"The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people and be willing to bear the expenses of it. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves." -- John Adams

"No money shall be drawn from the treasury, for the benefit of any religious or theological institution." -- Indiana Constitution Article 1, Section 6.

"...no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish enlarge, or affect their civil capacities." – Thomas Jefferson

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

The Dirty Dozen #2

The Case Against Standardized Testing
by Peter Henry in the Fall 2007 issue of the Minnesota English Journal.

Read and share this award winning article by teacher Peter Henry, one of the founding members of the Educator Roundtable. The article won an award from the Minnesota English Journal in 2007.

From the article...

[The second of twelve principal harms which] flow from the high-stakes, measurable accountability movement in U.S. education policy. Each contributes its share to making schools a less than welcoming and dynamic place for young people, but, taken cumulatively, they are conspiring to make the experience of school something that children learn to hate. (References - in parenthesis - are available in the original document)

Harm Number 2. The future is in the right-hemisphere.

The skills that are most necessary for today’s work environment are much more right-brained: creativity, whole analysis, a collaborative people orientation, aesthetic appreciation, complex reasoning and critical problem-solving.(33) It is a fact that standardized tests do not, and cannot, measure these kinds of aptitudes.(34) Right-brained abilities are much more dependent on instructor modeling, personal exploration and experience, effective pedagogy and inspiring curriculum. This is precisely why America’s best private schools do not overly bother themselves with standardized tests, but, rather, attempt to directly build academic skills—love for learning, creative problem solving, stimulating reading and discussion, critical thinking—that can be transferred to other endeavors.

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Read the Declaration of Independence From High Stakes Testing


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No Child Left Behind is leaving thousands of children behind!
Dismantle NCLB!
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