Sunday, June 1, 2014

For Many Students, There is No Light at the End of the Testing Tunnel


For a lot of students, especially those in low or moderate income communities, turning schools into test prep/ Common Core hell makes absolutely no sense. There is no light at the end of the tunnel that makes this kind of sacrifice- of art, music, trips, history, creativity, you name it- worth while. Look at what awaits them. For some, low wage dead end jobs. For others, prison and the underground  economy And for others yet, college and an unsustainable student debt that doesn't result in high paid employment. So why they should they put up with policies that make school boring, humiliating, and mind numbing
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Bottom Line. They shouldn't, And pretty soon a lot of them, by the time they are in high school, are going to figure this out and simply refuse to take the tests they are given, disrupt testing routines, and possibly destroy the tests themselves..

Their response will be straight out of that great Pink Floyd Song-"Another Brick in the Wall."

And that time won't come soon enough. It will be high school students, even more than elementary and middle school parents, who will ultimately put an end to the Testing/Common Core regime and bring joy and creativity back into our schools and classroom