How's It Going at Your School?

About testing, I heard this from a parent (verified with e-mail from school):

1) No math this week because of SBAC testing. 

All the kids in the school miss math instruction for a week because testing is going on?  That should tell you something about this test. 

2) The school has run out of paper for the students so they are recycling paper and are not assigning homework.

No paper and there's still about a month left of school?


Comments

Lynn said…
My sophomore took the SBAC ELA exam last Friday. Five hours of testing and students were not allowed to leave when they were done. He napped and read for two hours.
5/27/16, 10:43 AM
Patrick said…
It's really hard to see the SBAC test conditions as anything BUT an attempt to sabotage the public schools.
5/27/16, 11:22 AM
Anonymous said…
What I don't get is my daughter finally finished SBAC, but now she has to take the MAP? Why???????

Mag mom
5/27/16, 11:57 AM
Anonymous said…
My child's class is again doing MAP testing late in the afternoon, one on a Friday at the very end of the day...and today, right before a holiday weekend.

Tell me those results are vaild!

NW Parent
5/27/16, 11:59 AM
Anonymous said…
My sophomore lost 4 class periods to SBAC ELA. I would have opted out her out if the SBAC weren't a graduation requirement. Students could be excused from any class to finish the exams, so they were put in the position of choosing what class to miss. Sigh...writing about hand sanitizer. There was also a listening portion with a recording that spoke very.slowly and you then answered questions. Really??

-argh
5/27/16, 1:09 PM
CascadiaMom said…
8 year old 3rd grader took SBAC. First portion was a typed writing assignment. My daughter has never typed anything! I complained to the teacher and she said "there was no time limit, so that they could take as long as they wanted to type it." So no end in sight for the kids.
Then, my daughter said that it had a spelling and grammar checker as part of the program.
Then, she cried herself to sleep. This is a girl who NEVER cries.
I'm truly speechless. I never thought I would opt out, but I never thought it could possibly be this bad.
5/27/16, 2:22 PM
Anonymous said…
Lot's of typing homework assigned following Winter break up until the time of the test.

The Computer Lab booked for eleven weeks. For Computer PCP each class has recess instead, for eleven weeks. The full time job of an office admin. is to provide full-time recess oversight, for eleven weeks.

Eleven wasted weeks.

Anonomish
5/27/16, 3:37 PM
suep. said…
Dear readers,

These and other legitimate concerns about the Smarter Balanced assessment prompted Director Burke and myself to co-sponsor a resolution to allow the Seattle School District to pursue the necessary steps to discontinue use of the SBAC, and to replace it with a fairer, less resource-consuming, more efficient assessment.

The resolution also reaffirms the Board's respect for the right of students to opt out of tests.

The resolution passed at last week's (May 18) Board meeting, 5-1 (Director Geary was not present).

See: 2015/16-15-Resolution to request State
adoption of an alternative summative assessments
framework

Regards,

Sue Peters
5/27/16, 4:58 PM
Anonymous said…
Dear Sue Peters,

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I'm so grateful that you're working on this, and feel some small ray of hope that you, Director Burke and perhaps others on the board are working to end to the SBAC nightmare in SPS. I know this may be a first step, but I'm ecstatic that you're taking it.

Thank you again, and please let us know how parents can help to support your efforts.

Seattle Parent
5/27/16, 5:15 PM
Anonymous said…
Need to edit the extra "to", sorry!

-Seattle Parent
5/27/16, 5:16 PM
Anonymous said…
There was a rumor about the "out of paper so no homework" thing at Cascadia, but of course it wasn't true.

Pages
5/27/16, 7:17 PM
Anonymous said…
My 3rd grader missed TWO weeks of math because of testing! Ridiculous. Thank you, Sue Peters, for your resolution.

Test frustrated
5/27/16, 9:47 PM
Anonymous said…
Thank you thank you thank you!

Krab
5/27/16, 11:21 PM
Anonymous said…
Our school uses a walk-to-math model and also lost two weeks of math instruction due to testing. Ten days of math instruction gone. I really hope the district gets rid of this. What a waste of time.

Frustrated Teacher
5/28/16, 7:53 AM
NWMama said…
My 4th grader reports 6 days of missed math. Math is his favorite class so he was REALLY disappointed about this.
5/28/16, 8:51 AM
Anonymous said…
We had a shelter in place in our school, and kids were frightened, but testing still went on. I wonder how valid those results are?

Opt Out
5/28/16, 10:32 AM
mirmac1 said…
Director Blanford objected to Peters' and Burke's resolution, explaining why ad nauseam. He is an obstructionist to the good work our board is doing.
5/28/16, 2:14 PM
Melissa Westbrook said…
Opt Out, what school? How were the kids supposed to concentrate when that happened?
5/28/16, 4:55 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday Open Thread

The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested.  It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio.  (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Read more

Breaking It Down: Where the District Might Close Schools

Update 2: an absolutely fabulous interactive map made by parent Beth Day (@thebethocracy on Twitter - she covers Board meetings and is fun to read).   end of update    Update 1: Mea culpa, I did indeed get Decatur and Thornton Creek mixed up. Thanks to all for the correction. end of update   I suspect some who read this post will be irate. Why do this? Because the district seems very hellbent on this effort with no oversight skid marks from the Board.    To clearly state - I do not believe that closing 20 schools is a good idea. I think they hit on 20 because they thought it might bring in the most savings. But the jury is still out on the savings because the district has not shown its work nor its data. I suspect closing schools and THEN leasing/renting them is the big plan but that means the district really has to keep the buildings up.   But this district, with its happy talk about "well-resourced schools" is NOT acknowledging the pain and yes, grief, that is to come fro
Read more

MEETING CANCELED - Hey Kids, A Meeting with Three(!) Seattle Schools Board Directors

 Update 2: So I have seen a message from President Liza Rankin on why she, Director Evan Briggs, and Director Michelle Sarju backed out of this meeting.  In a nutshell: - She says there was no organization to the meeting which is just not true. They had a moderator lined up and naturally the board members could have set parameters for what to discuss, length of meeting, etc. All that was fleshed out. - She also claimed that if the meeting was PTA sponsored, they needed to have liability insurance to use the school space. Hello? PTAs use school space all the time and know they have to have this insurance.  - She seems to be worried about the Open Public Meetings law. Look, if she has a meeting in a school building on a non-personnel topic, it should be an open meeting. It appears that Rankin is trying, over and over, to narrow the window of access that parents have to Board members. She even says in her message - "...with decisions made in public." Hmmm - She also says that th
Read more