Comments

1
What's there to freak out about these test just test common skills, if you got them you should be fine.
2
This common core stuff wreaks of Michelle Rhee. That woman needs to be stopped.

You'd almost think this was a product of the Bush administration, but apparently not.
3
There's no national agency or elected officials responsible, there's been almost no dialogue and zero public input and some of the questions are asinine. Conservatives and B&M Gates are strongly supportive, no additional funds have been provided to public schools to prepare and private schools won't write the tests. What are the odds this isn't an attack on teachers unions?
4
What are we one here, our third, fourth, or even fifth, mandated graduation test in the last ten years?

5
Can't have standards, the ebonics majors will be left behind.
6
I think it is part of the overall strategy to weaken liberal values and re-segregate public schools by (1) establishing a method to label public schools as 'failing' (an arbitrary, biased, poorly thought-out and unfunded testing scheme provides this) so that (2) public schools can then be converted to 'charter' schools in part to enable the (3) investor class to cash-in on public-money via owning or administrating or 'advising' charter schools, and which can also legally (4) favor white students and exclude students of color (through arbitrary admittance and discipline policies), while also (5) reducing the capacity of teachers' unions to support pro-union politicians and other progressive policies.

Its a win-win-win-win for corporate and right-wing politics. Change you can believe in!
7
For anyone who wants to take a practice test or several to see what they are about, sbac.portal.airast. org/practice-test/ (remove space) and click on the green bicycle on the right.

The tests are onerous, poorly written from a user-interface standpoint (why are there multiple ways to select multiple choice questions? what in gods name is going on with the math answers?), and the accommodations for non-native speakers and special ed students are pretty much nil. The relevance of the reading selections is pretty limited to white middle class students (surprise), and the math questions are really awkwardly worded, and answers don't look much for solutions but assumedly a single process, when several different methods could be used to answer.
8
What's there to freak out about these test just test common skills,

Really? There's a lot to freak out about including:
- how these standards were created (see Gates' investment of hundreds of millions of dollars)
- who wrote these standards -not a majority of educators
- the assessments are not developmentally appropriate for K-2 (many child psychologists and educators have weighed in on this one)
- the homework coming out of the standards is difficult for kids to figure out how to do (not how to get the answer but what is it the teacher wants) AND for parents to help if asked
- we are overtesting our children
- it is costing our state and our district millions to enact these standards
- and we haven't got the money our district needs from either the feds or the state. For example, every single school in this state - big or small - has to give the CC assessments on a computer. And it better have a fast system because that's what it's going to take.

YES there is a lot to worry and "freak out" about.

Please wait...

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