Reply #76: Oh, absolutely! It is all about the contortions now that states [View All]

[Lifelong Protester]

must go through to get the money. Meaningless contortions, I might add. And ones that take our attention away from teaching.

This year I will lose an entire week of teaching (classroom time, time when we are really working on learning) to the state tests. Missing FIVE days of 84 minute blocks, or 7 hours of teaching, so my Spanish II students can take the test.

I think it is criminal. Some of these things have happened so incrementally that NOW even the folks who did not see a problem with NCLB nor the mandated "one size fits all" testing, now even those people are finally waking up and seeing how much this is taking out of learning in this country.

But it's all about the money. Wisconsin cannot change its test to one more aligned with our standards and curriculum because of our contract with CTB-McGraw Hill (our off the shelf, but supposed to be specific to our state, test provider).

It is ALL about the MONEY, and not the money we should be getting for our kids. PERIOD.