What about that meeting in a basement…

The title is half a joke. In one of my grad school classes, we were discussing NCLB and standardized tests, particularly in how they relate to ELLs and bilingual students/newcomers, etc. Immediately, one of my classmates had a moment of clarity and began talking about how she was going to organize a meeting in her basement to get teachers and parents to demand a boycott of these tests. It was said partly in jest, and partly in frustration.

So, seeing this post on a fellow teacher’s blog really has me wishing such things would really happen here. I have to say, I had never even thought of random sampling as an alternative to every child being tested! I don’t know if it’s the most popular alternative on this side of the border – or the best option – but it’s certainly an approach that would allow for scientific analysis (leaving aside the debate over the validity of the tests, however).

My favorite quote:

Lanzinger said teachers may be employees, but they are also professionals. “We are not going to do something that’s bad for students and bad for public education.”