Parents of kids at a Montessori magnet school are threatening to boycott the FCAT:
Parental dissatisfaction with the FCAT and the state's school grading formula isn't new. Critics have said that the test unfairly penalizes minority students, who are more likely to be retained or prevented from graduating because they haven't met minimum testing standards.
I suppose these critics have never considered the argument that certain schools are doing the penalizing, by failing to educate these minority youth, either through low standards or poor teaching skills.
Others complain that school is more boring when instructors must ''teach to the test.'' And they say that the state's A-to-F letter grades unfairly penalize low-income schools.
The test gets blamed when teachers are boring in class? That's a new one on me.
But, officials say, no one in Florida has ever organized a sit-out.
If fewer than 95 percent of Virginia Shuman Young students take the test, the school would not be eligible for an A grade from the state. That means 20 to 25 students could sabotage the Fort Lauderdale magnet school, which has earned an ''A'' for the past four years and has a strong chance of succeeding again.
If the school already has shown it could earn a solid "A", and holding kids out could cause the grade to drop, why on earth do these parents want to boycott?
Said parent Michelle Buckman, who is considering keeping her two sons home during testing: ``It would be a great way to get attention. There is just a general concern that we're going in the wrong direction with curriculum. We believe the testing is encroaching on our Montessori curriculum.''
Virginia Shuman Young is the county's only Montessori magnet elementary school. Parents say the FCAT should be de-emphasized there because it's taking up too much time and harming the school's ''hands-on'' education philosophy.
The Montessori theory is that students learn best through asking questions and exploring rather than listening and accepting right and wrong answers.
Can't they "get attention" in a way that won't cause the school to lose money? And while I know little about the Montessori style of education, I have never quite understood the argument that the educational concepts of (1) children learning through asking questions and (2) children learning by listening are somehow mutually exclusive, or the argument that asking questions/doing is ALWAYS better than listening. The FCAT tests very basic skills, but at least on the multiple-choice items, it doesn't matter how a child arrives at the right answer, be it Montessori-magnet or public-school style.
The school's already doing well, so why sabotage it with a vendetta against the FCAT?
Posted by kswygert at December 10, 2003 04:10 PM