Comments on: Fourth-grader suspended for refusing to call his principal a witch

By: OFF: Superman’s Super-Hair « On the Tenure Track

OFF: Superman’s Super-Hair « On the Tenure Track — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 04:56:37 +0000

[...] never seen such devilish puzzles; I’m not sure whether to be insulted or frustrated; “millennial teachers” haven’t a clue, or have they; and poverty and low test [...]

By: BLOGical Thoughts » Monday, 6 November, 2006

BLOGical Thoughts » Monday, 6 November, 2006 — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 03:42:09 +0000

[...] Fourth-grader suspended for refusing to call his principal a witch [...]

By: Dana

Dana — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 04:05:10 +0000

Kevin,

I actually don’t have a problem with standardized testing in the way you line it out. An independent attempt at an objective assessment could be an invaluable tool to teachers, administrators and districts in providing training and resources. Most students do not struggle with them. They are designed to be minimum competency tests and really, most kids who fail them probably should not be in that grade level.

But a human needs to be able to make the final determination. because their all kinds of reasons that smart kids don’t always do well on them.

The problem is that not every child can perform at this level as measured by a standardized test. Focusing all of our resources at this impossible task is forcing districts to ignore what is in the best interest of each individual student and view them all as members of some subgroup and a number.

And actual gains have been negligible…and no greater than the increase in scores we were seeing prior to NCLB. So why bother with the expense and loss of control of our schools?

By: Dana

Dana — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 03:56:05 +0000

David,

I don’t disagree with you and am not sure what you mean by “very biased.” It obviously states my personal opinion about this situation and these tests, but I did not attempt to frame it any other way. And I did mention that “under normal circumstances” this wouldn’t have happened, and that because of NCLB, “circumstances are not normal.”

It is all about the testing. What principal would have done this prior to these testing requirements?

By: Woof McCookies

Woof McCookies — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 07:13:58 +0000

A full academic ducation these days proves little more than the subject’s ability to fall into subordination and reproduce information spoon fed to them. It is not an indicator of intelligence, but only of worth to the state.

By: Kevin Fields

Kevin Fields — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 01:31:09 +0000

I have no problems with standardized testing as a means of getting a basic grasps on how well the system as a whole is working. I don’t put any stock in them as being able to determine whether a particular child is competent. I treated the tests with disdain in school, mainly because they were so easy – and at least at the time, even if I completely stunk up a test, I knew there was no way I could fail because all of my other grades were excellent. By the time I got to high school, I even figured out that much of what I was learning would be of no use other than passing state education standards and standardized testing, and that it would be discarded as soon as the tests were over.

15 years later, I haven’t seen that theory disproven yet.

My kids do well on these things, too. Their teachers have also noticed that they’re exceptionally bright and are on a fast-track to honors classes down the road. At least, in our case, doing well on standardized tests won’t hold my kids down … just makes me feel bad for the exceptional kids who don’t do well on them.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 00:01:58 +0000

I hate these damned standardized tests and what schools will do for no
child left behind. 2 years ago my twin daughters were in 4th grade.
A few months after they took the Iowa Basic Skills Tests, we recieved a
letter stating that the school recieved the test results and were
rewarding the children for doing such a good job. Children who scored
high enough were going to have a swimming and pizza party at a rec
center.
As it turned out, all of the children in my daughters’ grade were
eligible to go EXCEPT for 3 children. One of these three children was
1 of my daughters…the other twin was eligible. My daughter and 2 boys
had to stay at school for the day and do homework with a substitute
while everyone else went to the party.
My daughter did not guess at the answers or mess around taking this test
she scored 1 point below the score needed and she has a learning
disability because she was born prematurely. She was heart broken and
came home crying and telling us she must be stupid and that she felt
punished for not being smart! I wanted to strangle the princepal.

By: David Vaassen

David Vaassen — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 15:59:18 +0000

While I agree completely with the fact that the child was suspended for a stupid reason, the article is very biased. When reading this you need to take into consideration that the shcool is only trying to operate under the pressures that this no child left behind buisness is producing.

By: rk

rk — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 13:29:48 +0000

Slappy is completely correct; “4-20″ (drug related incident) is exactly like “10-4″ (affirmative) and “10-99″ (temporarily unavailable) in the fact that they are police radio shorthand codes. The radio waves are full of interference, codes are unambiguous and easy to repeat. Potheads adpoted the number 420 in a kind of “inverse respect”.
Pretty sharp fer a furriner there, Slappy. The rest of you must either retake your WASL or boast a fat one.

By: aristocutionor

aristocutionor — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 20:48:05 +0000

“…theyâ€™ve lost good sense in dealing with children”? It’s a lot worse than that. The NEA specifically encourages the inclusion of parents’ participation in their childrens’ education. That’s because despite the majority belief against it and the curriculum has a not so hidden “gray/gay” agenda. The Brit has a point. The dumbing down of America is the direct result of the NEA not giving a squat about the students – it’s all about their PERS. More money is spent providing a fat cat retirement programs than on classroom teaching. What are they teaching? Seems the 9 y.o. is smarter than the cartoon based question, and the clowns running the show. Fire the Principle, and tell the Fed to take a hike like Utah did.