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Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Common Core SBAC testing – Big Cost, No Value - Wait What?

Common Core SBAC testing – Big Cost, No Value - Wait What?:

Common Core SBAC testing – Big Cost, No Value






Over the past two years Connecticut taxpayers have dropped $32 million on the Common Core SBAC tests and another $12.4 million for implementation of the Common Core.  The Connecticut state budget allocates another $43.1 million for the Common Core and Common Core SBAC tests for this year and next.
Add in the tens of million spent by local school districts on computers and internet expansion so that students can take the on-line tests, along with the substitute teachers who were brought in so that full-time teachers could be pulled out to “learn about the Common Core,” and well over $150 – $200 million dollars (or more) in public funds have been diverted from instruction to the Common Core and Common Core testing disaster.
So what has all that money gotten the students, parents, teachers and taxpayers of Connecticut?
Public education advocate, commentator and educator Ann Policelli Cronin addresses the issue in her latest blog post entitled, SBAC: The Beginning Of The End
So what did we learn from the release of the SBAC scores?  …
Not much.
We did learn that the achievement gap has not been in any way affected by implementation of the Common Core. I have been in a position to analyze CMT and CAPT scores over many years, and the SBAC scores tell the same story as the CMT and CAPT scores. That story is that students in affluent communities score significantly higher than students in poor communities do. No administration of a test will ever change that fact. No set of national standards or standardized test on those standards will ever “close the 
Common Core SBAC testing – Big Cost, No Value - Wait What?: