Maintaining the Achievement Gap by Threatening Opt Out
Let’s make this quick. At this point it is no mystery that high stakes testing does nothing to reduce the achievement gap (30 + plus years of trying). In fact, the reality is that the achievement gap is maintained by the constant insistence of using test based accountability. Yes, accountability is responsible for maintaining the achievement gap.
It is also responsible for:
- Perpetuating the false failing schools narrative.
- Reducing the vibrancy of the curriculum.
- Destroying recess and totally upending kindergarten.
- Entrenching a system of continued profit and blame that denies children basic needs.
- Ruining a wonderful profession and creating a mass exodus of our best teachers from classrooms.
- Smashing the dreams of many students that once considered teaching as a future profession
- and…………………..
Knowing this you would think that Opt Out would be the go to tactic for those concerned with the future of public schools. Not so in Wisconsin!
In fact check out this email I received—with the recipient list suppressed—from the Maintaining the Achievement Gap by Threatening Opt Out. | BustED Pencils:
