At my school in Northeast Los Angeles, a Title 1 institution with a higher-than-average number of students with Individualised Education Programmes (IEPs), the consequences of declining SBAC scores are a daily reality.
Great article. It is getting more difficult to remain calm when describing the plight of our children at the hands of this "education" system that profits from gaslighting these young people into huge student loan debt and then discards them to useless busy work for 40+ years.
Your down-to-earth descriptions of the testing systems and the consequences for various populations are filled with detailed facts. It's a refreshing change from the emotional reactivity of everyone these days.
Indiana represented with the same exact nonsense, while funding vouchers for private schools to discriminate and avoid the same compliance.
thanks for the note and the kind words. I can assure you that there's plenty of emotion fuelling my works these days, but I do try to keep my writings as objective as possible - noting of course where/when I'm getting political.
"The SBAC, like many standardised tests, prioritises narrow definitions of success, privileging certain cultural narratives while marginalising others."
Very much so. This makes me so angry, because what is actually happening is test makers are paid to produce metrics. And those declining test scores are what Republicans are going to point to in order to justify shutting down public schools. It's already happening in Texas and just happened in Lewisville ISD this week. Fewer funds go to education, fewer quality educators are retained, ridiculous curriculums get voted in, enrollment goes down, test scores go down, schools get shuttered due to "lack of funding."
Also, I loved that you put "critical thinking" in quotes, because you're right, critical thinking is not what's being tested at all. I remember when I was learning to give cognitive tests, so I practiced giving one with my boyfriend. He was like, "why are there so many references to sailing?? How many kids in the U.S. have a sailing background and can answer these questions?" Yes, you can only have a high IQ if you have privilege, apparently.
Thank you. I remember speaking to a company pitch woman during a "professional development"session that was more like a sales pitch. I noted to her that several of the "comprehension" questions required a pool of prior knowledge not found here in our area - more like stuff a northeastern US resident might know - and that when my students didn't have that prior knowledge, the test marked down their "comprehension." I asked her to send me the information on the validation studies performed on the test prior to release. I never heard from her ...
Great article. It is getting more difficult to remain calm when describing the plight of our children at the hands of this "education" system that profits from gaslighting these young people into huge student loan debt and then discards them to useless busy work for 40+ years.
Your down-to-earth descriptions of the testing systems and the consequences for various populations are filled with detailed facts. It's a refreshing change from the emotional reactivity of everyone these days.
Indiana represented with the same exact nonsense, while funding vouchers for private schools to discriminate and avoid the same compliance.
thanks for the note and the kind words. I can assure you that there's plenty of emotion fuelling my works these days, but I do try to keep my writings as objective as possible - noting of course where/when I'm getting political.
"The SBAC, like many standardised tests, prioritises narrow definitions of success, privileging certain cultural narratives while marginalising others."
Very much so. This makes me so angry, because what is actually happening is test makers are paid to produce metrics. And those declining test scores are what Republicans are going to point to in order to justify shutting down public schools. It's already happening in Texas and just happened in Lewisville ISD this week. Fewer funds go to education, fewer quality educators are retained, ridiculous curriculums get voted in, enrollment goes down, test scores go down, schools get shuttered due to "lack of funding."
Also, I loved that you put "critical thinking" in quotes, because you're right, critical thinking is not what's being tested at all. I remember when I was learning to give cognitive tests, so I practiced giving one with my boyfriend. He was like, "why are there so many references to sailing?? How many kids in the U.S. have a sailing background and can answer these questions?" Yes, you can only have a high IQ if you have privilege, apparently.
Thank you. I remember speaking to a company pitch woman during a "professional development"session that was more like a sales pitch. I noted to her that several of the "comprehension" questions required a pool of prior knowledge not found here in our area - more like stuff a northeastern US resident might know - and that when my students didn't have that prior knowledge, the test marked down their "comprehension." I asked her to send me the information on the validation studies performed on the test prior to release. I never heard from her ...