Return-Path: <nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id f7G3vlf11363; Wed, 15 Aug 2001 23:57:47 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2001 23:57:47 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <7d.198274b2.28ac9e0a@aol.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: BRmidwest@aol.com To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-FAMILY:188] Re: Back-to-School Tour, Publication, & Website X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: AOL 5.0 for Windows sub 139 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: O Content-Length: 1860 Lines: 40 In response to the press release: Sorry to be so direct here, but, in response to Mr. Paige and Mr. Bush's references to "accountability," I have to raise the urgent concern of how much schools, teachers, families, and *children* will be harmed by the emphasis on frequent standardized testing. How many teachers are quitting because they feel they are being forced to teach to tests rather than really teach? How many kids are put under untenable pressure because of this testing? How many principals and teachers are so affected by this same pressure that they can no longer focus on what it really means to teach and to learn? How many schools that are doing their absolute best--and as well as any school possibly could--with the resources and population they have will be closed because the test scores aren't high enough? What will happen to those kids enrolled in those schools? How many individual kids will be punished by their parents for not getting a high enough NUMBER on these tests on which everything seems to rest? How many kids will feel they have caused their own schools to fail because they--the kids--did not get high enough scores? I have yet to hear a TEACHER embrace the value of this annual testing. Many parents across the country are expressing their own outrage about what they feel is a misguided and detrimental focus on testing. I myself believe that annual testing will ultimately result in an actual lowering of students' ability to learn or to develop a broad or deep intellect. It will also affect how children feel about school and learning. It may in fact harm schools that serve children low-income communities. I realize I have expressed my own opinion very bluntly. I would be very interested in hearing from others on the listserv on this subject. Thank you. Betsy Rubin Chicago, IL
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Jan 18 2002 - 11:27:41 EST