Articles labeled: no child left behind

We’ve grown rather resentful of the whole “teaching towards the test” mentality ourselves in recent years, so we certainly understand a Seattle teacher’s frustration when he refused to administer the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) to his students, and he made an admirable stand. But unfortunately, rules are rules and now he’s suffering the consequences.

[Science teacher Carl Chew] said he spent some of the first few days of WASL testing working at district’s Science Materials Center, preparing student science kits.

He then was suspended without pay from today through May 2.

“He failed to follow his duties as teacher,” said Seattle Public Schools Spokeswoman Patti Spencer.

The district, she said, expects its teachers to fulfill all their responsibilities, which include giving state-mandated exams such as the WASL.

The district, she added, understands that there are debates over standardized tests such as the WASL, but sees value in the WASL as one way to reflect on what students are learning, and how instruction might need to change for an individual, a school or the district as a whole.

New York’s Department of Education just recently started awarding schools a “letter grade” based on how well students do on standardized tests. This measure is largely influenced by No Child Left Behind’s accountability measures. Well some yuppie parents in Park Slope and elsewhere are getting their panties in a wad because their hoity-toity schools are getting Bs, Cs, and even — oh, the horror - Ds:

“It really saddens me that this is how the Department of Education thinks that parents are best served, by boiling everything that happens in an entire school to a letter grade,” said Lee Solomon, the mother of a first-grader at the Brooklyn New School, a sought-after school that accepts students only by lottery but got a C.

Jim Devor, the father of a fifth-grader at P.S. 58 in Brooklyn — which got a D on its report card_ said students there were “strongly invited” to attend Saturday test-prep sessions but have no time to discuss current events like the presidential campaign.

“I’m appalled at how little my child knows about social studies,” he said. “They’re all obsessed with test prep.”

For the record, we’re just having a little fun — we’re not exactly big fans of “teaching to the test”, either. But you just know some of these parents aren’t as concerned about teaching methods as much as an affront on their social status symbol…