9486 in the collection  

Students de-stress before taking tests

NOTE: Rich Gibson sent this letter to the Detroit News. It is an excellent commentary on this article.

Dear Editor:

Education based on carrots and stick conditioning is the education of slaves.

From your article, "I kind of like to do the MEAPs because we get snacks," she said. "When people say the word MEAP, it strikes fear and intimidation in people," quotes another.

The MEAP and its big brother, the No Child Left Behind Act, are not tools for educational equality, but trademarks of a society writhing in war and inequality.

Nations promising the world perpetual war, and youth a choice of low-wage jobs or the military, make peculiar demands on schools. The NCLB/MEAP creates three funnels to feed the wars and the unjust economy: (1) regimented curricula which strip educators of creativity, replaces their minds with the minds of textbook corporations (2) high-stakes standardized exams measuring little but parental income, race, and subservience-- using false science to sort kids, and (3) military recruiters armed with false promises invade schools, seeking bodies who will engage in war without asking, "Why?"

Only resistance can overcome the schools' atmosphere of intimidation. No parent should subject children to the MEAP. Educators must refuse to engage MEAP child abuse. Kids should walk out, set up real schools for themselves during test-tyranny time.

Dr Rich Gibson
Emeritus Professor of Education
San Diego State University

by Jennifer Mrozowski

WARREN -- Fifth-grader Brianna Gonic, 10, didn't hesitate when a Mound Park Elementary teacher asked her to spell out the number 71 during an after-school game mimicking a popular television quiz show.

Brianna, who said the upcoming tests don't worry her, settled on the correct answer of "seventy-one" and received a book for her participation in the game, which featured questions from previous Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) tests.

"I kind of like to do the MEAPs because we get snacks," she said.

But the high-stakes tests, which begin today for grades 3-8, frequently stress students, so officials like those at Mound Park held fun events to involve children and their parents and offered pep talks to assuage students' anxiety. The tests are high-stakes because the scores students receive can determine whether a school meets its federal goals or suffers sanctions for missing its targets.

In the frenzy that surrounds the tests, students sometime get overly stressed by the pressure to do well, which can affect their performance, administrators said. Schools across Michigan must stop test preparation 10 days before the tests begin, so some schools used their final days before the assessments to de-stress kids and their parents.

"When people say the word MEAP, it strikes fear and intimidation in people," said Mound Park Principal Sean Desarbo. "What we found is that a lot of parents just aren't informed (about the test). We want to inform parents on ways they can help their children prepare."

More than 150 people signed up for the mock quiz at Mound Park, and many parents played the game, too.

Donald Brosky, principal of Cheyenne Elementary in Chippewa Valley Schools, said he recently held a presentation called "Meet the MEAP" for parents of third-graders to help them understand the components of the test.

"We want Mom and Dad to understand what kids are going through," he said. "We want them to feel comfortable, so the kids are comfortable."

To put students at ease a few days before testing began, Brosky planned to read students a book called "Testing Miss Malarkey" that pokes fun at test hysteria. He said he tries to convey to students the importance of the test but reassure them they're being tested on material they already know.

Maureen Rembisz, principal of Kerby Elementary in Grosse Pointe schools, said her school held two weeks of MEAP preparation in September. In the days before the test, she planned to give students a small pep talk and reward them with new erasers that read "Leap into Learning."

"I just tell them, 'This is a way for us to see everything you know,'  " she said of the tests, adding that she tells students she's already proud of them.

— Jennifer Mrozowski, with commentary by Rich Gibson
Detroit News
2007-10-08
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071008/SCHOOLS/710080343/1026

---

INDEX OF OUTRAGES

Pages: 380   
[1] 2 3 4 5 6  Next >>    Last >>