Clarification: The big bucks in the testing field right now is TEST PREP, not the costs of the test itself. Another point important to acknowledge is that struggling schools with troubled and troubling students are most often the schools that teach to the test. It's no wonder they can't sit still in class; they see no significance in their eduction, no relation to what teachers present and the world they inhabit. Can you imagine students at our prestigious private schools studying grammar in isolation, parts of speech (year after year), or math facts? No. These students are grappling with big ideas that connect their education to the issues that matter to society, not bubbling in answers on answer sheets with little contact with what makes education important - the same big ideas that engage and motivate learners.
De facto segregation a threat
Clarification: The big bucks in the testing field right now is TEST PREP, not the costs of the test itself. Another point important to acknowledge is that struggling schools with troubled and troubling students are most often the schools that teach to the test. It's no wonder they can't sit still in class; they see no significance in their eduction, no relation to what teachers present and the world they inhabit. Can you imagine students at our prestigious private schools studying grammar in isolation, parts of speech (year after year), or math facts? No. These students are grappling with big ideas that connect their education to the issues that matter to society, not bubbling in answers on answer sheets with little contact with what makes education important - the same big ideas that engage and motivate learners.