Oh the powers-that-be from Jeb Bush to Tony Bennett to every podunk legislator in between scream how important school choice is, how every parent has the right to set their student’s destiny. Well accept with the FCAT that is, then it is the states way or the highway or so parents are told. The truth is in third grade portfolios can be used and in high school the ACT can be used instead for promotion. As for every other grade there doesn’t seem to be any replacement but there doesn’t seem to be any consequence for not taking it either.
And folks they need kids to take it. Not so they can determine how children are doing, they really don’t care but so they can continue down the privatization route they started. If tests were to serve a legitimate and important purpose there would be one the first week of school to see what kids need and one the last to see if they got it.
So I’m not saying have your kid skip the FCAT but what I am saying is if I had a smart high schooler going to go to college who was going to take the ACT, I would give them the option and that’s more of a choice than the school choice crowd would give them.
To read more click the links: http://stateimpact.npr.org/florida/2012/12/24/whos-required-to-take-the-fcat/
http://www.susanohanian.org/show_yahoo.php?id=738
And folks they need kids to take it. Not so they can determine how children are doing, they really don’t care but so they can continue down the privatization route they started. If tests were to serve a legitimate and important purpose there would be one the first week of school to see what kids need and one the last to see if they got it.
So I’m not saying have your kid skip the FCAT but what I am saying is if I had a smart high schooler going to go to college who was going to take the ACT, I would give them the option and that’s more of a choice than the school choice crowd would give them.
To read more click the links: http://stateimpact.npr.org/florida/2012/12/24/whos-required-to-take-the-fcat/
http://www.susanohanian.org/show_yahoo.php?id=738
