* More time testing = less time learning. Precious class time would be spent “teaching to the test,” eliminating art, music, PE, project-based learning, and other instruction needed to ensure success in college and in life.
* Students would be dismissed from school every other Friday afternoon while teachers attend meetings. This is a loss of more than 2 weeks of class time.
* Libraries & computer labs would be closed to classes during the 9 weeks required to test students during the year. Yet, this test does not replace, or even prepare students for, the state-required proficiency exams required for graduation.
* Relationships between students and teachers would be undermined by high-stakes testing - increased stress threatens the personalization that makes for good teaching.
* Taxpayers would be asked to spend millions more on the MAP test which, according to its creators, was never meant to be used as a summative student evaluation (like the SAT), nor as a teacher evaluation tool.
Concerned parents and teachers believe:
Students are more than test scores. They are human beings, not “products” to be measured and calibrated to “the norm.”
21st century education requires developing critical thinking skills, effective communication skills, practice in collaboration and intrapersonal interaction in addition to “the three R’s”.
Teachers cannot treat students as individuals when the district treats them as "products" that determine employment and compensation.
Cooperation and collaboration among teachers disintegrates as colleagues become "competitors" fighting for the “best students” and “merit” pay determined by a test score.
Teachers want to be accountable for factors they control: planning & preparation, classroom environment, instructional practice and professional responsibility.
For more information see:
Department of Education Error Rates in Measuring Teacher and School Performance Based on Student Test Score Gains http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20104004/pdf/20104004.pdf
Diane Ravitch Obama's Race to the Top Will Not Improve Education
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-ravitch/obamas-race-to-the-top-wi_b_666598.html
Dora Taylor The MAP test has a few teensy problems http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut4bK2Z0cvs
Meg Diaz takes the School Board to task http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19vOVdpOh6M
Carl Bialik Putting Teachers to the Test http://blogs.wsj.com/numbersguy/putting-teachers-to-the-test-982/
