Wis. teacher protests No Child law

inmytree

good for him..

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071101/ap_on_re_us/teacher_protest

Wis. teacher protests No Child law

By RYAN J. FOLEY, Associated Press Writer Thu Nov 1, 5:30 AM ET

MADISON, Wis. - A middle school teacher is protesting the federal No Child Left Behind law by refusing to administer a standardized test to his eighth-grade students.

David Wasserman, a middle school teacher in Madison, began his protest Tuesday. Instead of giving students the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Exam, he sat in the teacher's lounge, leaving his colleagues to oversee the test.

He said he has moral objections to the federal law, President Bush's signature education policy. The state test is used to measure whether schools are meeting annual benchmarks under the law. Schools that do not meet goals can face sanctions.

Like many teachers, Wasserman said he believes the test is a poor way to measure student progress, takes up too much class time and is used unfairly to punish schools. So after years of growing frustration, he said he decided to be a "conscientious objector" this year.

Wasserman said he originally planned to resume his protest on Thursday, the second day of testing, and through four more days of testing next week. But he said Wednesday he would likely back off and give the test after Superintendent Art Rainwater told a teacher's union official that Wasserman could be fired if the protest continued.

"I can't jeopardize health insurance for my family," said Wasserman, 36. "I want to still hold by my morals, which I feel very strongly about. But I have a family to think about."

In a statement released to The Associated Press on Wednesday evening, Rainwater noted the district was required by state law to fulfill the federal requirement.

"It is part of every teacher's duty to administer the test," he said. "Any failure to fulfill this required duty would be considered insubordination and subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination."

Robert Schaeffer, a spokesman for FairTest, a national group that opposes the overuse of standardized tests, said he was unaware of any other teachers who have refused to administer tests to protest No Child Left Behind. Other teachers have boycotted high-stakes state tests used for graduation or promotion, he said.

"It is an act of moral courage, and it certainly helps call attention to the widespread misuse of standardized testing," he said. "The natural bureaucratic reaction is always to threaten people with severe sanctions. That's why people have to have the moral fiber to put themselves at risk."

Wasserman, who has taught in the district for six years, said he is being treated unfairly because his colleagues at Sennett Middle School could administer the test without him.

*

Pacomc79

*applauds* Perhaps the worst measure Bush has instituted while in office.


Standarized tests are good for examining curriculum ONLY.

my2hands

we need a few hundred thousand more teachers like this


standardized tests produce standardized children

810wmb

Pacomc79 wrote:

*applauds* Perhaps the worst measure Bush has instituted while in office.

while bush was "reaching out" to the dems.....written by ted kennedy

gave them everything they wanted, within a couple of months, they were complaining bush didn't do enough...the most money ever spent on schools

my2hands

810wmb wrote:

while bush was "reaching out" to the dems.....written by ted kennedy

gave them everything they wanted, within a couple of months, they were complaining bush didn't do enough...the most money ever spent on schools

let me guess... 9/11 was clintons fault :rolleyes:

810wmb

my2hands wrote:

let me guess... 9/11 was clintons fault :rolleyes:

truth is truth

no 9/11 wasn't clinton's fault.

his fault was he did not jack shit while we were getting hit through the 90's.

after the "blackhawk down" crap, osama said the american people couldn't take the thought of any blood being spilled and it strengthened his resolve to attack us.

looks like he was right

mammasan

810wmb wrote:

truth is truth

no 9/11 wasn't clinton's fault.

his fault was he did not jack shit while we were getting hit through the 90's.

after the "blackhawk down" crap, osama said the american people couldn't take the thought of any blood being spilled and it strengthened his resolve to attack us.

looks like he was right

No we can stomach seeing blood being spilt, look at WW II, as long as it is for a good reason.

inmytree

810wmb wrote:

while bush was "reaching out" to the dems.....written by ted kennedy

gave them everything they wanted, within a couple of months, they were complaining bush didn't do enough...the most money ever spent on schools

not that I'm saying you're incorrect, but could you give a bit more detail as to what your talking about here...

anotherclone

I would think the school would risk losing their federal funding if the tests were not administered. Could you imagine the uproar from the parents of the students if that happened?

It's really unfortunate we have No Child Left Behind. Every teacher I know hates it.

tybird

Did I do the math right? Seven class days of taking a standardized test?? Good God....that's a form of hell on Earth. So, they are sacrificing 1/6th of an academic term to take a federally mandated test??? I suspect that some teachers even waste more time on this stupid idea by prepping the students for the test, though I suspect that most are doing that under pressure from the principal. I'm glad someone is protesting this.

anotherclone

I had a teacher tell me yesterday that she felt "guilty" for doing an art project because she had to abandon math for an hour.

dreaminincolor

some schools and districts teach to the test all year long...my former school did!..it was awful!!!!!! i no longer teach there partly because of this!.....but I too would have a hard time protesting because of the fact that i might lose my job.....

hippiemom

tybird wrote:

I suspect that some teachers even waste more time on this stupid idea by prepping the students for the test, though I suspect that most are doing that under pressure from the principal.

