Annabelle just took her first starr test. It was no biggie. She wasn't stressed. She actually said she was excited about it the night before. At the beginning of the year, she asked me why she had to do it and I explained it to her like this:
" there are some kids, who struggle in school. They can't read very well, they can't add, or maybe even count. You don't know them and they don't even go to your school. But we need to find out who those kids are and help them. Their parents may not know, or may have struggled in school themselves. You will do fine, so will everyone on your class and in your entire school. ".
She accepted this and moved on, no further questions or worries.
But after Monday, I asked her, "how was it?" "It was easy," she said. That made me feel good.
But then this:
"they didn't even ask us half the stuff Ms. Chadick had us work on the entire year for it. They only asked us one capacity question."
So let me get this straight--we have been working on passing a test, designed for people of average intelligence for the ENTIRE year. My kid takes same test that a kid whose parents just crossed the border last year and can barely speak English. That's fine, I get it, I am not anti- standardized test. But my kid has to be taught things for this test the entire year?
And then my school which has gathered gift and talented kids from across several neighborhoods gets to crow about how great their scores are? They gathered smart kids, put them all in the same school, taught them how to take a test for average kids, and then they get to pat themselves on the back because they did well on the exam???
Who can I complain to? The school? They say they are doing their job. They like winning blue ribbons and getting recognition. The district? Who would I even call in that monolith? My state rep? I am sure he'll get right back to me, right after they figure out which bathroom we can all go in...
How can I say, you are dumbing us down? You're dumbing down the smart kids, you are terrorizing the average kids, and the below average kids are still falling through the cracks.
Who really cares?
