Yes, it’s MSA silly season again. That time of the school year where the entire focus of the school becomes preparing for the Maryland School Assessments.
- Two weeks ago a friend with a child in one of the elementary immersion programs wrote me that her child’s class — third graders about to do their first MSA — will spend an entire month practicing for the test, with absolutely no regular reading/science/social studies done during that time. She confirmed this with the teacher. Now it’s true that these kids have had the entire curriculum so far in a foreign language, so it makes sense that they would need to review the English names for things and some English vocabulary. But an entire month? My friend finds this “appalling — not a GT issue, per se, but an issue for all the kids.”
- The child of another friend came home and reported that her class was ushered into a classroom and told that if they did not do really well on the MSA they would be relegated to double periods of math and reading in 6th grade and would not have any electives. Um, totally not true.
And of course there are the MSA pep rallies and incentives like iPod shuffles. What’s happening at your school?
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I am sure that M.’s former MS is missing her a lot right now.
Oh yeah. :-0
The “totally not true” threat has its genesis in truth. My uncle was a science teacher at a school that accepted NCLB funds. Almost all of its targeted groups made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP): minorities, economically disadvantaged, etc. — but one target group, a group of chronically underperforming students with no special ed. diagnosis, failed to make AYP for three years.
That formerly thriving middle school, with a tops-in-state science olympiad team, debate team, and mathcounts team, full music and sports program, has been smashed: the fist fell. Nothing but two hours each of math and English, and one hour of P.E. NO extra-curriculars. NO sports. NO electives. NO science. NO history. NOTHING.
The best teachers have fled. The students who are able have fled. But pity those who cannot flee!
Why should the whole school be ruined, the joy and life chances of all these many children be destroyed, because of the failure of a few resistant stalwarts?
This makes no sense!
NCLB needs to end.
[...] of blogging, it’s practically a tradition! Yes, it’s time for my annual post (or two or three…) about the kick-off of Maryland School Assessment prep season. And this year [...]