As April and I said on Wednesday, we know standardized testing is an issue that all of us feel very strongly about. It is very easy to get wrapped up in how frustrating these tests are for everyone involved. Thank you all so much for contributing so positively! We could've talked about this for a whole semester and still have more to say!
Reading the article really validated my thoughts on standardized testing, but also completely discouraged me about the kind of impact teachers currently have on this system. As April mentioned in her blog, "what next?" We know that we keep fixing this broken system with something that doesn't work. While it's not possible for a group of graduate students in Rhode Island to overhaul the whole testing culture in 3 hours, I think that the tools given to us by Johnson and Richer and the insight from Dr. Bogad about teachers standing up to administration will definitely put us in the right direction.
There was another piece that April and I wanted to include in out facilitation that (because of your great participation) we didn't have time for. It was a 6 minute clip from the documentary Race to Nowhere. It is a film made by parents in California and focuses on overworking students and the emotional toll school takes on them. A good portion of the movie talks about standardized testing. Though the whole thing is worth a look, the part we wanted to show was 30:12- 36:00. It highlights a high school English teacher who felt marginalized to the point of leaving the profession because of testing.
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