Test Protest

I believe you did the right thing for all of the children!

It's interesting to me that we have a problem with academic testing of children but have no problem with their participation in sports. How many of live in areas where the Friday newscast sport's section is filled with stories about which teams are playing each other and what their playoff position is. How many daily newspapers have a few pages dedicated to high school sports? So it's fine to test the physically but not academically?

To Mr. Wasserman, thank you. Thank you for taking a stand. Thank you for being our voice. Thank you for leading the way. I, too, teach middle school. I'm in one of the largest districts in our area with 60 students, and most of them fall in the AYP categories. Frustration and anxiety is felt at ALL levels and the issue needs to be re-visited at the government level. Most of us agree that testing is a necessary evil, but we are taught to differentiate our instruction to meet the needs of these students. They receive modified tests and assignments in the classroom, but are expected to perform just like everyone else on state mandated tests. If they do not perform well enough, the school is penalized and ultimately the student is the one who suffers. I'm not necessarily agreeing with the IEP system, but it is what it is. My point is you can't have it both ways. Jojoc10 make a good point, testing is the most logical way to determine merit in a school system, but we really need to look at the system if we want the situation to improve.

Parents - I encourage you to get involved. These are your children, our future, and the teachers need you. As the saying goes, it takes a community to raise a child and we need to work together on this. Visit your schools, watch what the teachers are doing, observe your child's learning behavior and be amazed at what they can do! They need your help, too.

Anonymous1234a, I must disagree with your opinion that public schools don't have competition. There are 4 other middle schools in my district. We are constantly being compared with each other, as well as middle schools from the entire state! Do you think we want to look bad on that list? Most of us love what we do, and you are talking about our future and careers we get so handsomely paid for. How dare you compare us to any business - a business makes money, something a school district definitely does not do. Where are these vouchers going to come from? And yes, millions of students cost billions of dollars. Just think of how much all those test booklets and administration guides and scoring them and shipping/handling charges costs. Who pays for that? The public, your tax dollars hard at work. Personally, I think accountability is necessary, but so is innovation for a system in need of change. Thanks to the MSTA for all your hard work to accomplish this.

No one likes to be held accountable and there is no perfect system for measuring performance. Public schools don't have meaningful reform because they have no competition. It was not until the post office monopoly was weakened by allowing businesses to spend their money where they wanted to do so (remember the post office complaining that people were using FedEx for nonemergency packages) that there was meaningful reform. Packages were still delivered and the post office is better for it today. We need to do the same thing with public schools by allowing for vouchers of at least half the cost of what it takes to teach someone in public schools. Why are the teacher's unions so afraid?

The country needs a grassroots movement to eliminate No Child Left Behind. Hopefully, Mr. Wasserman's stand will trigger this movement. Patty Besom, Fayetteville, Arkansas