Reply to Pearson went down for an hour during SOL's today

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to "Pearson went down for an hour during SOL's today"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote]
Teachers do not have a problem with being held accountable. At least good ones don’t. 
 The problem with holding teachers accountable for the result of the SOL tests is that it is a single test (per subject) on a single day. And, unless this accountability takes into account student growth, in terms of learning, it presents a huge disparity for teachers who teach in at-risk schools vs those that teach in higher income areas. Most students in the higher income areas are going to learn DESPITE who their teacher is. Their parents have the resources to hire tutors, send kids to after school academic camps or summer camps, or have someone at home (themselves or a nanny) who reads to the student and makes sure homework gets done. So, great pass rates make the teacher look good. 
 Students from at-risk schools generally do not have these advantages. This is not an excuse - these kids can and do still learn, but it is often BECAUSE of the great teaching. Their scores are not always as high as those students who are from higher income areas, but believe me, they learn. They may not pass, but they learn. 
 So, accountability must include the GROWTH a student makes during the year and not just the final score. [/quote]

Well said.  I'm another retired teacher and this is spot on.  I have taught the very, very poorest and I have also taught in a well mixed socio economic group.  I never taught in an affluent school.  
Teaching in the very poor school was the hardest work I have ever done.  Of course, the kids can learn--but getting them to grade level when they start three grades behind is not easy.  I taught first grade in the days before universal K.  When a child has never held a book, it takes a lot of work to teach them to read, much less read on grade level.  Sadly, there are more behavior issues, too.  Truancy and parental support are another problem.  
Standards are not going to fix this.  Testing certainly is not.

The teachers I worked with were some of the hardest working people you could find--and they cared.  No test will show that.

[/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