So I have had a pretty rough last 10 days. Gabi came in today and I asked her how her day went. She replied, not very good, I hate Mondays. So I suggested that we abolish Mondays and we decided that there would be no more Mondays in the week. We would instead have a first Tuesday and a second Tuesday (known to the rest of the world as Tuesday). We both hope that this will help the whole Monday ordeal and alleviate many problems in the future. So this serves as official notice that this is the last Monday that Gabi and I will be observing.
So it has been quite a while since I last posted, but I have been entirely too busy to do anything worth blogging or to blog. I attended a meeting with the school superintendent today to talk about Florida's potential school budget cuts and what ideas the attendees had. Among the items discussed, the FCAT came up, which the children are currently taking. I personally hate the FCAT and standardized testing in general. I do not believe that it provides a good assessment of what children have learned or what they know. I went through standardized testing as a child (CAT-->TAAS-->TACS-->SAT) and thought it was completely pointless and a waste of time. I scored well on these tests, but understood that they meant nothing. They did not indicate how well my life went or even how well I did in college, which is ostensibly what the SAT predicts.
I have been hearing a lot of backlash about the FCAT recently from a variety of people. I have avoided placing the children in public schools for a variety of reasons from wanting an alternative education style that does not stress standardized testing (read: Montessori) to wanting to be more capable of controlling the environment, which is much more possible when you directly supply the tuition. This past year, there were no good alternatives that we knew of for Gabi to attend, so I checked out the public school, which is about 1/2-mile from our house. I really loved the principal and she really sold me on the school. She also said that while FCAT testing was required, it was just another day at the school. I have not found this to be the case. They stress and stress the importance of the FCAT and how it determines their placement for the coming year. I have never seen Gabi so stressed. It was ridiculous. Chris even noticed that this was not "just another day" at the school.
At the meeting, several of the attendees brought up varying aspects of the standardized testing that our children undergo and how flawed that they think it is. The superintendnet explained that were federal and state requirements that had to be met by FCAT, despite the fact that research has shown that standardized testing at best tests one's ability to take tests under timed conditions. I asked what parents needed to do to make the point to Florida state legislators, who ultimately make the decisions for our children, yet have little or no real experience with the solutiono that they prescribe, that the FCAT is not the way to assess a student's knowledge. He said that parents needed to talk to legislators, via email, telephone, or in person.
Being the "rebel" that I am and a certain penchant that I have for petitions, I think that I have decided to champion this cause. It will require a certain amount of research on my part, but I think that there is enough support to warrant my time, at least the initial investment. Who knows, maybe I can bring down the "evil" FCAT and then attack the rest of the system. The real problem is finding an acceptable alternative to assess the a student's progress over the course of a year. Since the teachers' assessments are no longer "valid", it does present a daunting problem to eliminating standardized testing. I would gladly entertain any ideas that you might have about adequate assessment measures.
Grade: FCAT: F
Standardized Testing: F
My ability to combat this: Incomplete