DC schools, Michelle Rhee, getting test happy. Increasing testing to 3 or 4 times a year

madfloridian

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Fri Jul-09-10 01:28 AM
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DC schools, Michelle Rhee, getting test happy. Increasing testing to 3 or 4 times a year

even for kindergarten students. I guess this will be standardized testing in addition to any other testing that teachers might do at the end of a lesson. High stakes testing is growing by leaps and bounds.

From the WP:

D.C. schools chancellor plans to expand use of standardized tests

D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee plans to significantly expand the use of standardized tests so that, eventually, every D.C. student from kindergarten through high school is regularly assessed to measure academic progress and the effectiveness of teachers. The plan, to be phased in beginning in the spring, is certain to reignite debate about what some D.C. parents and teachers already regard as a test-happy culture.

.."It's been a priority for a long time," said Rhee, who is preparing to ask outside firms to submit proposals for developing the tests. "We want to have a much more robust set of assessments, not just in math and reading, but different subjects. As a parent, I want to know on a regular basis how my kids are progressing or not, and have my teachers take a pulse not once a year or four times a year."

School officials declined to discuss the potential cost of the expanded testing before negotiating with vendors.

There is always evaluation in classrooms, daily or weekly quizzes, end of period tests. Portfolios to show progress.

Why do we let the "reformers" get away with inferring there is not enough testing and evaluation?

Some parents are rising up against the culture of high-stakes testing.

Some parents and teachers say that the fixation on tests is sucking the oxygen from basic classroom instruction and other activities that enrich school life, such as field trips.

"They're not learning when they're taking a test," said Mary Melchior, a parent leader at Langdon Education Campus in Northeast, who added that test preparation and testing periods should not count against the 180 legally required days of school. "You're effectively reducing the number of days that kids have in the classroom."

Crystal Sylvia, a social worker at Bruce Monroe Elementary, called her school a "test factory" in a recent essay. During DC CAS and DC BAS periods, an "all-hands-on-deck approach paralyzes the school so that no other important issues or responsibilities can be appropriately addressed," she said.

Rhee has so much power now. A Huffington Post blogger pointed out how much power she holds over the education system in DC.

He listed her criteria:

Her latest gambit might be her wildest. How can someone hire nearly 25% of their work force over the summer and then less than a month into the school year throw up her hands and move to lay so many off?

Here's how:

Step 1: Hire a lot of Teach For America rookies and people who agree with you.

Step 2: Put in place impossible-to-meet standards for teacher performance to make anyone a target for sacking.

Step 3: Announce there has been a budget shock and a reduction in force is unavoidable because of the economic downturn. Pretend you somehow didn't understand in July 2009 how bad our budget situation would be in just two months. The teachers to be reduced will be selected out of those with less than stellar "performance" (and practically everybody will be vulnerable).

Step 4: Get rid of whoever you want, sidestepping due process and remaking the teaching force in your image.

A Hell of a Power Play

Here is more from Dan Brown on Rhee's tactics.

Mass Teacher Layoffs in D.C. Amount To One Hell of a Power Play by Michelle Rhee

This brand of shock therapy is attractive to observers who love words like "bold" and "hard-charging" and assign them to self-styled reformers like Rhee who want fast revolutions. They dismiss voices of caution and defense of existing contracts and due process as defense of the abominable status quo.

.."Rhee's mislaid battle of gutting the union and purging veteran teachers will leave an experience and institutional knowledge vacuum that no quantity of super-caffeinated twenty-two-year-old Yalies can remake. As with any profession, there are some teachers in D.C. who should not be there, but Rhee is moving here to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Since the start of her tenure, Rhee has followed New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein's lead by repeatedly calling herself a reformer, and trumpeting basic skills standardized test scores as the definitive word on a student's education. To achieve success in this brave new world, autocratic, corporate-style power is crucial. Too many dissenting voices could reveal that the emperor of testing isn't wearing any clothes when it comes to truly supporting students.

Rhee's mass hiring of newbies thankful to have jobs, juxtaposed with an expected mass layoff of veterans who know about how schools should run, takes cold-blooded, short-sighted "reform" to a new level.