Pearson's ALT-MSA: What Teachers Think

Parents have long known that the ALT-MSA is a money and time waster for students and teachers. Here's one teacher's opinion:

 ""Our children are already being left behind. We teach the most severely disabled students in our county, and yet we have to teach at least 10 objectives in math and reading after we have reviewed the state standards and curriculum's. Appropriate education is not one of the objectives. Our students need to learn the most basic functional life skills, but we have to spend most of our time putting together and creating a test based on math and reading (soon to be science and social studies). "It has broken the spirit of many of the teachers in our school and many schools in our county. We are told to start September 1. "One teacher asked if she could transfer to another class that does not have alternative Maryland assessment (alt-msa), so she can go to graduate school (so she can be deemed to be highly qualified). She cannot do both. "We have visited the state's department of ed to share our stories, to no avail. I have presented information to our MSTA board of directors, including the state director of special education, who had been asked to attend. But we have not made any major changes. "It is very difficult to teach math and reading skills to students who are so disabled that toileting, feeding, and language development are more important in their daily life. Our stories would make any teacher want to leave our profession. And many are."" (...) 

To read the complete posting, read here: http://www.nea.org/home/nclbvoices_Maryland.html