OBJECTIONS TO TEACHING TO THE TEST MOUNT

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

AP -  Thanks to heavy parent involvement and high test scores, Public
School 321 in Park Slope, a yuppie neighborhood in Brooklyn, is
considered a gem of New York City's public school system. In the eyes of
New York's Department of Education, however, P.S. 321 deserved just a B
in the city's first-ever school report cards, which are based largely on
how students score on standardized tests.

Such accountability efforts - widespread since the advent of the federal
No Child Left Behind Act - have raised the hackles of parents and
educators across the country, who fault the methodology and question the
wisdom of tying test results to the job safety of teachers and
principals.

Now parents in the nation's largest school system are voicing similar
concerns about the grades, released in November as part of Mayor Michael
Bloomberg's push to turn around underperforming schools. . .

Educators have debated the push toward testing since No Child Left
Behind was enacted in 2002 at President Bush's urging. While some
studies show that student achievement in reading and math has increased,
teachers complain that they are forced to teach to the tests and to give
up "frills" like music, art and recess.

A 2006 survey by the Washington-based Center on Education Policy found
that since the passage of the federal law, 71 percent of the nation's
15,000 school districts had reduced the hours of instructional time
spent on history, music and other subjects to open up more time for
reading and math. . .

For New York's middle and elementary schools, 85 percent of the grade is
based on performance on standardized tests, while high schools are
judged on graduation rates, New York State Regents exam scores and other
factors. . .

A school with few pupils performing at grade level can get an A if its
test scores improve, while a school where virtually all the students are
reading, writing and calculating at grade level can get a C if its
scores slip.

If a school gets a low grade two years in a row and scores poorly on a
performance review, the principal's job may be be at risk. . .

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080121/ap_on_re_us/nyc_schools_grading;
_ylt=Au91g_OnWb.1lgwv4tx_3LlvzwcF


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||