Nobody stopped it.
Nobody in Florida with the power to do so stopped the state from forcing a 9-year-old boy named Michael, who was born with a brain stem but not a complete brain, from taking an alternative version of the standardized Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.
He is blind and he can’t talk, nor can he understand basic information, but, yes, Michael had to “take” the test.
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Still, in Florida, tests must be taken, and state education officials determined that he had to take the Florida Alternative Assessment.
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State Representative Linda Stewart of Orlando told me she didn’t think that a young boy who can’t tell the difference between an apple and a peach should be taking any test, and tried to get officials in the Education Department to step in to stop the charade of Michael taking a test.
She said nobody did. “Nobody wanted to take the responsibility of stopping it,” she said.
Rick Roach, an Orange County, Florida, school board member who was following Michael’s story, confirmed that Michael was in fact forced to take the test, meaning that a state employee sat down and read it to him, as if he could actually understand it.
If this doesn’t turn your stomach, I’m not sure what will.
Sheer madness.
But also emblematic of the times.
These"tests" have nothing to do with the child but are only to be used to fire teachers.
ReplyDeleteYou and I have known that for a long time, but now the public is getting a good glimpse of that truth as well. We'll have to see how much longer this kind of thing goes on before somebody takes the test people to court for child abuse. Certainly in the case of this boy, that is what this is.
DeleteI think that it is actually going to be the parents in wealthy areas like Scarsdale or Rye who are going to start making a big stink. The wealthy school districts are not immune from the testing fetish that will cause their students to hate school and the parents who pay big taxes might actually start to rebel against all of this nonsense.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. Those are the same areas where you are seeing push back from the principals as well - because they know they have the backing of the parents.
DeleteAnd Cuomo can talk as tough as he wants - he's not immune from parents in Scarsdale and Rye calling for an end to this nonsense. Neither is Silver. Tisch and King think they're untouchable over this, but if Scarsdale, Rye, Great Neck, Port Jefferson, Garden City and the like rise up in rebellion, the politicians will throw those two out on their arrogant asses.