“Sometimes I wonder if we’re livin’ in the same land.Why do you wanna be my friendwhen I feel like a jugglerrunning out of hands?”―
Throughout the ongoing pandemic, the one thing that has remained consistent is our endless belief that if we just ignore reality and recreate things the way they used to be, everything will be fine. As if by sheer will we can negate the impact of the coronavirus.
Case in point, MAP testing. We do it at the beginning of the year every year so by damn we are going to do it this year. For 3 weeks in August, and a week in September, MNPS had its principals running around chasing students down to administer a test nobody really wanted to take. They were charged with this challenge despite repeated warnings from parents and teachers about its lack of usefulness.
Two months later, district leadership is admitting that parents and teachers were right, the most valid data points we have are those supplied by teachers at the individual level.
To mitigate criticism, MNPS Executive Director Paul Changas at this week’s board meeting touted that NWEA wasn’t charging us for the assessment. Ah, but please don’t fall into the trap of thinking that just because MNPS is not delivering any cash to NWEA that there is no cost. Au contraire.
There was a huge cost to the district due to the decision to participate in MAP this year. A cost in both time and resources. Principals were forced to spend large amounts of precious time locating CONTINUE READING: BETTER WAYS TO SPEND OUR TIME – Dad Gone Wild
