Left Behind
Today is a lovely winter day. It is sunny and cold. I really don't mind days like today, its the damp and cloudy days that bother me. On those days I just want to stay in the house and sit in my chair and look out the window.
We went out to breakfast with Caitlyn, one of my son's friends who is here for auditions. The Ridgeview was packed--every table was filled. Maybe people wanted to go out because the sun was shining. Later I will be going out to lunch with my Mother and Lucy, and old friend who is here from Boston.
I am almost finished with tutoring the kids for the ISAT test. I will be at school until March 24, but I will be working on testing. The month of March is devoted to testing in Illinois public schools. Everybody is frantic. These tests run everything. If the school doesn't pass, all kind of horrible things will happen. I am afraid that many of my kids will not pass the test--about half will by my guess. They read so slowly, but hopefully they will read the passages. I found out that their strategy for taking a standardized test was to read the questions, then look for the answers in the text. They didn't read the passages. Didn't work for them, since very few of them had passed tests in the past. Hopefully I have gotten them to read the materials. Unfortunetly, that takes them forever. This is what they will have to do: read two passages, answer about 30 questions, and write an extended response of about 1 page. I gave them a sample test session and this took them about 70 minutes. Too bad that the test allows them 55 minutes. The extended response is 15% of the score. The reading test is made up of 3 sessions like this. I am afraid that many of them will blow the extended response off. This is why my header today is " left behind. " These children will be left behind, and maybe the school will be too. So much for the Leave No Child Behind Act.
We went out to breakfast with Caitlyn, one of my son's friends who is here for auditions. The Ridgeview was packed--every table was filled. Maybe people wanted to go out because the sun was shining. Later I will be going out to lunch with my Mother and Lucy, and old friend who is here from Boston.
I am almost finished with tutoring the kids for the ISAT test. I will be at school until March 24, but I will be working on testing. The month of March is devoted to testing in Illinois public schools. Everybody is frantic. These tests run everything. If the school doesn't pass, all kind of horrible things will happen. I am afraid that many of my kids will not pass the test--about half will by my guess. They read so slowly, but hopefully they will read the passages. I found out that their strategy for taking a standardized test was to read the questions, then look for the answers in the text. They didn't read the passages. Didn't work for them, since very few of them had passed tests in the past. Hopefully I have gotten them to read the materials. Unfortunetly, that takes them forever. This is what they will have to do: read two passages, answer about 30 questions, and write an extended response of about 1 page. I gave them a sample test session and this took them about 70 minutes. Too bad that the test allows them 55 minutes. The extended response is 15% of the score. The reading test is made up of 3 sessions like this. I am afraid that many of them will blow the extended response off. This is why my header today is " left behind. " These children will be left behind, and maybe the school will be too. So much for the Leave No Child Behind Act.
posted by eeroots at 10:58 AM
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