Carol Burris, principal of South Side High School in Rockville Center, New York, explains here why parents should take the results of the new Common Core assessments with more than a grain of salt.
They will be used in New York to determine whether students ages 8-14 are “college-ready.” Can you imagine that? A test taken by a child of 8 will tell you whether he or she is college ready!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Testing at 8 to see if they are college ready…..sounds like what China does before moving kids from their parents!
Exactly. However, the more you let the federal government into your life, in this case, a nationalized educational curriculum , the more that government owns you, controls you. Seems innocent at first, but “give them an inch and they will take a mile”. I’m seeing more highly-compensated school administrators on the horizon.
When discussing the progress of my second-graders with their parents, I always emphasize that they are “not yet” able to do something, raher than they cannot do something. Kids will get there if we give them the time and the patience they need to acquire skills.
We once had a reading consultant who fretted over the lack of progress my students (I was then teaching first grade) were making. I kept reassuring her that everything would work out fine, which is exactly what happened. At the end of the year she asked me how I was so sure my students would be reading on grade level and I told her that I just knew how young children learned.
All everyone talks about around here is “college readiness.” Our sixth-graders had regular college readiness sessions. I was sort of hoping more that they’d be ready for 7th grade.
While I believe that these tests are being used incorrectly, I don’t think a test for an 8 year old is used for college readiness. The tests are to measure a “skill progression” as the child advances.
As I have understood, the tests will be online and involve problem solving, supposedly to determine a child’s higher level thinking skills. I believe they have multiple opportunities, but I have no idea how these will be “secure”.
To be secure, each child would have different questions, wouldn’t that be the case?
There is no way to guarantee that a topic chosen randomly will be appropriate for each child.
This makes no sense to me.
There’s a charter school in Chicago that advertises on CTA buses. It’s called College Prep Elementary. Makes me nauseated every time I see the ad.
There’s a day care near Asbury Park, NJ called “Little People at Work.”
I just love the false advertising. I can’t wait for the predictive tests in the near future that will look like something out of the movie, Minority Report. I’m sure they are in the works.
This is close to a form of child abuse. I cant understand this nonsense
It’s purportedly designed to test whether 8-year-olds (and older) are “on the path to college readiness,” not whether they’re “college ready.” There are enough arguments against these tests. No need to just make stuff up.
But that’s the beauty part for the reformers! Actually, these tests are NOT to determine if students are “on the path to college readiness,” NOR or they to determine if they’re “college ready.” These tests are being used because- 1. Companies are making LOTS of money from them; 2. Tests are making teachers crazy & sick, so that they will quit teaching & all the TFAs can come swooping in, saving lots of $$$, while making money for Wendy Kopp & anyone who might have any financial investment in TFA; 4.Testing and not teaching is robbing children of an education, so that, being disenfranchised, they will be perfect, unquestioning, minimum wage Wal-Mart employees. Ever see the letters ALEC?!
To see if they’re prepared for/on the right path to college, my eye!
Teachers and administrators have allowed the State to control education to the degree that a nationalized curriculum like Common Core seemed like the government’s next logical step to control what is taught and how it is taught in the classroom. This parent would prefer to have a personal relationship with the school in my own community in order to determine what we need taught to our kids and how our teachers can make a difference in the lives of our kids.
The federal government has been allowed to come between us and as parents, we oftentimes feel that teachers left that door open for the State to do so. Unless, you fight this, your silence in action and words will let DC believe that you don’t mind them pushing around you, your students and the families you serve. We understand that a child in rural Wyoming has different needs from a child in Chicago’s Southside from a child in Long Beach. Families and school districts should decide who is best to teach and what to teach. DC has no place interfering and making every kid and every teacher, just a number.