Dear Teacher, Johnny Is Skipping the Test
Dear Teacher, Johnny Is Skipping the Test
By SONI SANGHAOriginally Published October 12, 2012. The New York Times
LATER this month, children at 169 New York City elementary and middle schools will, for the second time in a calendar year, take a 40-minute “field test” in math and English language arts to determine which questions will go on future state standardized exams.
Lori Chajet’s daughter will not be among them, though the tests are scheduled to be given at her school, Public School 321, in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Nor will many students at Public School 261 in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, or children at schools across District 6 in northern Manhattan.
Ms. Chajet’s objection is not to testing itself, but to the way tests are being used to evaluate schools and teachers.
“I want my school to use tests to help instruction, to help find out if kids don’t know fractions,” she said. “I don’t want my child to feel like her score will decide if her teacher has a job or not.”
Ms. Chajet is one of a small but growing number of parent activists in New York City opposed to the system’s