I could not resist. Okay, you can call this a cheap shot. Did you check out the classifieds today?
The lead posting is for "Test Scorers." You need a four-year college degree and can earn between $13.00 and $14.25 an hour Paid training, convenient schedules and an outstanding work environment are offered in the ad.
The ad just below that is for School Bus Drivers and they earn up to $15.00 an hour. The ad below that is for another testing service with earnings from $13.00 to $15.00 an hour. I have driven a school bus and have an understand of the responsibility and stress related to a School Bus Driver.
Now. pause, and turn to the front page of the Sunday, Star Tribune which is the same paper as these employment ads for test scorers. The article is about teachers and their employment, value to the system and what can legislators do about it. These are the same legislators, by the way, who decided that at least 35% of a teacher's evaluation be based on the results of the $13.00 to $15.00 an hour test scorers.
I have done much worse getting through college. Any person willing to work at above WalMart wages should be encouraged. I am sure these are good, caring individuals trying to feed themselves and their families.
Accountability in education is important. The legislators in St. Paul right now are debating the how and what of education improvements. Perhaps they should look at the value of teachers rather than the value of testing. There are millions and millions of dollars being spent to administer state mandated tests scored by people earning $13.00 to $15.00 an hour on some type of speed quota system. Does the future of our children deserve this? Should we be spending state tax dollars on smaller class size, more individual instruction for those needing that intense intervention or more tests? Should our children's future be determine by speed grading?
Maybe our legislators need to spend some dollars of meaningful and productive education measures rather than hours of testing and then maybe teachers and schools could claim to have "an outstanding work environment"
Research --
Based on a detailed grade-by-grade analysis of the testing calendars for two mid-size urban school districts, and the applied research from other studies of state mandated testing, our study found that the time students spend taking tests ranged from 20 to 50 hours per year in heavily tested grades.
In addition, students can spend 60 to more than 110 hours per year in test prep in high-stakes testing grades. Including the cost of lost instructional time (at $6.15 per hour, equivalent to the per-student cost of adding one hour to the
school day), the estimated annual testing cost per pupil ranged from $700 to more than $1,000 per pupil in several grades that had the most testing. If testing were abandoned altogether, one school district in this study could add from 20
to 40 minutes of instruction to each school day for most grades.
The other school district would be able to add almost an entire class period to the school day for grades 6-11. Additionally, in most grades, more than $100 per test-taker could be reallocated to purchase instructional programs, technology or to buy better tests. Cutting testing time and costs in half still would yield significant gains to the instructional day, and free up enough dollars in the budget that could fund tests that are better aligned to the standards and produce useful information for teachers, students and parents. -- Howard Nelson AFT -http://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/news/testingmore2013.pdf
-- based on approximately 34,000 students in Minneapolis Public school that is a cost of $23,800,000 to $34,000,000. Just think how that money could benefit our children
No comments:
Post a Comment