Schools

State Tests Completed, PS 261 Students Express Frustration

Does testing preparation come at the expense of a good curriculum?

On Tuesday, May 1—National Teacher's Day, to those in the know—a group of students and educators met at an 8:00 a.m. panel hosted by to discuss what students “could have been learning" instead of spending weeks preparing for, then taking state reading and math exams, reported Gotham Schools.

“I have been learning nothing,” said one student, a fifth-grader named Leah, before affixing her poster to a wall showcasing dozens of student and teacher contributions.

Some parents who agree with that sentiment, like Diana Zavala, have chosen along the way to steer clear of the state exams and instead remove their children as protest against the way the tests are used "to judge students, schools, principals, and, soon, teachers."

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But in fact, such a maneouver can backfire, causing more harm than good to the child's school: Federal accountability rules require that 95 percent of students take the standardized tests. Schools that don't meet that number can be penalized, including by being designated a School In Need of Improvement, which ultimately will spend even more time on test preparation at the expense of other curriculum.

Some PS 261 teachers told Gotham Schools that the test preparation causes usually well-behaved children to act out, requiring discipline. Others simply stated that the preparation process was making it increasingly difficult to incorporate interdisciplinary projects, such "operating a postal service for the school or dressing up as their favorite storybook characters on Halloween" into their academic calendars.

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