TCAP time!

As you may have already sensed I am against the excessive high stakes testing that is happening in our schools.  This parent says enough is enough.

I asked an elementary school teacher how much instruction time is lost now since TCAP's are coming.  Today is March 18th and she said she started with TCAP prep 2 weeks ago, at 1 hour a day.  That equals 10 hours that was strictly TCAP prep in the last 2 weeks.

BUT, that number goes up soon!  See, it's spring break this week but next week it is crunch time, so the 1 hour a day goes up to TWO HOURS A DAY of test prep! 10 HOURS A WEEK!  And that is a conservative number. That is from an experienced teacher. How many hours a day do you think a new teacher may put into test prep if they are scared out of their mind about losing their job? 3 hours a day? 15 HOURS A WEEK!

BUT, let's not forget that lovely TCAP book that comes home as homework for our students as well.

TCAPS start April 28th.  That is 2 hours a day of testing. There are more issues though. Special areas which include music, art, library, and gym, gets shortened or canceled all together. 

(Have I mentioned that in my children's school the special area teachers are teaching math now?  They are teaching math to students that score just below advanced so they can bump up their scores to advanced to make the school and district look better.  The schools get "More bang for our buck" helping these kids over the struggling kids.)

The Instructional Assistants get pulled for prepping before and after the TCAPs which means my daughter who is in Voyager to help with her low, but not low enough to get the real help she needs, CBM (curriculum based measurement) score, are unavailable those weeks as well. That's just swell.