...STARR: The current standardized tests that every child has to take every year, those are worthless in helping teachers actually plan instruction. And the teachers see that and they're caught betwixt and between. And I've said to them, I do not care about Maryland's state assessment results, do not focus attention on it...
*Southern Illinois University
I don't agree with everything Starr says or does, but in this case he's absolutely right. This year in particular there was NO point in administering the MSA. One wonders, then, why he did so little to help parents who wrote to MCPS to refuse to allow their kids to take the thing. He could have done plenty without breaking the law requiring testing, and one of my kids' schools DID work with us to accomplish this, while the other went out of their way to make sure the other child got tested to the point of giving her her own personal makeup session (on a non-makeup day, to the best of my knowledge), tying up a staff member for that one child all afternoon in the process).
ReplyDeleteAnd oddly, I find myself agreeing - conditionally - with Mike Petrilli (also an MCPS parent but NOT an educator - just a writer on education issues) as well, which I almost never do.
This was an interview that Superintendent Starr did for an Illinois radio program. It has nothing to do with 1 year of MSA's. His comments are about annual standardized tests.
DeleteThat should answer your question about why Starr didn't do anything about what was going on in MCPS. He's not engaged with the day to day of MCPS. He's out making a National name for himself as against standardized tests.
The primary elections are June 24th. All the registered voters can turn out and vote for all the candidates running for Board of Education. One question voters can ask is, will the person I vote for push to have a Superintendent who is concerned more with the children of Montgomery County than with his/her personal ambitions. Make sure you get an answer from your candidate.
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