Okay, so today was day one of the EOG's (end of grade testing) at Michael's school. You know, I can remember being in school and they were called FINALS. We took FINALS. There were no weeks of review to prepare for the EOG's, you just knew the dates and went in and took the darn test.
We had lists of instructions, books that we could purchase, you name it, all in the name of the EOG's. Correct me if I'm wrong but if these teacher's taught well, then wouldn't the children BE ready for these tests? I mean, we've gotten progress reports throughout the year that have told us that our child is intelligent and learning so why this obsession with these tests? It was even required that we (The Parents) send in letters of encouragement to our children to read BEFORE taking the test!
I'm sorry, but this just seems a little bizarre for me. These are tests. He is in the third grade. I'm sure that there is some weird rule that states the better a school does on their testing, then the more funding they get but...by doing all of this obsessive preparation in the weeks leading up to the test, to me, that doesn't qualify you for doing a good job! We all know that cramming for a test is the LAZY WAY of preparing for it. My teenager makes me crazy when he does that. He could go for weeks without looking at the material - mention that he's having a test and then he would cram for it. And lo and behold, he'd do great. But I'm pretty sure that the normal way of doing this is just LEARNING the darn material when it is taught.
Maybe I'm being unrealistic. Personally, I just find it crazy that all learning has stopped in the last couple of weeks in order to prepare for these tests. He had no homework this week. Why? Because they are not learning anything new. They are preparing for the test. My list of instructions for testing days were: make sure he got a good night's sleep, feed him a good breakfast (the school is even offering FREE BREAKFASTS so that those students who can't get a good breakfast at home won't miss out), send in his letter of encouragement, encourage him at home, keep his stress level at a minimum, and make sure he is on time for school. Hell, why don't THEY just keep the kids for a week to make sure that they are programmed well enough for the darn test. Just let them camp out at the school, have tapes playing over-night to reinforce the things that they should have learned all year long, slip them all an Ambien to ensure that they actually sleep and send them home to us when they are done.
Good night's sleep?
Check.
Letter of Encouragement?
Check.
Good breakfast?
Check.
Did he actually learn anything this year before this cram session?
?
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2 comments:
And he is in the THIRD GRADE!!! What in the World??? And one of the things that you are supposed to do is keep his stress level at a minimum?? I'm getting stressed just reading your post! HA!
I totally agree with you...to me it is the strangest thing. When my daughter was in grade school, they actually had the nerve to recommend that I purchase the Hooked on Phonics series to "help her." I said, "Excuse me? I am NOT a teacher, YOU are. Aren't YOU supposed to be teaching her phonics??" Their explanation (excuse) was that they had soooo many children to teach that they couldn't possibly give her the help that she needed, blah, blah, blah. Now, I am not a mean parent by any stretch of the imagination...I listen to them, I do what they want me to do, I cooperate; you know, all that good stuff. But, I drew the line at forking out tons of $$ for this. I said that if this program is so good, then the school should purchase it and use it. Well, that was the end of THAT discussion...! :)
Oh, don't get me started on the horror that No Child Left Behind has done to our schools...
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