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Saturday, January 30, 2010

Jaime Richards: School is about more than tests - San Jose Mercury News

Jaime Richards: School is about more than tests - San Jose Mercury News:

"ARE YOU good at anything you don't like? It's a weird phenomenon.

My wife, who teaches first grade, and I were talking about how President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's 'Race to the Top' program will destroy joy in school.

We understand its purposes: Close the ever-widening achievement gap between the Asian-American and Caucasian students at the top and African-American and Latino students at the bottom, and find a better way to evaluate teachers.

In other words, make American education better.

As part of the plan, California school administrators now can consider student test scores when they're evaluating teachers. The problem — and it's a BIG problem — is that it will compel teachers to 'teach to the test.'"