The nutjob is the one on the right!
Tyler Stoken was a well-behaved fourth grader who enjoyed school, earned A’s and B’s and performed well on standardized tests.
In May 2005, he’d completed five of the six days of the Washington State Assessment of Student Learning exam, called WASL, part of the state’s No Child Left Behind test.
Then Tyler came upon this question: “While looking out the window one day at school, you notice the principal flying in the air. In several paragraphs, write a story telling what happens.”
The nine-year-old was afraid to answer the question about his principal, Olivia McCarthy. “I didn’t want to make fun of her,” he says, explaining he was taught to write the first thing that entered his mind on the state writing test.
Because Tyler didn’t answer the question, McCarthy suspended him for five days. He recalls the principal reprimanding him by saying his test score could bring down the entire school’s performance.
“Good job, bud, you’ve ruined it for everyone in the school, the teachers and the school,” Tyler says McCarthy told him.
`He Cried’
You can see the principal’s website here.
What else would you expect when students have no incentive to do well on the tests, but schools are being graded on the outcomes?
#3 Way to go, fat chick. Ruin it for all the other fat chicks, whydoncha.
Comment by Max Bell — 11/4/2006 @ 8:11 am
Yes… But she looks so hot in leather, and when she cracks that whip I just shiver with joy.
Wow… just when you begin to think the public school systems have a hope of turning things around. Here’s P. McCarthy’s email address, for those of you as pissed as I am. omccarthy@asd5.org
# 20
This is the stupidity of the orwellian “No Child Left Behind” The state may not average test scores, but for NCLB they really DO look at every kid in each “sub-group” and it is possible that one child’s bad socre can screw the entire school. It happened in my district; an entire school failed to make “adequate yearly progress” because one special ed. student tanked the test.
I’ll answer the damn question (fourth grade style).
I was looking out the window one day at school when I noticed a huge shadow moving across the playground. I thought it might be from a hot air balloon. I ran to the window to see what it was. When I looked up I saw a scary blob with arms and legs, dark against the sky. Come and see I yelled to everyone in the classroom. They all ran to the windows and looked out.
“What is it?”, I said. My friend Tom said, “It looks like a flying hippopotamus.” Another boy said, “It looks like a giant pig wearing a dress,” Then Susan said, “Isn’t that Mrs. McCarthy?” “No way”, I said. “Mrs. McCarthy can’t fly. She’s way too fat. My mom says that it’s a good thing the school has double doors, or she’d never fit through them.
“Look”, said Susan, “I think it’s trying to come down closer and it’s saying something.” Yes, the blob was coming closer and I could hear loud farting as it descended. “What’s it saying?” asked Tom. I listened very closely and I thought I heard “you’re all suspended” but then the thing exploded so we all went back to our desks.
Editor’s note: A+ Good work young man!
I have complained to the Governor of Washington.
I suggest you do the same.
Emailing the Principal is about as smart as what the Pricipal did. Like most spam, they will be deleted as unread. Email the superintendent and School Board. Only, I couldn’t find email addresses or web sites for either. They are the ones that hold the power to discipline the Principal.
Then I noticed that the school web page was written by a couple of Gr. 5 kids. There isn’t a board site, only snail mail address. Maybe this district is so backwards that the board would approve.
Editor’s Note: You can find the superintendent’s email address here:
The principals action (along with the gross school food menu) has convinced me to NEVER vote yes for a school levy again. There is no hope for the public school system. Armed only with the article in Bloomberg, just this weekend I have convinced 10 other people to do the same.
Superintendents and School board members everywhere should consider the impact this incompetent action has on the political climate in their school districts and take their concerns to the Superintendent and school board of this nut job school system directly.
I agree, sending e-mail may not be very effective, most will get caught in spam filters… But a few thousand faxes may get some attention !
John- Monday’s lunch is a friggin’ CORNDOG (they capitalize it, by the way), so what do you expect. Any kid smart enough in that school to express any sense of individual choice is clearly a standard deviation above the principal.
Parents for NCLB Reform: Focus on the Kids, not the Tests
http://www.stormpages.com/notest
As a parent, I began investigating the motivation behind the excessive emphasis in our schools on preparing for standardized tests. This letter outlines the unintentional negative impact that the NCLB testing requirements are having on our schools, teachers and most importantly, our children.
The No Child Left Behind Act was a bipartisan education reform effort and holds support on both sides of the aisle. Its purpose seems sincere and it’s understandable that most, including our elected officials, would unequivocally support its premise. However, NCLB’s objectives are being seriously undermined by its implementation. My main concern is the reliance on the “one size fits all” testing used to measure the performance of schools and students. When standardized test scores are the only barometer of success or failure it causes serious problems for administrators, teachers and most importantly, the students.
There is overwhelming documented research on the ramifications of schools being evaluated and punished based on test scores. Teachers and administrators are under tremendous pressure to perform well or face NCLB sanctions. To quote our school principal, “When you establish an evaluation process in which the final step is to disband the school and fire the staff when the 100% standard is not reached, it does tend to focus the instructional efforts.”
As parents, we are seeing a greater focus on basic math and literacy skills, but at what cost? All over the country, administrators are cutting back on the arts, science, history, social studies and literature, to create more time in the classroom for test preparation on these two areas of study. This year, our school eliminated plays. Again, quoting our School Principal, “We all will miss the traditional plays but the testing sets the agenda. More changes will be coming in the future.” When other parts of the curriculum are systematically removed, what will be left to motivate our children’s desire to attend school? Take into account what children do when they are bored and their creativity is not challenged.
One of the major objectives of NCLB is to provide teachers with better training and resources to help them become better educators. However, they are faced with such great pressure to improve scores that they are left with no choice but to shift their teaching focus away from the individual student’s needs to “teaching the test.” While literacy and math (the areas currently tested under NCLB), are essential components of a child’s education, drilling the basic skills and coaching them to pass a proficiency test does not provide our students with the tools they need to become self motivated thinkers, apply what they learn or question what they don’t understand. While our politicians will argue that statewide testing is the only means of giving parents an independent assessment and of how well a child is doing in school, I have found little or no evidence to support the argument that standardized test scores are an accurate measure of real learning.
Consider also how high stakes testing affects our children’s physical and emotional health. We must examine how a learning environment that emphasizes excessive test preparation and pressures students to perform proficiently or face grade retention significantly adds to the normal worries that children face.
The NCLB testing requirement promotes a learning environment that diminishes critical thinking, creativity and the social and communication skills that are necessary for the long term learning process. We must concentrate on the children, not the tests. Please visit my website, http://www.stormpages.com/notest, for information on how we as parents can challenge this political decision.