Bartleby, we need you now
Posted by aphillieteacher on February 20, 2011
Since December my juniors have not read single shred of literature in class.
They have not read poems, short stories, sampled the great literature of American writers or written creatively in response to an idea. None of the things that someone getting quality education would get.
instead, for the last 3 months it has been drilling for PSSA each and every day. The kids are sick of it, they don’t give a crap about testing and any glimmer of reading for enjoyment is long gone. Wonderful. This is what the School District of Philadelphia has done for their kids.
I ran across this today and I want to share it with you. I wish I could share it with kids all across America.
A Phillie Teacher 
Miss Teacha said
we will spend approx 3 weeks testing this year. Its insane b/c the data produced by the tests don’t prove anything, especially if the students don’t take it seriously. We’ve got to find a better way to demonstrate that schools and teachers are effective and that students are learning. And this testing system is really SCREWING the kids in inner city school districts.
aphillieteacher said
I think we’re doing 3 weeks too. Add up the pre-test waste of time, add the 3 weeks, then the make-up days, days the kids refuse to come to school because they can’t stand any more and you come to a sizeable chunk of the school year.
4 months pre-test teaching for the test
+ 3 weeks testing
+ 1 week makeups
—–
= 5 months NON-instructional time
aphillieteacher said
oops – forgot to add that 5 months = 1/2 of school year
So much for quality education. :p