Standardized Tests

So NY State is now going to have standardized tests in almost every grade in math, ELA, social studies, science, and art.

In high school, you can add at least one test a year for foreign language as well.

The city will have tests in these subjects also.

A high school student may take as many as 12 high stakes tests a year in NYC.

How about music? Are they going to test music too?

I hope not - the one music teacher at my school retired last year and they never replaced her.

They couldn't afford to.

Budget cuts and all.

What about recess? Shouldn't they test for that?

I mean, if they're going to test everything else, shouldn't they test recess too?

Oh, wait - recess has been eliminated in most places so that more test prep can be added to the school day.

So how about lunch? Will they test that?

I am so sure that incoming NYSED commissioner John King is right when he says that the state has made sure that the value-added measurements that will be used to evaluate teachers via these tests will be fair, as I heard him say at today's Regents meeting.

And so what if all these distinguished folks and education experts say the system is unfair and unworkable.

After all, we have to think about the kids.

And all those teachers we can fire after they get declared "ineffective" using a value-added measurement that has somewhere between a 12% and a 35% margin of error.

Do you think Cuomo's proposing a Tier VI with a 401(k) instead of a pension for all incoming state employees on the same day the state gave school districts a swell mechanism to get rid of thousands of teachers in Tier III and Tier IV long before they hit max was a coincidence?

I don't think it was.

They know they can unload tens of thousands of teachers around the state in the next few years with this new evaluation system.

Which as Norm notes, is the point.