#standarized tests

I am ... work has just been so bad. Like, worse than I ever thought it could be bad. Like, we may have to strike to protect kids bad.

Which should come as no surprise that in the country that allowed 20 children to be gunned down in a classroom yet made NO CHANGES, that kids are the last thing the country, states, and local school boards are worried about.

Any twenty-something year old will remember their school teachers discussing “No Child Left Behind.” This act required all public schools receiving federal funding to administer a statewide standardized test annually to all students (which were the absolute WORST!) and was proposed by President George W. Bush on January 23, 2001. Over 14 years later, President Barack Obama replaced the NCLB Act with the Every Student Succeeds Act.

The Virginia School Boards Association is urging the state to develop "remedies" for schools when parents opt their students out of standardized tests.

The problem: If enough students don't take the state's annual Standards of Learning tests, the resulting scores of zeros for those students could drag down the entire school's accreditation rating.

A new policy position from the association — first proposed by the Hampton School Board earlier this year — contends it's not fair to punish schools when its students opt out.

"The current practice of giving a score of zero for those students unduly penalizes schools by reducing their overall score and holding them accountable for a decision that is ultimately within the control of the parent," the association says.

That was one of nine "legislative positions and amendments" adopted last week by hundreds of school board delegates from across the state at the association's annual conference in Williamsburg.

Ken Robinson’s recent TED talk on “How To Escape Education’s Death Valley”is absolutely brilliant. He addresses some key problems in American education, and more importantly has some great reminders about learning vs. teaching, and the diversity of…