There are teachers who spend the ENTIRE YEAR prepping for the test. Teachers can be disciplined and federal funds withheld for low scores, so the pressure is tremendous. They simply do not teach anything that isn't on the test. Conversation and debate amongst classmates is cut short because they have to get back to drumming test answers into their heads. Teachers hate it, and kids obviously find these classes extremely dull. NCLB is a disaster.

baraka

I'm curious, is there any way for those of us not involved in teaching (high school level) to find out what subject matter is focused on in the tests?

tybird

hippiemom wrote:

There are teachers who spend the ENTIRE YEAR prepping for the test. Teachers can be disciplined and federal funds withheld for low scores, so the pressure is tremendous. They simply do not teach anything that isn't on the test. Conversation and debate amongst classmates is cut short because they have to get back to drumming test answers into their heads. Teachers hate it, and kids obviously find these classes extremely dull. NCLB is a disaster.

Sounds like a disaster in the making.....doesn't sound like problem solving or any real thinking is stressed in that environment.

hippiemom

tybird wrote:

Sounds like a disaster in the making.....doesn't sound like problem solving or any real thinking is stressed in that environment.

No ... often it is discouraged because it is time-consuming. The fact that problem-solving skills are extremely valuable is overlooked. The fact that classes that stress problem-solving skills and allow for independent and critical thinking are the classes that kids want to go to is overlooked.

Thankfully, my kids were in the gifted program so they weren't subjected to so much of this ... it was assumed they'd do well on the test, so all they had was a brief review. But they had friends in the regular curriculum and I heard them talk about their classes and how much they hated them. I looked at the work they were doing and understood why. It was mostly multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blanks worksheets designed to help them memorize what was on the tests.

Kel Varnsen

The idea of tying funding to how well kids do on tests is crazy. It would be like tying police funding to how may speeding tickets cops can write, or tying military funding to how many sit-ups a soldier can do.

KidCarnivore

I'm teaching in a horribly-performing urban school, and we absolutely teach to the test 180 days a year.

onelongsong

inmytree wrote:

good for him..

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071101/ap_on_re_us/teacher_protest

Wis. teacher protests No Child law

By RYAN J. FOLEY, Associated Press Writer Thu Nov 1, 5:30 AM ET

MADISON, Wis. - A middle school teacher is protesting the federal No Child Left Behind law by refusing to administer a standardized test to his eighth-grade students.

David Wasserman, a middle school teacher in Madison, began his protest Tuesday. Instead of giving students the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Exam, he sat in the teacher's lounge, leaving his colleagues to oversee the test.

He said he has moral objections to the federal law, President Bush's signature education policy. The state test is used to measure whether schools are meeting annual benchmarks under the law. Schools that do not meet goals can face sanctions.

Like many teachers, Wasserman said he believes the test is a poor way to measure student progress, takes up too much class time and is used unfairly to punish schools. So after years of growing frustration, he said he decided to be a "conscientious objector" this year.

Wasserman said he originally planned to resume his protest on Thursday, the second day of testing, and through four more days of testing next week. But he said Wednesday he would likely back off and give the test after Superintendent Art Rainwater told a teacher's union official that Wasserman could be fired if the protest continued.

"I can't jeopardize health insurance for my family," said Wasserman, 36. "I want to still hold by my morals, which I feel very strongly about. But I have a family to think about."

In a statement released to The Associated Press on Wednesday evening, Rainwater noted the district was required by state law to fulfill the federal requirement.

"It is part of every teacher's duty to administer the test," he said. "Any failure to fulfill this required duty would be considered insubordination and subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination."

Robert Schaeffer, a spokesman for FairTest, a national group that opposes the overuse of standardized tests, said he was unaware of any other teachers who have refused to administer tests to protest No Child Left Behind. Other teachers have boycotted high-stakes state tests used for graduation or promotion, he said.

"It is an act of moral courage, and it certainly helps call attention to the widespread misuse of standardized testing," he said. "The natural bureaucratic reaction is always to threaten people with severe sanctions. That's why people have to have the moral fiber to put themselves at risk."

Wasserman, who has taught in the district for six years, said he is being treated unfairly because his colleagues at Sennett Middle School could administer the test without him.

*

so; no child left behind means equal education to all children. we will no longer pass children to upper grades just because they show up to class if they don't comprehend the material because they will fail in those upper grades.

now; this bloke thinks he should pass his students to high school and is afraid that he didn't teach his children the proper and necessary curriculum. or is it because he COULDN'T teach them?

the entire reason for the program was that minority children were passed to higher grades without the knowledge. they continued to pass them until age 16 when they could drop out and sell drugs and rob people; break into houses; etc; because that's the level they had education for.
this coward should lose his teaching license. so is wisconsin going to start turning out idiots now?

tybird

KidCarnivore wrote:

I'm teaching in a horribly-performing urban school, and we absolutely teach to the test 180 days a year.

Doesn't sound very rewarding....to you or your charges.