A minor student revolt in Pennsylvania:
Mennies was one of 25 students who traveled to Harrisburg Wednesday to lobby state legislators about the need to de-emphasize the importance of standardized tests. The group of students, known as Students for Legislative Accountability...included students of various academic achievement levels from each high school grade.
The students, who met with 10 legislators or members of their staffs, were well-prepared. They offered the lawmakers their voices in face-to-face meetings. They presented them with a packet of information that included written personal opinions, statistics and various newspaper articles about their concerns.
And we all know how balanced newspaper articles are when it come to testing, right?
One students complained about the effect that tests have on the curriculum, but if their teachers can't teach basic math without teaching only what's on the test, isn't there a problem with the quality of teaching as well? These students sound genuinely concerned that their curriculum has been dumbed down, but the test doesn't require that.
Posted by kswygert at March 18, 2004 03:32 PM