Tuesday June 13, 2006 
|
All
|
General
Tuesday June 13, 2006 What happens when government gets involved in the school A recent Columbia Tribune story tells about a New Bloomfield teacher who was forced to resign after not administering the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) test in the proper manner. While details are sketchy due to this being a personnel issue, it appears a well-liked teacher has been booted for giving a test she had not been trained to give. The students suffer by not doing as well as they may have otherwise on the test, a teacher is without a job, and the administration of the school suffers no harm. In an ideal world, Bloomfield Superintendent Jim Botts would be the one whose employment was at jeopardy since he is responsible for all decisions at the school he is supposed to be running. If the state and federal governments did not mandate (mostly worthless) annual testing, the teacher may still have her job. ( Jun 13 2006, 08:26:42 PM CDT ) Permalink Comments [1]
Trackback URL: http://www.showmeblog.org/trackback/jschultz/Weblog/what_happens_when_government_gets
|
|
|
Copyright © 2005 Show Me Blog. All rights reserved. |
|
I am a teacher who, like the NBHS teacher, has never been officially trained on how to administer the MAP test. However, even I am aware that teachers are not to give additional help or instructions beyond what the prompt states. The nature of a standardized test requires that it be given in a uniform manner. Varying from the format or instructions invalidates the test. This is a concept taught in educational measurement classes that are required for an education degree! This is the issue; not whether or not the teacher was well-liked! By giving too much help - and the WRONG help at that - this teacher caused a large batch of student scores to be much lower than they might otherwise have been. This, in turn, affects the district's Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) report and can bring the wrath of DESE upon them.
Even when you disagree with a law, policy, or standardized test, you still have to follow it or face the consequences. The government had nothing to do with this teacher CHOOSING to invalidate a statewide assessment. Should she be out of a job? YES!
Posted by on June 18, 2006 at 03:45 AM CDT #