A letter from a parent:
As a parent of a child with anxiety, the test driven culture of our local school has made my third grader hate school. Every day is a battle to get her to school. Her tardy and absentee record is deplorable. She is sick with stomach and gastrointestinal illness much too frequently for a child with no medical conditions. The crime is this is a bright child who loves learning but hates school and is beginning to believe she is “dumb”. In particular, the time limitations on all of the screening tests are crippling.
Don’t vote for any candidate unless he or she promises to stop the federal testing mandate for annual testing of every child.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I think THAT’S the point.
An uneducated citizenry = DESPAIR and the oligarchs have slaves.
LikeLike
Exactly. Call it what it is. The testing is invalid, pseudo-scientific numerology and child abuse. Those who carry it out are child abusers. Those who defend it abet child abuse. Those who promote it via foundations and in legislatures and education departments are involved in conspiracy to commit child abuse. It’s criminal, and it needs to stop. Now.
It hasn’t closed achievement gaps. It hasn’t improved outcomes. It has VASTLY distorted and devolved US curricula and pedagogy and has robbed an entire generation of students of humane education. And, it has made lots and lots of kids hate school, with good reason. Kids have great crap detectors.
The prime objective of education should be to produce intrinsically motivated, life-long learners. No one ever looked forward to his or her Not-Smarter, Imbalanced Tests, AIR-y Nothing Tests, PARCC Tests. (spell that backward). But plenty of fifth graders throw up in the middle of them.
The same is true of third-grade retention. More child abuse. Children are on different developmental schedules and come from differing backgrounds and shouldn’t be punished for this.
The same is true of excessively phonics-heavy reading instruction for little kids. Yes, phonics instruction is valuable for most kids, but it absolutely must be balanced with lots and lots and lots of experience of the pure joy of reading and being read to.
LikeLike
Was chatting with a bright, little kindergartner a couple of days ago as we rode the elevator in my building. His aunt proudly pointed out that he’d had a “good report card” that entitled to pizza. 1) Why are kindergarteners getting report cards mid-year? 2) Pizza rewards for good grades at 5 years old?
LikeLike