The Craziness!

Public schools in all 50 states administer some type of benchmark testing. I don't know about the rest of the states but my particular state has some pretty ridiculous requirements.

The one that is the most frustrating to me is how the special education population is treated. Every student in my building (5th and 6th grade) is held accountable to scoring at the proficient level in reading and math. A student that reads at the 3rd grade level (or lower) is required to test on the same material as students reading at grade level or higher. In addition, if the percentage of special education students that score proficient does not meet the state requirements, our school is put on "probation" by the department of education and according to their policy - our school is in danger of being taken over by the state. Even though our school as a whole far exceeds the state requirements, if the less able students don't meet the requirements, our school will suffer the consequences. GRRRRRRR!!

The next thing is mostly an annoyance! The department of education sends 80-95 page booklets for every teacher that assigns them a very specific scripts to be read for each test session - Ok, that's reasonable. This "Test Administration Manual" is available online before the test and for years after the test. Even so, they REQUIRE that I shred every page of all 50 manuals they sent! Crazy!!! FYI here is the link that gives anyone access - no login or password needed. So if they keep it posted online, WHY DO I HAVE TO SHRED THEM?

Last of all, was their "rule" about when the counselors in my state were permitted to open the packages of student test booklets. They were delivered to us on the Friday before testing began, but we had to work on Sunday because if we opened the packages before Sunday, it would be a breach of security!! I had over 500 test booklets in shrink wrapped packages of 10!! I had to open the, inventory them, and divide them up for each teacher to pick up Monday morning.

There's so much more, but I'll stop here!!

BTW - I did hang my diplomas and license in my office today. It really felt good.

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Just Do It!

I've almost blogged about 5 times since my last post. The operative word is "almost" My plans and mental lists haven't made it to my blog . . . until now.

The last week or so I have been reorganizing my office and getting rid of many of the leftover files and supplies from when I was a classroom teacher.

One of my goals this week is to hang my framed diplomas on the wall in my office. I've been planning to do this for the last 5 years. At the beginning of each school year, I think that I'll have plenty of time. I put it off for a week and then two, and then it's the end of the year again and I have pack everything up.

Sounds crazy, but this is how it has gone. Until this year. I am hanging these frames tomorrow and I am very excited about it. I have two bookcases behind my desk and the diplomas will be over one bookcase and I'll hang family photos over the other book case.

It feels good to finally do something that I have been putting off for 5 years.

:)




The other things I want to blog about are:

Bennett and Jasper visiting Easter Weekend.

The crazy parts of the state mandated testing.

Skyping with Bennett and Jasper

My Counselor Assessment recently completed by my boss.

Look for some of these posts soon.