Today I was held prisoner in a small, poorly lit and rather airless room with five other captives, all quite young. Arrangements were made for the younger captives to have access to restroom facilities, but the two older women in the room were not allowed to leave. No one had access to food or drink until after 1:00 p.m. The young captives were forced to take a seemingly endless test while the older captives watched, ensuring that they stayed on task.
Yeah, that's what we call End of Grade Testing.
Physically, emotionally, intellectually, and other -ly you want to add . . .it's torture. If it lasted longer, I'd think I'd have a case for having my rights under the Geneva Conventions violated.
I wonder if anyone's done a study on teacher attrition and end of grade testing.
So here's my brief soapbox about End of Grade Testing: it's a waste of time and money. You could garner the same information about student comprehension by asking their teachers. We're already being paid (embarrassingly little in North Carolina, but still, paid). The whole industry has sprung up around the idea that somehow the people we entrust to educate our children cannot then assess them.
Today, my theory is sexism. Teaching is a female-dominated field. Government is a male-dominated field . . .and it doesn't even represent the best that the male half of our species has to offer. If we just trusted teachers to do their jobs and gave them the resources to do it, we could drop the whole thing.
Check back soon for other conspiracy theories and railings at the heavens. There's a lot more testing to go.
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