Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Moms too stressed out to work and parent but on DCUM all day.

I'm removing my child from all testing for the next 3 years. I am very pro testing but I am really dismayed with how DCPS is using these scores now and miss-reporting.

Can you describe the misreporting in more detail?

A few months ago DCPS reported the "learning loss" of ECE/Kinder saying the slide was major, etc. The issue is tests aren't valid for learning loss - a child has to be in person for 6 weeks to have a valid score and no child had been in person since March. So testing children in September to show a summer slide doesn't really work. Even if the children were in person in September, the test wouldn't be valid until the children had been in school until October. DCPS published the data and there was the normal outrage and then retracted and kept the retraction updates quiet.

I've seen my child test badly for reading the first few weeks of school (me lingering from another room). He was camera shy and I have seen him read those same words with no problems. But per DCPS he's failing at reading. I send the teacher videos of him reading and he's fluid and fine. The teacher is not concerned about his reading. But again he didn't do it right for a digital test so he's failing.

I have seen my child do the math assessment and he was literally guessing at every answer. He got a fair amount right btw but only from guessing. He thought he was "winning" the game. I asked around most of the other children were in the same boat. Again the teacher has told me she has to do this. We also don't have to participate.

I do understand some testing needs to happen for federal funding so it is not always DCPS' driving this. But I can chose to opt-out.

Like I said I am a pro-tester. Our school has great scores and they improve too but its a pandemic this isn't right.

BTW as a pro-tester I do not like the amount of time we are spending teaching to the test, time for testing, etc. I believe it could be done in a better way. I also don't think it should be tied to teacher performance.

At least one of the issues with the data (mentioned in the video) was that kids had a greater ability to cheat this year. Suggesting that the drop in learning might be larger than the data show.

Anonymous wrote:Moms too stressed out to work and parent but on DCUM all day.

I'm removing my child from all testing for the next 3 years. I am very pro testing but I am really dismayed with how DCPS is using these scores now and miss-reporting.

Can you describe the misreporting in more detail?

Moms too stressed out to work and parent but on DCUM all day.

I'm removing my child from all testing for the next 3 years. I am very pro testing but I am really dismayed with how DCPS is using these scores now and miss-reporting.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://twitter.com/funnymonkey/status/1358050508552851458?s=20

Here’s the thing though, if the benchmark for opening public schools is fixing all their structural problems, they will never reopen. Should we reimagine public education? Absolutely. Should we not reopen until it’s reimagined? I’m not so sure. If we burn it all to the ground, I think private solutions are going to step in. And, as someone who values public education, I’m deeply worried we may be seeing its demise.

Agree.

Anonymous wrote:https://twitter.com/funnymonkey/status/1358050508552851458?s=20

so is that a-hole just against public schools, or what? what an idiot, down to his Twitter bio tagline that “education is social justice.”

Anonymous wrote:https://twitter.com/funnymonkey/status/1358050508552851458?s=20

Here’s the thing though, if the benchmark for opening public schools is fixing all their structural problems, they will never reopen. Should we reimagine public education? Absolutely. Should we not reopen until it’s reimagined? I’m not so sure. If we burn it all to the ground, I think private solutions are going to step in. And, as someone who values public education, I’m deeply worried we may be seeing its demise.

If "learning loss" and going to school don't matter, DC should give families the per pupil allotment. It's like $20 or $30K per student. Imagine how far that would go to lift up children out of poverty. Parents could home school, unschool, use the money for private school, or stay in DCPS and give the money to their school if that's what they want to do.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’d think the health of our kids would be more important than some percentage points.

People, it’s a pandemic. Who cares about test scores?? I just want my kids to live and not have adverse long term side effects.

Not being able to read is much more likely to cause adverse long term side effects for the average child than Covid-19.

Newsflash: these problems existed before the pandemic (just look at the data from beforehand). What were all you “reopen the schools for the sake of the poor minority children” folks saying then? What were you doing about it?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. So my issue is the majority of people crying about “learning loss” don’t actually care, they’re just using Black and Brown people as a tool in their game.

This is the most bizarre argument: "You didn't care before so you can't care now."

Look, I understand that the point may be that white people are being disingenuous about their concern for brown and Black kids. That's real. But maybe also they are starting to care, because they are being presented with data like this?

And just because problems existed before doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter that they are being exacerbated.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’d think the health of our kids would be more important than some percentage points.

People, it’s a pandemic. Who cares about test scores?? I just want my kids to live and not have adverse long term side effects.

Not being able to read is much more likely to cause adverse long term side effects for the average child than Covid-19.

Newsflash: these problems existed before the pandemic (just look at the data from beforehand). What were all you “reopen the schools for the sake of the poor minority children” folks saying then? What were you doing about it?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. So my issue is the majority of people crying about “learning loss” don’t actually care, they’re just using Black and Brown people as a tool in their game.

Sure, nothing to see here. Everything is totally fine.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’d think the health of our kids would be more important than some percentage points.

People, it’s a pandemic. Who cares about test scores?? I just want my kids to live and not have adverse long term side effects.

Not being able to read is much more likely to cause adverse long term side effects for the average child than Covid-19.

Newsflash: these problems existed before the pandemic (just look at the data from beforehand). What were all you “reopen the schools for the sake of the poor minority children” folks saying then? What were you doing about it?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. So my issue is the majority of people crying about “learning loss” don’t actually care, they’re just using Black and Brown people as a tool in their game.

This is the most bizarre argument: "You didn't care before so you can't care now."

Look, I understand that the point may be that white people are being disingenuous about their concern for brown and Black kids. That's real. But maybe also they are starting to care, because they are being presented with data like this?

“You didn’t care about disadvantaged kids then, so you can’t care about them now” is one of my least favorite pandemic hot takes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’d think the health of our kids would be more important than some percentage points.

People, it’s a pandemic. Who cares about test scores?? I just want my kids to live and not have adverse long term side effects.

Not being able to read is much more likely to cause adverse long term side effects for the average child than Covid-19.

Newsflash: these problems existed before the pandemic (just look at the data from beforehand). What were all you “reopen the schools for the sake of the poor minority children” folks saying then? What were you doing about it?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. So my issue is the majority of people crying about “learning loss” don’t actually care, they’re just using Black and Brown people as a tool in their game.

hey, better to use black and brown kids as a “tool in their game” than to nakedly argue in favor of huge racial disparate impacts on education.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’d think the health of our kids would be more important than some percentage points.

People, it’s a pandemic. Who cares about test scores?? I just want my kids to live and not have adverse long term side effects.

Not being able to read is much more likely to cause adverse long term side effects for the average child than Covid-19.

Newsflash: these problems existed before the pandemic (just look at the data from beforehand). What were all you “reopen the schools for the sake of the poor minority children” folks saying then? What were you doing about it?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. So my issue is the majority of people crying about “learning loss” don’t actually care, they’re just using Black and Brown people as a tool in their game.

Attacking the messenger isn’t going to make the message any less true or urgent.