Hernando County, FL Fourth Grader Puts School Board In Its Place Regarding FSA Testing

[1monster]

All I can say is WOW! This girl is terrific!

&feature=youtu.be

[SoLeftIAmRight]

1. Kicked some ass

WOW

[Jon82]

2. So brave. So on the spot

I am not completely against testing. I am completely against only teaching for testing. During every school year, I discover that more and more is left out of the curriculum in order to make room for teaching material that will be on a test that helps determine how well a school and student is doing. The idea of testing is good but it has been carried too far.

[lostnfound]

12. New PARCC standardized tests take 16 hours each, every year, tie up computer labs for 6 weeks

Our district hates them but is being forced by the state. We have a fantastic, progressive, well-funded successful school system, and they are being forced to substitute these 16 hour (corporate controlled, computerized) tests instead of their 5 hour predecessor. The teachers are fantastic and use the computer labs and computer carts to teach writing and journaling intensively and routinely, but for 6 weeks or more those computers will get diverted into testing while they rotate classes through the testing (as well as the training for the testing so the kids know how to use the electronic version of a protractor or ruler for the math portion of the test).

With their parents blessing, many kids are "opting out" by refusing to take the test, sitting in the testing room, reading a book instead. (Yay for books!)

[chillfactor]

3. what a remarkable young lady....

thank you for posting the video....

[Thespian2]

4. Former Teacher Here

What a fantastic speech! Much better presented, I am sure, than any member of the school board could do. Standardized tests test...well, nothing really. I have seen far too many kids simply filling in blanks randomly, without reading the questions. I have seen students with multiple handicaps forced to attempt these tests. These tests offer no insights into student learning, and the results do not measure a teacher's ability.

[Jon82]

5. great answer from someone who knows first hand

[Thespian2]

7. Thanks.

[SheilaT]

6. Excellent.

I moved my two sons from a very good public school to an even better independent school for personal reasons. What impressed me the most about the independent school was how much more content they taught. My kids were learning new material two days before the end of the school year. In the public school, they'd already handed in the textbooks and were watching videos. And this was in a good public school.

Teaching to the test is totally dumb. Other than some basic test-taking techniques, no one should ever need to teach to the test. That they are doing so, suggests very strongly that the test content has almost nothing to do with the actual school curriculum.

Here's something else I don't get about all these tests: When I was in elementary and junior high (in New York State if that matters) every year we took the Achievement Tests. They may have actually been called something like the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, I'm not sure. In any case, it was about three days in the spring, and by the end of the year we got the results, which were by grade level. Let's say you were in the seventh month of fourth grade when you took the tests. Your scores should have been 4.7 or better (4th grade, seventh month). Anything lower meant you were behind, higher meant you were ahead of your grade level. Those were tests that, by the time I started taking them in the mid-1950's, had been around a long time and were quite valid.

What we really don't need are a lot of new tests that have been hastily devised, some apparently by people who haven't a clue how to construct a valid test, and probably aren't any sort of accurate assessment of the students.

[dixiegrrrrl]

15. PBS did a Frontline show about who gets rich from the testing

the No Child Left Behind Act mandated for children in grades 3 through 8. Among the likely benefactors of the extra funds were the four companies that dominate the testing market -- three test publishers and one scoring firm.

Those four companies are Harcourt Educational Measurement, CTB McGraw-Hill, Riverside Publishing (a Houghton Mifflin company), and NCS Pearson. According to an October 2001 report in the industry newsletter Educational Marketer, Harcourt, CTB McGraw-Hill, and Riverside Publishing write 96 percent of the exams administered at the state level. NCS Pearson, meanwhile, is the leading scorer of standardized tests.the No Child Left Behind Act mandated for children in grades 3 through 8. Among the likely benefactors of the extra funds were the four companies that dominate the testing market -- three test publishers and one scoring firm.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/schools/testing/companies.html

the Bush administration has a particularly "cozy relationship" with the testing company run by McGraw-Hill. The heart of this relationship, the article notes, "lies the three-generation social mingling between the McGraw and Bush families. The McGraws are old Bush friends, dating back to the 1930s."

In fact, on the first day he assumed his job at the White House, Bush invited Harold McGraw III into his office, according to The Nation .
The Testing Companies

http://www.rethinkingschools.org/special_reports/bushplan/test192.shtml

[bluestateguy]

8. I don't know who wrote that speech, but it doesn't matter

because it was very astute and the speech was brilliantly delivered.

Most kids--well into college age--are afraid to make any kind of presentation in front of a public group of people.

[VWolf]

13. I think it was written by smart-phone-mom (on the right)

But you are correct. It doesn't matter. This girl has presentation skills that my girls would admire.

[Jack Rabbit]

9. I'll vote for her . . .

. . . before I vote for some political hack taking money from Dave and Charlie Koch.

[Fuddnik]

10. Just forwarded to a friend of mine in Hernando County.

She founded public kindergarten in New Hampshire before joining the school board, then Alderman, the State Legislator.

Once she gets her teeth into something, she's relentless.

[drynberg]

11. OUTTA THE MOUTHS OF BABES...THE TRUTH, WHOEVER WROTE IT

[Baitball Blogger]

14. And she would have dropped the mic if she could have reached it.