Reply to WAMU story: Urban Coalition Presses Virginia Lawmakers to 'Meaningfully Increase' Education Funding

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to "WAMU story: Urban Coalition Presses Virginia Lawmakers to 'Meaningfully Increase' Education Funding"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don't agree with charter schools but agree with the other spending matters. SOLS were decreased and the plan is to decrease them further. The amount given for them is not very high. quote]

The SOL committee reduced SOLs by 5. The average VA student takes approx. 70 standardized tests from K-12 and about 7 standardized tests per year. That does not include WIDA for students learning English or remedial testing for students who failed an SOL and some students will take as many as 150 standardized tests from K-12. Check the Testing Calendar on any School Division website, add up the tests and practice tests, some of which last several days. Then add up the classroom time spent on preparing students for the tests. Add up all the time that classroom teachers are pulled from the classroom to administer tests or test Kindergartners on PALS. It amounts to weeks of lost instructional time and a whole lot of stress for the students and teachers. ASK any teacher, if there is too much testing and they will agree 100%. Ask parents with school age children how the testing effects their child and they will report all kinds of anxiety, illness and depression and "hating school".

The cost to the taxpayer is astronomical and there are figures between $37-$46 million annually. The budget is buried deeply. But every time a student takes a test, it is money for Pearson or Scholastic or the vendor testing company. Furthermore in 20 years of SOL testing, the achievement gap persists. The standardized testing mandate has not benefited students, but it sure has benefited corporate interests.

[/quote]

There are 1,284,680 students in Virginia. Even at $46 million, the state would be spending $36 per student on testing for the year.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics