Map Testing Washington State

This article is written to show you that the schools have lost control of not only the students but the superintendent has lost control of the teachers etc. At the moment the tail is wagging the dog. The biggest thing that is going on right now is the school kids via the teachers are being taught that if they don’t want to do something, JUST DON’T DO IT. There will be no punishments or making up time they are wasting standing on the steps saying the test is a waste of time. Lets just stick with Garfield school to show the point. The schools are like a business. There is a chain of command. I believe the Superintendent of Public Education is the Principles boss who in turn is the Teachers boss. They are to take instructions from the boss above them. They do not take instructions from their students EVER. One of the very basic things a child should learn in school is to get there on time, sit down, shut up and do what their teachers tell them. If they can’t be taught that (and they haven’t been) they can’t learn anything. Any teacher that lets it students tell them they don’t want or wont take a test should be sent to the principles office to take the test and so on up the line. Look at the crowds of students and teachers standing on the steps at Garfield. The teachers should all be fired and no pensions. Someone who can control students should step in and give the MAP TESTS. End of discussion, period.

Lets look at what a MAP test is. It means Measure of Academic Progress. Why would any teacher or parent object to finding out how well the child is doing? If he fails he is not going to be expelled, punished in any way, his name will not be published in “The Seattle Times” with his picture and grade. The test is usually given at the beginning of the year. Then a couple more times during the year. It is geared for each student. The test is not the same for each student in the same class. It tests the students knowledge of mathematics, reading, and science. It is computerized in such a way that it adjusts the questions to the student. If the student answers the question correctly the next question will be a little harder. If he fails to answer it right the next question will be easier. This tells the teacher exactly what the student needs help in. Man that sure sounds better to me than when I was in school 85 years ago. In those days we all took the same test. We were graded on a curve part of the time. They could tell how many of us were failing and how many maybe needed to be moved up a grade. BUT the teacher also had another tool. We had to take our report card home for Mom or Dad to sign. If that sucker was below a C average you sat at the old kitchen table with the kerosene lamp and either your parents or your older siblings drilled those subjects into you. If you had stood up and told your teacher the test was a waste of time of if the teacher had told the Superintendent of Schools it was a waste of time it would have been like world war III. We learned that to shut up and study was way easier than standing on the steps with the teachers saying the test was to hard. It worked for me because I ended up being the valedictorian of my class with a college scholarship. Always had a job. I was not smart, but learned to take directions, and that I had to study.

I want to give an example of what I think is really wrong to teach a child. To teach him that color matters and here is why. Lets say you have a little white boy, a little black boy. Both born right in Seattle. They started kindergarten together, and in grade school they were given the MAP test. If the little white boy aced it, we don’t hear much about that, but if the little black boy didn’t want to study and take the test his folks just had to say he is picked on because he is black. They don’t want a bad grade on his papers, so stand on the steps and say it’s a waste of time. When he gets out of high school he knows even with poorer grades than the little white boy he has always gone to school with he will be able to go to college to fill the quota of minorities. It is not even fair to him. If he had been taught that he had to learn reading, writing and arithmetic and that he actually had to learn, and that color did not matter. He had to take the same test, had to pass it he would be ready for college. Not because of his color but because he had an education.

The schools just want more and more money, bigger schools, more teachers, more levies passed but kids are not even being taught that they have to obey the teacher. The teacher does not have to take instructions from the principle, the principle does not have to take instructions from the Superintendent of Public Education who is being paid a 6 figure salary and has no control of the schools at all. Cut off the money supply at the administration level, hire some teachers that can and will control the students. If a teacher says today we take a test, the students take the test or go to the principle. If they refuse there then they go to the administration building. If the superintendent can’t control the students its time to shut it all down and start over. Kids are graduating that can’t fill out a job application. They just can’t get D’s and F’s and figure they are DOING FINE. In the real world you take directions from your boss, even if you don’t agree with him. We need some teachers who can control a class and teach them something. All the millions in levies have not helped a thing. Fire any teacher who will not follow the follow the chain of command. A bigger fancier school will not teach the child a thing without a teacher who can control his/her classroom.