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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I would love to hear from a teacher at Carlin springs, Barcoft, or Randolph.
Do you feel overwhelmed by the demands of your students? Do you think the 1-2 middle class kids in your class are behind? Not really getting what they need? If they were your child, would you place them elsewhere?[/quote]

I'm a teacher at a SA school, though not one of those. I've worked in several parts of the county. And here's what my ever-evolving assessment of the district has become most recently. There are APS schools that are hyper-focused on test scores, and those that aren't. (And yes, of course there are degrees, but let's generalize here.) There are a couple of different reasons a school could wind up in either of those categories, but I've come to realize that it almost doesn't matter why.

My own kids are wee ones (with a third on the way), and I'm thinking about our own school choices now. My first choice is a school that isn't test crazy. My second choice would be a school that is admittedly data crazy but with high-achieving students (which, sigh, does not bode well for its diversity). Coming in a very distant third is a test-crazy place where teachers are always under the gun to produce improved test scores, where real learning is considered far less important than the almighty data. I am so tired of entering data into endless spreadsheets, then spending countless hours talking about those scores, instead of putting my time and energy into instruction and my students.

But since you asked about those three: I used to teach at one of those schools. I wouldn't say the MC kids were behind. They got what they needed. Then I went to N Arlington, and found that I had more time to work with MC kids. Those kids got more than just what they needed.

I hope that makes sense and that it's helpful.[/quote]

So, what schools aren't test crazy? I feel like the SA school we're at isn't test crazy (based on school culture, but my kid isn't old enough to be subject to the SOL's, so I don't know if staff would agree). Can you name names? I interpret your assessment to mean that the lower performing schools ARE test crazy. [/quote]

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