Bill H7256, for a 5 year moratorium on using standardized testing to determine eligibility for high school graduation, is in danger of not coming to the floor of the Assembly for a vote this year. I wrote this to Speaker Mattiello: Im writing in support of H7256 pertaining to a five-year pause in the use of high stakes standardized testing as a determinant of a students eligibility to graduate from high school. All Rhode Islanders are aware that as the speaker, its up to you to make sure that H7256 comes up for a floor vote; many eyes are upon you to do the right thing and allow the peoples representatives to consider, debate, and vote for or against passage. I have a twenty year history as a secondary English teacher in Providence, but prior to that I was the U.S. Business Correspondent for The Observer of London and, earlier, on the U.S. staff of the Financial Times of London, so Im certainly aware of the needs and expectations of the business community. There is no question that as things stand now, most of Providences student population are seriously lacking in the knowledge and skills they should have by the time they graduate high school. It is also true that high-stakes standardized testing is an absolute blight on urban education; it is destroying the lives of the students it purports to help. Urban students enter primary school already far behind their suburban peers in all kinds of skills and knowledge that their impoverished homes and communities cannot provide. If they are lucky enough to have outstanding teachers along the way, and to somehow stay on track despite enormous distractions in their environments, some of the differences will be ameliorated, but they will always be trying to catch up, no matter how hard they work. And since the urban high schools have for decades been starved for money, resources, and qualified faculty, they are seriously handicapped. Ive seen many wonderful, hardworking students who arrive at colleges and are completely stunned by what their suburban counterparts know and can do. In cases where they persevere, their superior characters pull them through. I have a former student now in the Harvard pre-med program, a student who works in the Austrian headquarters of an international NGO, and a social work student who is graduating from Rhode Island College this year; if the NECAP were the determinant of eligibility, they would not have graduated high school. Students who could have contributed to a better, more prosperous world, would have been left behind, with their hopes for a better life smashed. We should all rejoice that when those students were in high school, their readiness for college was based on hard work in their high school classes, their ability to communicate through speaking and writing, and their pure grit to rise above incredibly difficult lives. The NECAP has absolutely no bearing on a persons ability to succeed in college and to become a contributing member of society. Instead it is an obstacle. As a teacher who administered it many times, I can attest that its seriously flawed test and completely unaligned with curriculum. It wasnt designed to be used as a high-stakes test; none of our New England neighbors who use it employ it in that manner. This years waivers are glaring band-aids that underline the insanity of Rhode Islands present path. If the Assembly cannot understand that, once again Rhode Island becomes the laughing stock of the region. Its far better to end the fiasco now than to persist out of ignorance. Sincerely, Carole Marshall, (401)724-2046 author, Stubborn Hope: Memoir of an Urban Teacher https://facebook/pages/Stubborn-Hope/382275368581965 amazon/Stubborn-Hope-Memoir-Urban-Teacher/dp/1495353206/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1400250129&sr=8-1&keywords=stubborn+hope
Posted on: Fri, 16 May 2014 14:39:14 +0000
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