Thursday, January 22, 2015

Finally, Common Sense Education Politician

Finally, some common sense about proficiency testing.
From the Arizona Republic:
The Arizona schools chief called the state of education "poor" and called for a review of the academic standards — as she promised when she was running for the job.
Diane Douglas, in her first "state of education" speech as the newly elected superintendent of public instruction, blasted Arizona's College and Career Ready Standards as a "de facto federal mandate."...
In her speech, Douglas also said the new statewide assessment, AzMerit, is "unproven and inaptly named" and was hastily chosen.
The Arizona State Board of Education selected that test in November and it will be given to students this spring. The test, Arizona's Measurement of Educational Readiness to Inform Teaching, replaces the AIMS test.
"Once again, our precious children are being used as guinea pigs to advance some education agendas," she said in her remarks to the House Education Committee.  http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2015/01/21/douglas-first-speech-vows-review-academic-standards/22127905/
She is absolutely correct.
This Arizona test is pure stupidity.
The test is computer based and yet many schools don't have enough computers to run the test.
As a special education teacher, this test is a nightmare for special education students.
And now, most, if not all schools in Arizona are trying to teach to this new test instead of focusing on overall academics.
Why?
Because teachers and administrators jobs and evaluations are on the line for this test.
Pure stupidity.

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