UPDATE: Schools Matter published this from teacher Michelle Newsum. Click on the link to read the whole thing.
Three Good Anwers to Poisonous Waiver Plan: No Thanks, I Said No, and Hell No
The National Academy of Sciences states, "There is no research base to support high stakes testing."Yet 'reformers' continue to push excessive and expensive testing to (line publishers' pockets and) discover which schools are 'failing' and punish them. (This, by the way, hasn't worked. Reconstituted and charter schools are not benefiting our kids. Indeed, according to a recent Stanford study, 83% of charter schools did not perform better than public schools.)
...
The billions of dollars saved from unbounded testing and carrot-and-stick reforms could then be used for real solutions such as:
* Reducing class size
(This is one of four K-12 reforms backed by rigorous evidence according to the Institute of Educational Sciences [Research arm of the Department of Education]
* Providing prenatal care for low income women
(Low income women are currently unlikely to receive adequate prenatal care. They have a high incidence of low birth weight babies. Low birth weight babies have a much higher incidence of learning disabilities)
* Funding public, school and classroom libraries
(Most children in high poverty areas have limited access to books)
* Providing quality professional development for teachers
* Including teachers, parents and students in legislative decision making
No comments:
Post a Comment