Latest News and Comment from Education

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Test Time « Failing Schools

Test Time « Failing Schools

Test Time

MARCH 2, 2011
by Sabrina

It’s Test Time here in Colorado, and I have a confession to make.

When I was teaching, I didn’t completely hate CSAP time. A small part of me actually… kind ofliked it.

Don’t misunderstand: I hate virtually everything about CSAP. It’s high-stakes nature distorted virtually everything my school did, from the way the curriculum was structured, to how we were asked to teach, to what we taught in the weeks and months beforehand. It even distorted how we allocated the time we spent with certain types of students, and introduced the notion of “triage” into a space it doesn’t belong. It distorted our behavior, too– once-proud professionals reduce