Is the Testing Fever Breaking? When Teachers Let Their Conscience Speak
This is not the first time our nation's schools have been mired in an "orgy of tabulation" (Harold Rugg phrase). During the heyday of eugenics, schoolmen were obsessed with measuring and sorting, just as they are today in the neo-eugenic era of KIPP's psychological and cultural sterilization programs.
The last time we went down this road, it took an economic depression and a World War to break the grip of the testing mania. What, this time? An economic depression and an ecological catastrophe?? Might we reconsider our priorities as a species before our future on the planet is doomed by myopic fixations on short-term economic domination by a handful of the pornographically wealthy?
News from Seattle makes it clear what teachers have the power to do if they let their conscience speak. From KUOW.org:
The last time we went down this road, it took an economic depression and a World War to break the grip of the testing mania. What, this time? An economic depression and an ecological catastrophe?? Might we reconsider our priorities as a species before our future on the planet is doomed by myopic fixations on short-term economic domination by a handful of the pornographically wealthy?
News from Seattle makes it clear what teachers have the power to do if they let their conscience speak. From KUOW.org:
By ANN DORNFELD
Teachers at Garfield High School in Seattle say they have voted overwhelmingly to refuse to administer a district-wide standardized test. A statement from Garfield teachers called the test a waste of time and money.
Students in Seattle Public Schools take the standardized Measures of Academic Progress (MAP)
