in the course of the argument and calling that "magical thinking" is just plain weird.

"You are an idiot" is a personal attack.

"Your argument is magical thinking" is not.

[Anonymous]

All that supposed experience and yet you still haven't come up with any meaningful or robust specific, fact-based examples of how Common Core is "developmentally inappropriate..."

You seem to be suffering from some magical thinking that saying it over and over will somehow make it so.

LOL! You have resorted to personal attacks. Pretty clear you have lost the battle.

But PP's post was actually not a personal attack.


How can saying that someone seems to be suffering from" magical thinking" not be a bit personal? If it's not an attack, it's at least a pretty weird assumption. The posters on here are trying to argue and, of course, they will say something isn't so in the course of the argument and calling that "magical thinking" is just plain weird.


"You are an idiot" is a personal attack.

"Your argument is magical thinking" is not.

You did not say "your argument is magical thinking". You said, "YOU seem to be suffering from some magical thinking." That is what makes it personal my friend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

All that supposed experience and yet you still haven't come up with any meaningful or robust specific, fact-based examples of how Common Core is "developmentally inappropriate..."

You seem to be suffering from some magical thinking that saying it over and over will somehow make it so.

LOL! You have resorted to personal attacks. Pretty clear you have lost the battle.

But PP's post was actually not a personal attack.

How can saying that someone seems to be suffering from" magical thinking" not be a bit personal? If it's not an attack, it's at least a pretty weird assumption. The posters on here are trying to argue and, of course, they will say something isn't so in the course of the argument and calling that "magical thinking" is just plain weird.

"You are an idiot" is a personal attack.

"Your argument is magical thinking" is not.

You did not say "your argument is magical thinking". You said, "YOU seem to be suffering from some magical thinking." That is what makes it personal my friend.

You're talking to multiple posters, none of whom are your friend.