-The NCLB/RTT benchmarks, tests, etc. are insane, content-free and the product of bureaucratic minds that understand words like "more" and "faster" and nothing else.
As the overt goal was perfection, by definition all schools will fail. But middle-class schools will be given a pass and poor schools will be privatized.
Motherfucking sons of bitches.
What everybody needs to do is boycott the test. No test, no ammo for the privatizers.
Joanna
They aren't stupid; they just have different goals from yours. I suspect the results they are achieving are precisely the results aimed at. Ravitch was a bit naïve and believed in what she was doing when she did it. At this point I doubt it is either naivete or lack of understanding at work.
And if you really think that boycotting the tests is a feasible strategy, I propose you gather some like minds together and from a national organization to push that belief in every school district. My own guess is that you would not find many students going along with you. If it is to be resisted it has to be resisted first of all by teachers, and they have to resist it in a campaign (yet to be defined by anyone) which incorporates a number of related phenomehna.
I suspect the proper tactics and goals cannot be thought out or theorized in advance. Various teachers and allies will do this or that & it will get theorized from within the actins that result.
Carrol