Last week, the Lee County, Florida, school board voted 3-2 to opt out of state testing. Over the past few days, one member of the three-vote majority declared that she wanted to change her vote. A meeting was called for 8:30 a.m. This morning, a time that was sure to be inconvenient for parents and teachers.
A message to me from Bob Schaeffer of Fairtest, who lives in Lee County:
“As expected, given the notion that one member had reversed her position, the Lee County School Board just voted 3-2 to override its previous decision. However, four of the five board members spoke out against “test misuse and overuse” as well as “the punitive use of standardized exams.” The two Board members who opposed the original motion (allegedly due to the lack of an implementation plan) pledged to take their concerns to a meeting of the Florida School Boards Association, which is holding a statewide conference beginning tonight, and one threatened a lawsuit against unfunded state testing mandates. After the vote, several Board members said that there would be a public workshop next week to discuss how to move forward to reduce testing overkill, and two members pledged that they would make implementation motions at the Tuesday night, September 9 regular Board meeting.
“The hundreds of parents, teaches, students and taxpayers who packed the room viewed the decision as a temporary tactical setback, not a long-term defeat, for the assessment reform movement.”
Spineless. How much did the change of vote cost? Who cares about our children’s education? Liberals can be bought off at any price.
Pseudo-liberals, anyway. Amen?
Lee could have been at the forefront of a long overdo course correction to end the abusive testing boondoggle. What a shame.
I really want to respond to this post, but in deference to Diane’s sensibilities, I won’t, as I can’t think beyond four letter words right now.
Bought off, or bullied. That is how liberal leftwing commie pinko bleeding heart whambie pambie socialist do things.
You can’t stand on your record, so you distort and distract. Call everyone a RACIST!!!!
Huh?
How call you vote for true education from your heart, and then decide “hey, I was wrong”? It doesn’t work that way.
¿Quién eres tu?
¡Qué macho eres, Sr. Strode!
Sin sentido
Do you have any proof that any of these board members were liberal, much less “leftwing commie pinko bleeding heart whambie pambie socialists”?
And anyway, if you do know any such people, tell them to call me – I sure would like to meet them – that’s a pretty rare breed these days.
It isn’t rocket science. Why do we need state testing? They didn’t have that when I was in school.
Kids today can’t even count back change. They can’t do math without a calculator. Heck, they can’t even read cursive.
And that is without Common Core.
Folks, beware! This ‘strode’ creature’s name leads to a phishing site when you click on it.
Stay away from the infected troll!
That really hurts. That’s what I mean about the left. They can’t back up anything with numbers, so they demonize. Typical progressives.
*Several Board members said that there would be a public workshop next week to discuss how to move forward to reduce testing overkill*
Reduce testing overkill…um, since they just abdicated responsibility, they’re gong to hold workshops on how someone else can do it? Is there a legal option to recall school board members?
OK Folks in Lee County….. Here is your best option. OPT OUT !. Refuse to allow your children to test. Civil Obedience is necessary when leaders fail to protect children from the psychological abuse of the Common Core environment. Don’t give it a second thought….just OPT OUT!
Is a short-lived victory still worth celebrating? I think it is, because it is evidence that the anti-over-testing movement is gaining momentum where it really matters: among local boards of education. Now if we can just get a few federal laws modified so funding wasn’t jeopardized every time a board of education did something like this, that would be something. Here’s one link to the news story about Lee County rescinding the opt out:
http://www.news-press.com/story/news/education/2014/09/01/live-coverage-special-school-board-meeting/14942985/