Tuesday, February 19, 2013

The Educated Reporter: Students, Teachers Push Back Against High-Stakes Testing

The Educated Reporter: Students, Teachers Push Back Against High-Stakes Testing:


Students, Teachers Push Back Against High-Stakes Testing

While it's become a common refrain for students, teachers and parents to complain that too much time is spent preparing for – and administering – standardized tests in public schools, the level of dissatisfaction is arguably reaching previously unheard decibels.

In what’s believed to be the first such example of a campus-wide testing boycott, teachers at Garfield High School in Seattle are refused to administer a state-mandated exam to their students. The teachers contend that the Measures of Academic Progress test doesn’t match what students are supposed to be learning, and therefore amounts to little more than an expensive waste – of both instructional time and district dollars.

One of the organizers of the student protests of the test is Caitlin Chambers, a senior at Garfield High School, who shared her views in an opinion piece with Cross Cuts, a local news site:
“Students have no incentive to take the test seriously. There’s no state-wide graduation