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Thursday, October 30, 2014

Patricia Levesque defends high stakes testing, will she defend kicking puppies next?

In the Gainesville Sun, Jeb Bush shill, Patricia Levesque defended the indefensible and said testing has improved Florida's schools, the thing is that she can't prove it and I think I can prove that. First it's like she has never heard of the class size amendment, the one citizen driven reform among all the corporate ones that has actual evidence that says it works. I would attribute any improvement to that and just ask any teacher if they think they would do a better job if they had five or ten more students.

Then states all throughout the nation have seen an increase in graduation rates and a shrinking of the achievement gap, even those that haven't embraced a testing culture like Florida has. Furthermore for every A.P. story she can tell I can tell one about the S.A.T.s which scores have stagnated in Florida under the testing regime. In fact I submit that this reliance on testing she is selling has held us back.

She then unbelievably says testing helps identify poor readers, which it may do unfortunately the results get back to teachers months later when nothing can be done. Finally as for state tests taking just one percent of the school year, I will just say ask a teacher which Levesque is not if she is right but I think you already know the answer.

We need serious people coming up with serious solutions. Levesque only offers a doubling down on a failed policy.

To read her piece click the link: http://www.gainesville.com/article/20141028/OPINION04/141029679/0/search?p=all&tc=pgall&tc=ar

1 comment:

  1. Other equivalents of SHILL are LOUSE, FLEA, OL' HIGUE, in other words BLOOD SUCKER. Again, its about destroying the PUBLIC SCHOOLS SYSTEM and replacing it with a CRONY PRIVATE OCTOPUS that benefits the FAT CATS.

    It is fundamental that teaching, assessing, evaluating, and reteaching take place simultaneously in the classroom. JEB BUSH and his little CRONY know that. So the issue here is not about TESTING for the purpose of assessing learning, really; its about testing being administered by their AGENCIES and SURROGATES whereby TAXPAYERS' MONEY is siphoned off for the purpose of lining the pockets of the FAT CATS. Take for instance, Florida's $254 million contract to Pearson for administering FCAT and EOC exams.

    Then, the GRADUATION RATES have increased by COERCION, which is called cajoling by Superintendent Nicolai Vitti. For instance, in 2013 of my 12 seniors only 2 were authentically passing my Algebra 2 course, but I was summoned to a SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE MEETING and CAJOLED into passing the others. So the other 10 were passed. Other subject teachers were also summoned to that meeting and did likewise.

    Well, its as easy as that, there you have it; 10 High School SENIORS who could hardly add or subtract were GRADUATED down a road to a sign that read DEAD END. (Please don't ask me about the subhuman behavior of most of the 10). In this way CRONY CAPITALISM is able to flourish. The SOUL of AMERICA is crying out, and GOD WILL ANSWER to her wailing.

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