K12> Test Resistance

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Net Happenings - From Educational CyberPlayGround
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From: Steve <uriel1998@xxxxxxxxx>
Newsgroups: misc.education.home-school.misc
Subject: News:  Test Resistance
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 23:30:25 -0500

MARK FISHER, WASH POST - In Virginia, Maryland and across the country,
the school year is now a minefield of standardized tests, interrupted
only by test-prep lessons that have elbowed out the arts, field trips
and creative teaching. Now, in more than 20 states, parents are fighting
back by keeping their children at home on test days. . . In Scarsdale,
N.Y., 60 percent of eighth-graders stayed home during state tests in
2001. About 50,000 California students opted out of state testing last
year; in addition, hundreds of teachers refused cash bonuses given when
their students do well on the tests. Generally, kids who opt out of
tests are among the best students, so their absence drags down the
school's overall score -- and that has a direct impact on schools' budgets.

Why such antagonism to tests? Most boycotters don't mind the concept of
standardized tests -- they're part of how we measure performance in this
society. What they object to is the effect testing is having on
America's classrooms. . .  In a recent national poll, 66 percent of
teachers said they now concentrate on tested information to the
detriment of other material. And 79 percent said they devote class time
to test-taking skills such as filling in bubbles.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21785-2003Mar24.html

Steve

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