sick of edits

Ok, so there's lots of news this morning that i need to rant about and this one in particular strikes me.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/2004364815_wasl22m.html

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/360031_wasl22.html



ok, just so you all know (and I'm sure that the only people reading this already know, but just in case) I went through the secondary education program and Central and chose NOT to get my certificate because i will not do well in a High School setting as a teacher. During that education, the WASL came up several times in different classes because it's a HUGE issue for secondary ed.

This guy has a lot of guts and I think he should be commended. As teachers we are not allowed to--as they say--teach to the WASL. Meaning we are not allowed to give practice tests that are in the same form as the test we are not allowed to display writing samples from previous years for our students to prepare and we are not allowed to distribute the actual test from the previous year for students to study from. Non of this is legal--except the last bit--but district policies almost always forbid it. We are supposed to teach classes traditionally and hope to God that everything transfers. Granted, things are getting better and teachers are allowed to be more crafty and work with the loop holes, but it's still BS.

And before the question comes up, no I don't have a better alternative to standardized testing that can be implemented state wide, but i know that not all children can preform well on tests for reasons ranging from anxiety to favored method of learning. i know that the math and science portions are particularly difficult for visual/spatial learners because it's just numbers on the page most of the time and the parts that do have diagrams are oft times unclear as to what they are asking (yes i have taken the test. 3 times in fact.). There's been NOTED trouble with these sections of the test, even by the state--yet we still are expecting these kids to take it and to pass it with flying colors because SOMEHOW our teachers can magic the math into the kids heads. Kids get math/science skills one period a day which can be anywhere from 30-55 minutes depending on the day and on the school and about 90% of the time it's forgotten because it's not applied in their other classes.

The Reading/Writing portions can be difficult on kids who are logic oriented because a lot of the times they ask you to write about something in a creative fashion. There's also the problem of not letting students make up and experience for the sake of the test. They give out prompts like "describe a time when you did this, that, or the other thing and how you reacted" and there are kids out there, especially immigrants/ELL kids that just don't have those experiences. The one teacher who did encourage those kids to just make something up was reprimanded for telling them to use something OTHER than their experience. Well, what does the state expect them to do? Write down " i don't have that kind of experience in my life." They would fail the question for a) not answering it (which automatically gets you a 0) and b)only writing one line (which again, even if it answers the question usually gets you a 1 or worse).

If anything, the state would be better to implement something akin to the senior project were students work with an adviser to create something that proves they've learned anything. This would give kids who are "hands on" learners a chance to succeed in the testing when before they would have failed no matter what kind of teacher they had. Now, I'm not saying that just because a kid is this type of learning means that they CAN'T pass the WASL--it's just particularly unlikely. I know that with hard work and studying kids can do quite a bit more than we usually give them credit for. What I'm trying to express is that given the option to take a standardized test or--for example--rebuilt the interior of a car, they would do better with the proverbial car. Both accomplish the same goal of testing how well a student can read, write, and do math just in different ways. The project takes in to account a students personal interests which is a HUGE help in getting students to work on it.

So, give Mr. Carl Chew a medal and tell the state exactly where they can stick their standardized tests.