back to work tomorrow: or

[arely staircase]

how I stopped worrying and love high stakes standardized testing.

Tomorrow I will begin a whole week of prep for the starr test part one (writing). The ptbs want all attention on that. I will sneak in some social studies and science as writing cues but it will not make up for actually teaching the concepts.

This shit is out of control.

[midnight]

1. Have not heard about that test. Is this another generation of NCLB or RACE to the top? TEST, and

more tests...

[arely staircase]

3. it is texas' latest standardized test. it replaces the taks

which replaced something which replaced something before that. this bs goes back to the 1980s. it well predates nclb or rtt. but yeah, the emphasis on it has increased significantly.

[seabeyond]

5. tas? if i remember correctly. nt

[arely staircase]

6. i think that is right. nt

[elleng]

2. Damn.

[seabeyond]

4. ahhh, starr. i knew

you were in texas. my oldest is a jr so he will continue with taks. my youngest will be right there with you.

he has always done well on the taks. outstanding on the reading/writing. like often with no misses. or one miss.

now it is timed. he has, he always, failed at time. he sits there frozen. we cannot get him beyond this. for years. always failed timed. we will have to see, this year.

[arely staircase]

7. yeah, it is timed. 4 hours

most of my kids won't have a problem w/that. it will probably mess a couple of them up.

[seabeyond]

8. it is all a mental thing. but....

now that you have told me 4 hours, i will tell him to buck up, lol. he was saying today, after picking him up, like 3 and half minutes per problem. so they broke it down, now the mental challenge comes in.