What Would Gandhi Do? « Cooperative Catalyst

What Would Gandhi Do? « Cooperative Catalyst:

What Would Gandhi Do?

POSTED BY DEVEN BLACK ⋅ APRIL 17, 2012 ⋅ 3 COMMENTS

FILED UNDER  GANDHI, NYC, STANDARDIZED TESTING, STANDARDIZED TESTING STORIES, TESTING

In its infinite wisdom, the New York State Education Department has increased the length of the state ELA

Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948), political and spiritual leader of India. Location unknown. (Photo credit: Wikipedia via http://www.dinodia.com)

and math tests by 50% this year. Now three days each instead of two.

They say that the increase is due to a need to field test questions for future exams based on the Common Core standards.

In other words, they are using our students, our children, as guinea pigs.

Any other field of science requires informed consent before experimenting on human subjects. I’ve never been asked if I consent to the state experimenting on my son. The state is either arrogantly flouting standard scientific procedure or they’re saying my son, and all the other students attending public schools in the state are not human.

Either way, they’re wrong.

I suspect that if asked, they’ll say that sending our children to public