We congratulate the Great Neck School Board for standing up in opposition to the state’s overemphasis on standardized testing. Perhaps Albany will listen the criticism is coming from one of the most successful school boards in the state. But we doubt it.
The board’s statement argues: “The growing reliance on and mismanagement of standardized testing is eroding student learning time, narrowing the curriculum and jeopardizing the rich, meaningful education our students need and deserve.”
This is something that we and the teachers have been saying for years. Rather than focusing on giving their students a quality education, the teachers feel pressured to spend an increasing amount of classroom time preparing the kids for the next standardized test.
We agree that, “the state’s newly approved Common Core learning standards are counterproductive.”
In addition the Common Core standards do not accurately reflect the performance of disabled students and non-native English speakers.
We join Great Neck Board President Barbara Berkowitz in calling on state Sen. Jack Martins (R-Mineola) and state Assemblywoman Michelle Schimel (D-Great Neck) to reduce the state’s reliance on standardized testing.
There has to be and there is a better way to evaluate students.
The state Department of Education argues that the Common Core standards are necessary to accurately measure performance and reduce achievement gaps among students.
“Assessing what students know and can do with the same tests under standardized conditions throughout the State is a necessary supplement to what great teachers do every day in their classroom,” the department wrote in a memo.
“Statewide assessment results are the only way to provide comprehensive information on whether all students in New York State are achieving equally high standards.”
“High standards?” The goal should be that every student from pre-school to high school graduation receives a quality education. Parents and teachers have been wrongly pressured to focus on test scores and ultimately SAT scores.
But it is equally important that children are given a love of learning. This is why teachers became teachers. We fear that Common Core will suck the life out of learning.
Of course there are math skills and other skills that every student needs, especially if they plan to attend college. We note that these needed skills change with the times.
The Department of Education needs to go back to the drawing board. It needs to listen to the most successful teachers and school boards like Great Neck that have done an awesome job of giving kids a love for learning.
