Amy Prime teaches second grade in Iowa. She writes strong opinion pieces and in this one, she lambastes the Des Moines Register (which publishes her articles) for its most recent editorial blasting the schools. In this case,the newspaper complained that Iowa schools did not have test scores as high as Maryland.
Have Iowa’s test scores “stagnated”? Whence came the belief that they must go up every year, like stock prices?
She writes:
“Even if our scores have “stagnated,” as the Register article asserts, then Iowa teachers should be praised for maintaining such high scores with that added challenge. I’d like to see a feature congratulating teachers for not allowing our kids to slip when we have been forced to deal with larger class sizes, decreased funding, more English-as-a-second-language students, less planning and prep time, the slashing of our music and arts programs, the demoralization of our profession in the media, increased interference from politicians and businessmen, and more.”
Amy challenges the editorial writers to talk to teachers, not to Stanford researchers or people from the governor’s office.
Diane Ravitch's blog 