This week and last week my third and fourth graders took the MCAs. What an emotional rollercoaster...
As a teacher, you want every child to succeed; however, you must be realistic and know that there are just some areas that some students may never fully grasp. Let me explain. I have a wide range of student ability in my class (as do most teachers). In particular, there is one student that has a difficult time with reading. He is a grade level behind and he receives Title 1 help. This same student is also extremely polite and very artistic. While he was working on the math portion of the test, I was walking around the room monitoring each student’s progress. I happened to look at his paper and on the open ended portion, and he had completely bombed the question. It was sad for me to see that he didn't understand it. I know that he will never be a great reader or speller. However, he still has many great assets that he will contribute to society. It is frustrating to me that our students, teachers, and schools are only judged on reading and math scores (scores that really only capture how a student does on 1/180 of the school year). There is so much more to school than two scores!
While at St. Kate's I had complete a paper on a controversial issue and take a stand. I chose No Child Left Behind, which was fairly new at the time (2004). Below you will find my paper. Read it if you wish. It seemed appropriate to post after two weeks of Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment Testing.
I apologize for the formatting of the paper. I can't seem to get it to look right once I click 'publish post'. Oh well...
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