"Teacher of the Year" quits over Common Core tests

[Anonymous]

With standards being constantly tested, the teachers have to skip so many steps. Did you never cram for a test? Same thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

You're missing the point. The complaining and "high stakes" moniker only seems to come up when it affects teachers. But when it was affecting millions of students nobody cared.

Were you out of the country during the 2000s? People have been complaining about No Child Left Behind and high-stakes testing basically since No Child Left Behind became law, which (as far as I know) was at least a decade before any teacher performance evaluation system in the country included a test-results component.

You could start by reading this book, which was published in 2008.

http://www.amazon.com/Tested-American-School-Struggles-Grade/dp/0805088024

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

You're missing the point. The complaining and "high stakes" moniker only seems to come up when it affects teachers. But when it was affecting millions of students nobody cared.

People have been complaining about these "high stakes" tests for years. People complain about the effect they have in narrowing the curriculum for STUDENTS. Yes, people care about the effect on students. Also, what affects the teachers affects the students. The two are very closely linked because the teacher is teaching the students. Teachers give instruction. Instruction affects students. Therefore, teachers affect students. "High stakes"tests affect instruction. You can't affect one thing without affecting the rest. When you talk about any of it, you are talking about impacts on students.

As I see it, you have that 180 degrees backwards. Standardized testing and standards don't "narrow" the curriculum unless teachers and school districts make it their choice to do so. Standards and tests don't tell schools what they can't teach, they only tell schools what minimum content they should be teaching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You're missing the point. The complaining and "high stakes" moniker only seems to come up when it affects teachers. But when it was affecting millions of students nobody cared.

Were you out of the country during the 2000s? People have been complaining about No Child Left Behind and high-stakes testing basically since No Child Left Behind became law, which (as far as I know) was at least a decade before any teacher performance evaluation system in the country included a test-results component.

You could start by reading this book, which was published in 2008.

http://www.amazon.com/Tested-American-School-Struggles-Grade/dp/0805088024

And apparently you missed it when everyone was complaining that millions of kids were graduating from high school semiliterate, unable to make change, or to point out the Pacific Ocean on a world map. I guess none of that matters to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You're missing the point. The complaining and "high stakes" moniker only seems to come up when it affects teachers. But when it was affecting millions of students nobody cared.

Were you out of the country during the 2000s? People have been complaining about No Child Left Behind and high-stakes testing basically since No Child Left Behind became law, which (as far as I know) was at least a decade before any teacher performance evaluation system in the country included a test-results component.

You could start by reading this book, which was published in 2008.

http://www.amazon.com/Tested-American-School-Struggles-Grade/dp/0805088024

And apparently you missed it when everyone was complaining that millions of kids were graduating from high school semiliterate, unable to make change, or to point out the Pacific Ocean on a world map. I guess none of that matters to you.

Has No Child Left Behind had a positive effect on this problem, in your opinion?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You're missing the point. The complaining and "high stakes" moniker only seems to come up when it affects teachers. But when it was affecting millions of students nobody cared.

People have been complaining about these "high stakes" tests for years. People complain about the effect they have in narrowing the curriculum for STUDENTS. Yes, people care about the effect on students. Also, what affects the teachers affects the students. The two are very closely linked because the teacher is teaching the students. Teachers give instruction. Instruction affects students. Therefore, teachers affect students. "High stakes"tests affect instruction. You can't affect one thing without affecting the rest. When you talk about any of it, you are talking about impacts on students.

As I see it, you have that 180 degrees backwards. Standardized testing and standards don't "narrow" the curriculum unless teachers and school districts make it their choice to do so. Standards and tests don't tell schools what they can't teach, they only tell schools what minimum content they should be teaching.

A basic principle of measurement is that if you reward people for do more x and less y, then they will do, or appear to do, more x and less y. It may be actively harmful to do more x and less y. They may achieve more x and less y solely by cooking the books. But the results will be, or appear to be, more x and less y.

Here's one example (not in education): http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2014/06/09/va-says-more-than-57000-patients-waiting-for-first-visit/
Here's another (in education):http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/07/21/wrong-answer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You're missing the point. The complaining and "high stakes" moniker only seems to come up when it affects teachers. But when it was affecting millions of students nobody cared.

Were you out of the country during the 2000s? People have been complaining about No Child Left Behind and high-stakes testing basically since No Child Left Behind became law, which (as far as I know) was at least a decade before any teacher performance evaluation system in the country included a test-results component.

You could start by reading this book, which was published in 2008.

http://www.amazon.com/Tested-American-School-Struggles-Grade/dp/0805088024

And apparently you missed it when everyone was complaining that millions of kids were graduating from high school semiliterate, unable to make change, or to point out the Pacific Ocean on a world map. I guess none of that matters to you.

Has No Child Left Behind had a positive effect on this problem, in your opinion?

It at least got educators' attention, since they had been asleep at the switch for a decade prior...

[Anonymous]

It at least got educators' attention, since they had been asleep at the switch for a decade prior...

How do you explain the fact that it changed for the worse? At least, it changed for the worse in my kids' school. They were in elementary when it changed. Significant difference.

[Anonymous]

It at least got educators' attention, since they had been asleep at the switch for a decade prior...


How do you explain the fact that it changed for the worse? At least, it changed for the worse in my kids' school. They were in elementary when it changed. Significant difference.

Same thing at my kid's school---the change was for the worse. Maybe they should have stayed asleep at the switch . . .

[Anonymous]

They took a problem (achievement gap) and tried to fix it by addressing all the schools. They fixed nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
And apparently you missed it when everyone was complaining that millions of kids were graduating from high school semiliterate, unable to make change, or to point out the Pacific Ocean on a world map. I guess none of that matters to you.

Has No Child Left Behind had a positive effect on this problem, in your opinion?

It at least got educators' attention, since they had been asleep at the switch for a decade prior...

But if the change is for the worse, then we would be better off without the educators' attention being gotten.

Also, no, they hadn't been asleep at the switch for a decade prior. The modern panic about public school education started in 1983 with A Nation At Risk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With standards being constantly tested, the teachers have to skip so many steps. Did you never cram for a test? Same thing.

Constant testing? Doesn't NCLB testing only come around once a year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
And apparently you missed it when everyone was complaining that millions of kids were graduating from high school semiliterate, unable to make change, or to point out the Pacific Ocean on a world map. I guess none of that matters to you.

Has No Child Left Behind had a positive effect on this problem, in your opinion?

It at least got educators' attention, since they had been asleep at the switch for a decade prior...

But if the change is for the worse, then we would be better off without the educators' attention being gotten.

Also, no, they hadn't been asleep at the switch for a decade prior. The modern panic about public school education started in 1983 with A Nation At Risk.

Did teachers solve it after A Nation at Risk was published? Did everyone somehow miss the massive reform that would theoretically have happened prior to NCLB and everything else, to negate the problem?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Did teachers solve it after A Nation at Risk was published? Did everyone somehow miss the massive reform that would theoretically have happened prior to NCLB and everything else, to negate the problem?

I don't understand your point. Are you saying that NCLB is a good thing, even though it actually made education worse, because...well, because why?

[Anonymous]

They took a problem (achievement gap) and tried to fix it by addressing all the schools. They fixed nothing.

And, for some reason, they can't admit that a mistake was made. Things would be so much better if people could admit mistakes and move on. Too many egos involved here.

And it's easier to blame the teachers than admit to mistakes.