Seattle Grace
What would happen if teachers refused to do things that harmed their students?
Actually, it's a common occurrence. Ms. Smith decides making her students write their spelling words ten times each is unproductive make-work, and finds a better routine. Mr. Jones stops his embarrassing (but time-saving) habit of exchange-papers-and-correct. Mrs. Johnson realizes that reflexively assigning kids to all-day detention is counterproductive and substitutes real, difficult one-to-one conversations instead.
This dust-up at Garfield High in Seattle is no more than an inflated and super-heated version of teachers deciding to jettison a practice (computer-adaptive MAP testing) that's been tried and found unproductive for their students--albeit a battle with national policy implications.
In an ideal ed-world, of course, whether to submit students to regular computer-adaptive testing would be a negotiable question. When I was part of my local union's leadership, we called these "high road issues"--items like class size, maintaining popular after-school programs, setting a calendar that acknowledges family plans, providing teachers time to update and improve curriculum. Things parents supported wholeheartedly--unlike the
Actually, it's a common occurrence. Ms. Smith decides making her students write their spelling words ten times each is unproductive make-work, and finds a better routine. Mr. Jones stops his embarrassing (but time-saving) habit of exchange-papers-and-correct. Mrs. Johnson realizes that reflexively assigning kids to all-day detention is counterproductive and substitutes real, difficult one-to-one conversations instead.
This dust-up at Garfield High in Seattle is no more than an inflated and super-heated version of teachers deciding to jettison a practice (computer-adaptive MAP testing) that's been tried and found unproductive for their students--albeit a battle with national policy implications.
In an ideal ed-world, of course, whether to submit students to regular computer-adaptive testing would be a negotiable question. When I was part of my local union's leadership, we called these "high road issues"--items like class size, maintaining popular after-school programs, setting a calendar that acknowledges family plans, providing teachers time to update and improve curriculum. Things parents supported wholeheartedly--unlike the
